Life Re-enacts High School

Some people think we never really get over high school.

High school give us some insight into what people like about Trump and why they are sticking with him.

By high school we have settled into certain roles.  The popular jocks.  The preppies.  The smart kids.  The pretty girl cheerleaders.  The wallflowers.  The orchestra crowd.  The poor kids. The gang kids.  The cigarette smokers.  The pot smokers.  

Archetype: Valedictorian

Every reader who has graduated from high school has a sense of this and a sense of where he or she belonged in that tribal setting.   High school cliques create archetypes.  Hillary was a high school archetype and so was Trump.

This blog has likened the Republican primary election to Junior High School boys struggling in a pushing match.  Trump, Rubio, and Cruz were rivals over top-dog status.  Who could be the toughest?  Who was most like Putin.  This blog called it the Putin Primary.  Poor Jeb Bush had already been dispatched, Carly Fiorina was disqualified for having estrogen, Ben Carson was sleepy.  It was a testosterone show off battle.   Rubio threatening a war of civilizations, Cruz saying the sand would glow, Trump wanting to "bomb them to shit."

Archetype:  Confident Boy

Then the election settled into a high school drama.  This blog likened Hillary Clinton to the school good girl valedictorian.  The problem is that she checked off all the boxes with the teachers, got straight A'a, and in a run for Student Body President she had the great disadvantage of not being all that relatable.  Competent, yes.  Likable, not so much.   Donald Trump was the tall, rich, fearless guy people looked up to.  The guy with a great car.  The guy who dated the very prettiest girls, then dropped them for other, younger, prettiest girls.  He had a swagger.  He didn't genuflect to the teachers and the principle.   

The Valedictorian often loses the election to the Confident boy.   

The Valedictorian is too goody-goody--to close to the authorized power people--to be popular.  The Confident boy gets status from dating the pretty cheerleaders, then moving on to other ones.  He seems cooler.  He is more in line with the students than with the teachers.   The Valedictorian represents the elites and status quo; the Confident boy represents the students.   Hillary loses to Trump.

Now that Trump is Student Body President, why do people like him and stay loyal to him even as he does surprising, transgressive things.   The New York Times this morning quoted a retired man, a Trump supporter,  who likened Trump to a high school student.

"Larry Laughlin, a retired businessman from a Minneapolis suburb, compares Mr. Trump to a high school senior who could “walk up to the table with the jocks and the cheerleaders and put them in their place.” That is something that the “nerds and the losers, whose dads are unemployed and moms are working in the cafeteria,” could never do. Mr. Trump may be rich, he said, but actually belonged at the nerd table."

Laughlin sees Trump as being loyal to the "forgotten" people in high school.   The ones who were not rich, not particularly outstanding, not particularly popular.  He could have been a member of the rich-boy-snotty elite club, so he has the status to reject them without it looking like sour grapes.  Trump is loyal to them.

Democrats and other people who cannot bear Trump need to understand and integrate this point:   Yes, Trump is a bully. Yes, he offends some powerful people.  It's OK, because Trump is a good bully, a bully for our side.  Not diplomatic, not careful and respectful, but courageous.

Here are the implications which Trump opponents need to understand and integrate.  Trump being disruptive to the sensible "adults in the room" does not hurt him with those people who wanted a champion.  They expected him to be disruptive.  Trump being rich and getting emoluments and deals from office don't hurt him either.  This behavior does not signal disloyalty to the tribe of the non-cool kids.   The personal stuff with "pussy grab" and three wives don't hurt him.  His ability to get then discard women are signs of his coolness and status, making his loyalty to the forgotten classmates all that more valued.  The fact that he is criticized by presumed authority figures does not hurt him.  The fact that he is embattled and yet he puts those "jocks and cheerleaders" in their place in favor of the forgotten classmates only makes him the more valued.

Trump is showing something more important than good sense, maturity, and reliability.   He is showing loyalty to the cultural values of the un-cool "nerds and losers."   The more he is criticized for it, the more remarkable and valued is that loyalty.

Trump doesn't need to be good to stay powerful.  He needs to be loyal to his tribe.