Finally, An Answer To Why So Many People Voted For Trump

Jeff Valdivia
5 min readNov 25, 2020

But, you’re not going to like it.

Source: Sky News

Joe Biden may have won the election, but what many of us can’t seem to wrap our heads around is how Donald Trump received over 73 million votes. That means one out of every five Americans voted for him.

Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I trust nothing that comes out of his mouth. Well, that’s not quite true. I believe he’s being honest when he calls himself “great” or “the best”. Sadly, as far as I can tell, everything and everyone play second fiddle to his self-interest.

He is perhaps the greatest narcissist the world has ever seen.

I’ll give him that one.

So, what is it about Trump that’s so appealing? What mobilizes 73 million people to vote for someone whose actions seem to be tearing the country apart?

If your answer is “they’re all racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic bigots”, well, you might be part of the reason they voted for him.

It’s all in the juxtaposition

In one of Sam Harris’ most recent podcasts (#224 — The Key to Trump’s Appeal), he discusses a reason he thinks so many people voted for Trump. For me, it paints the clearest image yet of what’s going on here.

Harris begins by talking about how Trump really has none of the qualities we would typically call “virtuous”. Trump whines and complains, in particular about being asked tough questions. He’s brazenly hypocritical. He’s bragged about how his stardom allows him to do anything he wants to women, including grabbing them “by the pussy”. He’s not physically fit and only one pound away from being considered obese. He frequently eats fast food. He uses Twitter to spread lies, as well as to direct petty insults at anyone getting in his way. Finally, Trump demands mob-boss style loyalty but gives none in return.

Where in all of this mess do we find even a sliver of virtue? Nowhere, which might actually work in his favor.

According to Harris, Trump’s saving grace could be that he never claims to be morally superior to anyone. How could he? He doesn’t pretend or aspire to be anything other than the writhing mass of malice and narcissism that he is. He couldn’t…

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Jeff Valdivia

Following my curiosity and hoping it will lead me to wisdom. I write about psychology, meditation, self-development, and spirituality.