Cruelty

It's hard to understand what Trumpists see. I try to put myself in their place to find some relational territory but I cannot and remain baffled. 

The best explanation I have is that frustrated people need someone to enact vengeance on their behalf. They want their enemies punished and Trump fits the bill which is why at its core the MAGA movement is ostensibly about cruelty. That is, until it happens to them. 

A Maryland man was mistakenly sent to a Venezuelan prison through administrative error. He is father to a special needs child of 5 and married to a woman who has just lost her husband to both incompetent idiocy and cruelty. This administration does not believe in due process and bases their immigration policy on the type of tattoos you have. A gay hairdresser recently met a similar fate.

It's hard to watch Nazi Barbie Karoline Leavitt lie her way through pressers with such arrogant aplomb. She is empty headed and so the confidence is unearned. Her worn cross contrasts sharply against the message of the Gospels. 

It all grates so much against our sensibilities because cruelty is precisely the point.