I've lost count of how many times someone has tried to explain the phenomenon of Trump's rise and continued sway over his base. Many make good points, many miss the mark spectacularly. I don't think anyone has hit the nail on the head the way you did here.
Thank you so much. It honestly means the world to know that this landed for someone other than me—this whole project has felt like shouting into a storm at times.
To be fair, it’s hard to zoom out far enough to see the whole thread—through all the factions, all the noise, all the overlapping betrayals. It’s much easier to point to one event or another on the surface. But that always felt off to me. The 2008 crash, the first Black president, the War on Terror—each mattered, but none fully explains America’s turn to Trump or to fascism.
A lot of what ended up in this series has been floating around in my head since before he came down that escalator—just never structured like this. In a way, this project is half for anyone who reads it, and half for myself. Like trying to draw a map from memory: you can picture a place here, a landmark there, but never the whole thing at once.
Now that I’m nearing the end, it feels like swimming toward the surface. The shape of it all is becoming clearer. And for the first time, it actually feels possible to chart where we are—and how we get out.
Thank you , thank you, thank you for writing what we all needed !!!
I've lost count of how many times someone has tried to explain the phenomenon of Trump's rise and continued sway over his base. Many make good points, many miss the mark spectacularly. I don't think anyone has hit the nail on the head the way you did here.
Thank you so much. It honestly means the world to know that this landed for someone other than me—this whole project has felt like shouting into a storm at times.
To be fair, it’s hard to zoom out far enough to see the whole thread—through all the factions, all the noise, all the overlapping betrayals. It’s much easier to point to one event or another on the surface. But that always felt off to me. The 2008 crash, the first Black president, the War on Terror—each mattered, but none fully explains America’s turn to Trump or to fascism.
A lot of what ended up in this series has been floating around in my head since before he came down that escalator—just never structured like this. In a way, this project is half for anyone who reads it, and half for myself. Like trying to draw a map from memory: you can picture a place here, a landmark there, but never the whole thing at once.
Now that I’m nearing the end, it feels like swimming toward the surface. The shape of it all is becoming clearer. And for the first time, it actually feels possible to chart where we are—and how we get out.