the problem we are talking about isn't trumpism. trump -- putin actually -- simply tapped into a very, very ancient issue with a significant portion of our population.
i'll recount an event at least thirty years ago when we were visited by two aging members of my family. the wife of the visiting couple was famous for her hatred of the beatles. i knew well how she usually set her opinions. she and her sisters would discuss something and decide what was right. after that, there was no way to get one of them to reconsider.
so i set up a little experiment. i got her alone and asked her to listen to some music i had put together on a cassette tape. it was my fave early beatles songs, but of course i didn't tell her that. actually, i was curious whether there was something about them that she (and her sisters?) truly didn't like. so i played norwegian wood, eleanor rigby, girl, and maybe another song or two. she loved it until she asked who the group was. i thought surely that this would illustrate to her that she should learn to not trust her and her sisters' half-baked opinions so completely, but that didn't happen. she wouldn't talk to me most of the rest of that day.
that really shook me up. i had never experienced how completely closed those minds can be. i believe very strongly (but am open to reconsideration) that the problem group we call trumpies are actually this sub-group of america that was instrumental (due to their mindless hatred of england) in our becoming a nation.
many, many aspects of these people are good. it's just that they are twisted in ways they can never leave behind. the hope is to reach the youngsters, but every time you pass a christian school you are passing one of their indoctrination centers.