I don’t think it’s even about ruling, it’s about needing to feel superior to . . . someone. Decades ago there was a wonderful article titled something like “Who Are You Better Than?”. It talked about how people who know they are not, and never will be, members of the ruling class desperately need groups of people they can comfortably point to as being “beneath them”. As long as they aren’t at the bottom they can feel good about themselves.
In the book The Reactionary Mind, the author argues that conservatives either need to be either able to strongly identify with the movement leader or to reserve a portion of that power for themselves as a paterfamilias or an owner of capital.
I don’t think it’s even about ruling, it’s about needing to feel superior to . . . someone. Decades ago there was a wonderful article titled something like “Who Are You Better Than?”. It talked about how people who know they are not, and never will be, members of the ruling class desperately need groups of people they can comfortably point to as being “beneath them”. As long as they aren’t at the bottom they can feel good about themselves.
In the book The Reactionary Mind, the author argues that conservatives either need to be either able to strongly identify with the movement leader or to reserve a portion of that power for themselves as a paterfamilias or an owner of capital.
The majority of Trump voters couldn’t tell you what you mean by “capital,” let alone have any.
Not realizing that by being the kind of person who needs someone “beneath them,” they’re beneath all decent people.
It’s about class structure and who gets to rule.