Andy Schmookler: Why Isn't It Zero Percent?

Always wanting the world to make sense, I love a good detective story. The detective knows that seemingly inexplicable events generally have an explanation. Observe the evidence, read the clues, and what was mysterious can become intelligible. I've spent much of my life trying to do that with the human world. In a previous column here, 'The Force that Drove Us to Civil War Is Back,' I used the modus operandi of a political force from an earlier era to illuminate what was happening in our own. In another, I played detective, showing what happened when two destructive forces that, for a century, had been on opposite sides of the political battle came together under the tent of one political party and formed a powerful alliance. But there's one great political mystery of our time that I've been trying—and failing—to solve for 10 years. The name I'd give it now is the 'Why Isn't It Zero Percent?' problem. Something quite extraordinary has happened in the United States over the past decade: the emergence of a following for Donald Trump, amounting to roughly one-third of the population — a kind of following unlike anything seen before in American history. To the best of my knowledge, no one before Trump has had a large base of support that apparently cannot be swayed from their allegiance, no matter what he does, even things that would have been an unsurvivable scandal for any previous President. The abundance of public evidence — renewed by almost every day's events — that shows clearly a degree of criminality, incompetence, and corruption is not even hidden. When the news shows me the latest misdeeds the likes of which we never saw before, and then reports that 'approval of Donald Trump's Presidency is down to 32%,' I call out to the TV, 'Why isn't it zero percent?' How powerful is that core Trump base still? A little detective work provides an answer. Republican Senators—experts in their own political survival if nothing else—demonstrated by their actions that they still regard defying Trump as politically dangerous. Consider the recent confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General. Several Republican Senators had balked at confirming him, and the evidence of Blanche's utter betrayal of the duties of that office was overwhelming. Yet when the votes were counted, only two Republicans voted no. One was Lisa Murkowski, who has already demonstrated that she can survive Trump's efforts to defeat her. The other was Susan Collins, fighting for political survival this November in Maine, where showing independence from Trump may be essential to her survival. The rest fell into line. Trump's power to end the careers of Republican Senators depends entirely on his continuing power over Republican voters. So their behavior gives us a clue: they evidently believe Trump still commands enough allegiance among Republican voters to end the careers of those who defy him. Which pretty well proves the enduring allegiance of that substantial Trump base. Here's the mystery: Why don't Trump's virtually daily displays of conduct that Americans in previous eras would have regarded as absolutely disqualifying—and the disastrous consequences of so many of his presidential actions—drive away his core supporters? I've been studying the clues for ten years, but it still doesn't make sense to me. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks Monday in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. I can imagine Trump's support being above zero. Some people may be sufficiently angry and wounded that destruction itself brings a kind of gratification—the satisfaction of seeing things smashed, enemies hurt, a world they resent pulled down. They might therefore welcome the kind of destructiveness Trump brings to so much he touches—from destroying the Justice Department as an instrument of the rule of law and turning it into an instrument of revenge, to moving money from renewable energy to fossil fuels, to starting a war that has done great damage to American national security. Some people could crave a leader who acts the part of the 'strong man' who eagerly smites his foes, compels private companies to bow to his power, and places his name and image on public institutions. But I have known some of that 32% to be people who, in the rest of their lives, are decent, considerate, caring. And who express real patriotic pride in the basic values of American democracy. How is it that those people continue to give Donald Trump their support despite his virtually daily demonstrations of conduct so ugly, so public and unhidden that no one following the daily news could avoid witnessing it, and so destructive of the values they say they cherish? That's the mystery I have not been able to solve. Andy Schmookler Andy Schmookler is the author of 'The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution.' Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!