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{"id":21438,"date":"2016-02-26T11:45:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T16:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=21438"},"modified":"2016-02-26T12:04:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:04:19","slug":"trump-and-the-mob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/02\/trump-and-the-mob.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Mob: A Theological Observation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"5440392565_4634fb9d24_z\"$ You may have seen\u00a0the clip fr<\/a>om Donald Trump\u2019s rally where he said he wanted to punch a protester in the face.<\/p>\n

What disturbed me most about his bullying was not so much that he wanted to punch the guy, but that the crowd ate it up and roared their approval.<\/p>\n

The root problem was not the threat of violence but a theological and moral problem that is much deeper. Hilaire Belloc said \u201cEvery argument is a theological argument\u201d and the problem with the Trump phenomenon is a theological argument\u2026<\/p>\n

Last night Marco Rubio went on the attack against Trump. He and Cruz scored some points, but their battle with Trump is unlikely to change the minds of his supporters. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

What we are witnessing in the support for Donald Trump is the mob mentality. This is how it works: First, people are unhappy and if they\u2019re unhappy they need to find a reason for their unhappiness. Invariably (given human nature) they blame somebody else. Very often that blame is justified. The unhappy people have been given a raw deal. They have been abused. They have been taken for granted. Their misery is real and the reasons for the misery might be real.<\/p>\n

However, something else also starts to cook in the minds and hearts of those who are unhappy. They begin to blame others in an irrational way, and instead of focussing on the particular persons or institutions that have caused their problems they start to blame whole groups of people. \u201cIt\u2019s the federal government. It\u2019s the bankers. It\u2019s the whites. It\u2019s the blacks. It\u2019s the Mexicans. It\u2019s the Muslims. It\u2019s the rich folk. It\u2019s the poor folk. It\u2019s the Protestants. It\u2019s the Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once individuals start to blame whole groups they soon, very naturally start looking for allies. They fall in with other people who are similarly unhappy and are also falling into the trap of blaming whole groups of other people. All these individuals need at this point is for a leader to channel their irrational rage. Once the leader voices their concerns and helps them focus their rage on specific groups the fire is lit and there is little that will change their minds.<\/p>\n

This is why the crowds who support Donald Trump don\u2019t really care if he gave money to the Democrats. They don\u2019t care that he\u2019s not conservative. They don\u2019t care that he\u2019s been married three times and that his first marriages broke down because of his serial philandering. They don\u2019t care if he lusts after his daughter. They don\u2019t care that his wife is a foreigner. They don\u2019t care that his wife is a nude model. They don\u2019t care if he bankrupted his companies, employed illegal foreign workers, ran a fraudulent university, cons people in his casinos and is friends with the Clintons. They don\u2019t care about any of that because he is channeling their rage.<\/p>\n

This is the greatest reason why Donald Trump is dangerous.\u00a0Continue Reading<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"