If you are an ambitious Republican, the way to win a primary, the way to win office, is to be seen being ritualistically cruel in some way to one of these communities that conservatives are fixated on and to have that covered by FOX News who will then rave about what a true conservative you are.
This act of public cruelty is something that draws lines of community around one group of people and excludes another group of people in a way that really forms a relationship between a leader and the people he’s seeking to represent.
This is something primal in human nature. You think back to adolescence when there’s a kid who, he’s a little nerdy or he gets left out of the group and gets made fun of, and there are other kids who will pick on that kid just to show they are one of the other kids, one of the cool kids, one of the group.
This is something that’s in human nature that Trump elevated to a level of political virtue or a political principle.
Adam Serwer (wnycstudios.org/takeaway)
