Trump Crushes and The Next Step

"Trump-fever" seems to have overwhelmed millions, yet I've noticed a few things.  First, no one I know well takes him all that seriously.  (Since I haven't actually asked a lot of people directly, I expect sooner or later I will feel the need to directly ask a few people to identify self-identify as true Trump fans before I draw any conclusions).

I formed another, similar impression last Saturday.   I was strolling around a typical art fair/seafood festival--well they are frequent enough around here that I have attended dozens over the past 20 years, and I think this one was not far different from most others. Anyway, I noticed an unusual booth.  It was what appeared to be the local Republican Party's booth. It was adorned exclusively with Trump signs and stickers. The odd thing to me was that no one was approaching the booth.  There were eight or nine smiling Trumpeters, but no one looked to be willing to even speak to them.  I found myself asking, "Are people embarrassed to admit they support Mr. Trump?  Who else is embarrassed to have it become known they "like" someone?  Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Yes, it made me reflect on some reading I have done on adolescent/teenage crushes, and what psychologists think about them.  As we all know, crushes are those sometimes otherwise inexplicable attractions that are often developed by pre-adolescent and adolescent young people (and some adults, I would say) toward people to whom they might be slightly attracted.

Now, it is important that I make a clarifying distinction--there are "romantic" crushes and "identity" crushes.  I am talking about the latter kind.  Psychologists say that although the crush appears to be about attraction to another person, it is actually about projection of valued attributes onto another person.  In this sense, the crush is a statement about what a person finds attractive. In this, crushes are very revealing.

So, remembering that the person who has the crush largely projects onto another person idealized attributes the admirer highly values and wants to be associated with, and then she or he attaches strong positive feelings to the perfectly wonderful image that has been created, we need to take a look at what people are projecting onto Mr. Trump. and that is harder to examine, given that few of the people I have met or know actually support him.  Think about it--we do not have to study Mr. Trump and his message (at last I don't think we do), we have to study what admirers have projected onto him.  

The media are missing the point by choosing to publicize all of his ridiculous statements, aren't they?  This complicates things.  I will have to step aside and try studying what people are projecting onto him, but at the moment, no one I know personally is openly supporting him.  "Is a puzzlement," said the King in "The King and I." 

When I was a boy, world was better spot

What was so was so, what was not was not

Now, I am a man, world have changed a lot

Some things nearly so, others nearly not"  

 So, onward we must go, mostly without the help of the media, to learn what those having this short-term "crush" on Mr. Trump are really seeking.  Or, we can accept the media's current perspective, which seems to be "Wow, listen to what that whacko Trump said yesterday!  And look at the polls, he leads all the other Republican candidates, so all of them must be whacko, too."