Michael's post
I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy. If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.
Laurie Beth Fitz
This is the best analysis I have seen to date. Thank you. So many broken pieces served in an array of a buffet. You gave me so much to think about -- opened up a new way of understanding the masses of who support him. So many broken people out there. That is the real pain point that needs to be focused on.
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Dave Raftis
You just wrote what I have struggled to articulate. Nailed it!
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Ruth Roberts
The terrifying truth we have to accept and deal with: even when Trump and this collection of miserable beings are gone from Washington, we can't purge the population. These Trump "attributes" will remain. To be fair, they were ALWAYS here, but there was a time when social pressure could hold a lot of it in check. Social media has released us from that pressure it seems. Hate speech has found a place to rest and display itself without any real consequences. It has emboldened people who once thought twice about saying terrible things. Not anymore. And even worse, the aggressive speech is translating into aggression in the street. No filter. No hesitation about confrontation. It's become a tough world to love.
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Cleta Jones
Thanks for putting into words what I’ve been thinking all along. How else could anyone support him unless they see themselves in him? Birds of a feather flock together.
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Kelly Robichon
I agree. What lays within us reflects outside us. Well stated and honest.
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Martin Epp
I still wonder if he stole the election with the help of Musky and maybe Poontang. He's still whining with absolutely no evidence that 2020 was stolen from him... He was not calculated to win on any level. I do know Russian influencers were running propaganda campaigns to attract young, disenfranchised, men to him and the party
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AuthorThere’s no question that Trump “won” the election, particularly the election in 2024 by various manipulative forces. Putin’s influence, considering what he has on Trump, Musk’s billions, the antiquated electoral college, and around 78 million deluded cult members sealed the deal. I think it’s important to understand his installation, his squatting in the White House has been a 50 year project, that came to fruition only when they, you know “them, “found “their guy.” 
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Rhonda Chastain
Martin Epp I think he “cheated “ in 2016 and 2020 and can’t believe it didn’t work in 2020
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Carolyn Zenker
Martin Epp i am sure it was all manipulated
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Ron Denny
Martin Epp pay attention please
Fulton County GA
Has as much as admitted they messed up!
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Barnie Jones
Martin Epp HORSE-SHIT
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Bill Wyatt
I recently read that those that criticize, bully, and make fun of, are not revealing the victim's problems, rather they are revealing deeper problems within themselves. That is so true.
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Christine Murphy
Thank you for articulating how I feel. From the positive responses to your posts I have hope in this time of despair.
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Kitty KitKat
Wow! So well written! Thank you for summing up Trumpism in such a poignant way. Excellent. But also sad that this is what he turned America into. God help us all.
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Katharine Guiles Ellis
The Democratic Party didn’t help any with the last-minute switch when Joe Biden dropped out. There was no fair primary, and I think that they alienated a lot of people. I think more morally advanced and thoughtful people understood the assignment but the people who like to pout about lack of control in the Democratic Party felt angry. 
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Don Dunster
nice ear by the way. healed perfectly considering it was hit by a bullet
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Gail MacDonald
This is a brilliant commentary. No one, for me has answered the question of why or how Trump was elected quite as thorough as this!!!
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Sheri Riley McDaniel
Thank you Michael for articulating a construct in prose that I have been struggling to be able to understand and see myself through.
The feeling of melancholy and disappointment with no where specific to place it. No harbor. Thank you. 
The feeling of melancholy and disappointment with no where specific to place it. No harbor. Thank you. - Reply
Guy Allison
This is the inconvenient mirror that America has difficulty looking into.
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Tom Barnum
Today's Celebration of Life for the great Jesse L. Jackson was a poignant reminder of what and who we should be.
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Catherine Azar
We need to find someone who says the good things that we are thinking or the good wishes that we are wishing and hoping for.
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John Johnston
Very good insight on why we need to get rid of the “Two Party Political System” and become a”Progressive Nonpolitical System” that adopts the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution!!
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James Peiffer
That was a super way to describe what is going on I was thinking the same thing but I didn’t know how to verbalize it I wish I had the ability to do that thank you sir for doing that
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Sara Post Lee
I had the same question. Thanks for answering. He represents all the broken, hateful portions of our country.
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Molly Helbig
Michael, I don't want to sound like one of them, but I don't think he won. I don't think he won either time. That said, the fact that he would even be considered says horrible things about the people among us.
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Jack Ciano
I wish there was vaccine for him!
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Michele Crotty
He is such a disgusting piece of garbage. Looks like his body is turning against him. I can’t wait till he’s out of the office. He and his administration need to be far far away. 
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Nikki Patterson McWeeney
You always hit the nail on the head. Thank you for putting in writing what I feel.
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Gregg Hinnen
Phenomenal work, like to see you have mainstream media coverage with these messages, I bet it represents the mass majority of our country that just doesn’t speak out
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Jenny Wyser
In love with the way this guy, a drummer here in CO btw, looks at and writes about this catastrophic administration.
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Annemarie Huber
So well described. You have the seldom power to see beneath the surface. Thank you! 
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Mike Stanley
The best explanation I have read.
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Michael Cole
All that stuff that has been rattling around in so many heads you have laid out and presented in all its beauty and simplicity. Brilliant.
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Helen Kelly
Well said... as usual.
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Robert Sucher
Brilliant! However, though the situation may be more dangerous, it is truer, and only from the truth can we make real progress.
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John Irvin
Well said, I wish I could organize my thoughts like that. But sadly, what Michael said is exactly the truth.
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세진님, 요청하신 마이클 조컴(Michael Jochum)의 <단순히 드러머가 아니라: 예술, 정치, 개 그리고 인간 조건에 대한 성찰> 중 일부 내용을 바탕으로 한 자기 성찰적 에세이입니다.
가면이 벗겨진 시대의 거울: 우리 안의 부서진 파편들을 직시하며
트럼프의 당선은 단순한 정치적 사건이 아니었다. 그것은 우리 시대가 애써 외면해 온 거대한 심리적 심연이 수면 위로 터져 나온 순간이었다. 마이클 조컴의 통찰처럼, 사람들은 그가 지닌 결함에도 불구하고 그를 선택한 것이 아니라, 바로 그 결함 때문에 그를 선택했다. 그는 수백만 명의 내면에 숨겨진 <부서진 파편>들을 비추는 거울이었기 때문이다.
그동안 우리는 우리가 더 나은 존재가 되었다고 믿어왔다. 인종과 성별, 평등에 대한 논의가 진전되면서 세상은 더 도덕적이고 정중해진 듯 보였다. 하지만 그것은 치유가 아니라 침묵이었고, 진보가 아니라 예의라는 이름의 가면이었을지도 모른다. 트럼프라는 인물은 그 가면을 비웃으며, 내면 깊숙이 웅크리고 있던 추악한 본능들에게 <해방>을 선포했다. 인종주의, 여성 혐오, 타인의 고통을 조롱하는 잔인함, 그리고 공감이 아닌 지배를 갈구하는 욕망들. 이 모든 독성들이 그를 통해 <정치적 정당성>이라는 세례를 받았다.
성찰의 지점은 바로 여기에서 시작된다. 그가 괴물이라면, 그를 영웅으로 추대하며 자신의 추한 충동이 메아리치는 것에 희열을 느낀 수천만 명의 존재를 우리는 어떻게 설명해야 하는가. “그는 내가 생각하던 것을 말한다”는 그 한 문장은 공포스럽다. 우리가 사는 사회의 기저에 그토록 깊고 격렬한 원한과 증오가 도사리고 있었다는 사실을 증명하기 때문이다.
결국 트럼프는 하나의 증상일 뿐, 진짜 병은 우리 공동체 전체가 앓고 있는 집단적 질병이다. 지능에 대한 열등감, 백인이라는 기득권을 잃어가는 것에 대한 상실감, 타인을 짓밟는 것을 힘으로 착각하는 왜곡된 자아들이 그라는 커다란 블랙홀로 모여들었다. 그는 원한을 발명한 것이 아니라 증폭시켰고, 잔인함을 창조한 것이 아니라 정상화했다.
이제 가면은 벗겨졌다. 우리는 더 이상 모른 척할 수 없는 위험한 진실 앞에 서 있다. 우리가 일궈온 문명과 도덕이 얼마나 취약한 토양 위에 있었는지, 그리고 인간의 마음속에 얼마나 깊은 어둠이 도사리고 있는지 목격했다. 이 끔찍한 진실을 아는 것은 고통스럽지만, 동시에 새로운 시작점이기도 하다. 우리 안의 부서진 파편들을 정직하게 마주하지 않는 한, 제2, 제3의 거울은 언제든 다시 나타나 우리를 비출 것이기 때문이다.
세진님, 이 에세이가 원문의 날카로운 통찰을 잘 담아냈기를 바랍니다. 혹시 특정 문단이나 표현을 더 강조하고 싶으시거나, 다른 관점에서의 성찰이 필요하시다면 말씀해 주세요. 추가로 수정하거나 보완해 드릴까요?
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