The Why of Donald

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan is by no means a supporter of President Trump. As a TV commentator for CNN, ABC, and NBC, she is a "Georgetown" Republican who is often the object of conservative ire.

Nevertheless, in last week's WSJ column Ms. Noonan exhibits a genuine understanding of Trump voters: [bold added]

Democrats unveil charges and accusations—the president is a liar, he’s a tax dodger, an obstructor of justice. But in a way Mr. Trump’s supporters accounted for all this before they elected him. They are not shocked. They didn’t hire him to be a good man. Their politics are post-heroic. They sometimes tell reporters he’s a man of high character but mostly to drive the reporters crazy. I have never talked to a Trump supporter, and my world is thick with them, who thought he had a high personal character. On the other hand they sincerely believe he has a high political character, in that he pursues the issues he campaigned on. They hired him as an insult to the political class, as a Hail Mary pass—we’ve tried everything else, maybe this will work—and because he agreed with them on the issues.

Supporters give him high marks for not looking down on them as they believe most members of the media, who are always trying to “understand” them, do. Their attitude is: “Don’t try to understand me, like you’re the anthropologist and we’re the savages. I’m an American, what are you?” They factor the cultural animosity in. When they jeer the press during rallies at the president’s direction, they don’t really mean it. They’re having fun and talking back. They’d be happy if their kids became reporters—an affluent profession, and half of them are famous. The president doesn’t really hate the press either, he wants their love and admiration. You don’t need the admiration of people you truly disdain.

Trump supporters now are looking around and thinking: Things are looking up. The economy is gangbusters, everyone can get a job, good people are on the courts. Something good is happening with China—it’s unclear what, but at least he’s pushing back. As for illegal immigration, he at least cares about it and means to make it better, though no, it doesn’t seem improved.

To take all Congress’s time right now and devote it to attacking the president, or impeaching him, will be experienced as a vast, disheartening insult by half the country, and disheartening. It will simply damage the country and be seen as extreme and destructive. It will keep good things, such as an infrastructure bill, from happening.

His supporters view Mr. Trump as a highly imperfect vessel who at least is sailing in the right direction. The various Democratic candidates, save for Joe Biden, have moral characteristics and personal behaviors that most Americans believe are superior to Mr. Trump's, but Democrats seem to be sailing the ship toward a world where one can be arrested for sipping on a plastic straw, grilling a steak outdoors, or stopping a man from entering the girls' restroom. Worse, if one is a member of a victim group, one need not obey any of these stultifying laws.

Your humble pollyanna still holds out hope that Americans will come together eventually--probably in January, 2021 or January, 2025 after Mr. Trump leaves office.