I think this does, generally, explain a large part of why Trump's 'base' votes for him (if we ignore the intelligent but hideously wealthy people who vote for him because they think he'll make them richer and more powerful).
https://skywriter.blue/@charlotteclymer.bsky.social/3mkofddozg227
"These people grew up conditioned to believe that the world is their oyster. Because they're male. Because they're white. Because they're nominally Christian (ha). Because they're American. Their mediocrity is the fault of everyone else. It's never them. They are never to blame. They have a blazing rage for anyone who asks them to meet a higher standard.
And that's the real and very dark tragedy in all this: They know they'll never get what they really want. They are resigned to struggling for the rest of their days. The American Dream is permanently out of reach. But their consolation prize is having the world's most powerful idiot in the Oval Office, always mocking the "elites" they hate (people who work hard), always oppressing communities they hate (minorities who work hard), always winking at them and giving them a circus of schadenfreude.
They love Trump because he validates their rage and mediocrity, and even though they understand there will never be more than that, they've accepted it, deep down, as a worthy prize for the loss of everything else. It's really fuc
king sad and dark."