Why is Donald Trump the most loved and hated president since Abraham Lincoln? At face value, the left’s hatred for Trump is a mystery. The left I grew up with said they wanted rising living standards for the poor and world peace. For years we’ve bemoaned the lack of rising incomes for all but the rich. Monthly household income under George W Bush rose by $4 per month and $11 per month under Barack Obama — but an awesome $161 per month under Trump (pre COVIDmania).

The 2020 campaign ignored foreign policy because Trump not only didn’t start any new wars but shied away from them. Russia made no further territorial expansion, North Korean was partially tamed and Middle East peace just might be snowballing – thanks Trump.

The left tolerates moderate conservatives like John McCain, David Cameron and Scott Morrison. Its leaders from the conservative wing of a conservative party that sends them bonkers. Therefore, they also hated George W Bush, John Howard and Tony Abbott but it was child’s play compared to Trump.  Why?

Understanding derangement is fraught but here’s my six best hunches.

Firstly, there’s global warming. I’m confident Bush, Howard and Abbott did not believe in the global warming orthodoxy. Kevin Rudd says when he moved into The Lodge the one item left behind was in the DVD player — the Great Global Warming Swindle. Since leaving office Abbott has given superb speeches dismantling global warmism and Bush, being an oilman, probably doesn’t believe it either.  All three in office, however, enacted policies that were at least moderately pro-global warming plus they voiced support for the orthodoxy. It was never enough because the left sensed correctly they didn’t really believe it. Trump however just came out and said the whole thing is BS. That sent them nuts. Why?

Bar possibly our Neanderthal cousins, no other species has demonstrated an interest in religion. It’s been in our DNA since far into prehistory. Commitment to established religion has sharply declined in the past few generations but the DNA is still there. That ancient impulse of the witchdoctor has found a new home in global warming. Like primitive religion, global warming orthodoxy believes in an apocalypse, priests who must be obeyed on faith (such as approved ‘scientists’) and that mankind and free-thinking is inherently bad. Witchdoctors have said for aeons their gods can control the weather and to keep the charade up they needed the heretic which is anyone who doubted them — and the gods can only be appeased be persecuting those evil bastards.

If Trump had been precisely the same as he was except he at least mouthed the rhetoric of global warming the hatred would have been 50% less.

Secondly, feminists loved Hillary and simply because Trump beat Hillary many hate him. It’s probably the most understandable of these irrationalities. If you are a low IQ person you treat the presidency as a status symbol for your identity group, but that ignores that it’s just a job. It’s the most important job in the world and therefore we should be clamouring for the wisest in the role and be utterly blind to gender, race and so on.

Then there’s the media. Bush, Howard and Abbott copped incessant and brutal abuse from most of the media but they just accepted it as part of the job. Trump, the glorious plain citizen, saw the unfair abuse and responded with a punch back right in the face. Trump was personally mean to many, but every single time he was responding to an unprovoked and unfair attack. Trump told the world the media are not reporting the news but are political players trying to manipulate you to vote left.  Trump called them out and was eroding their power. Trump told the blunt truth about powerful media figures who in turn became hellbent on destroying him to preserve their careers.

Fourthly, for 4,000 years the Judeo-Christian movement has been the most powerful force for good in human history but let’s assume for a moment it’s not technically true. Even so, any reasonable person would agree the Judeo-Christian movement is underpinned by goodness. That goodness is summed up in the 3,500-year-old Ten Commandments.  It’s well known within the big ten are things like ‘don’t lie’, ‘don’t kill’, ‘don’t steal’ and so but also tucked in there is one that gets barely any attention –- “do not covet your neighbour’s goods.”  In other words, ‘jealousy of others success is only harmful to yourself.”

As a kid Trump sat in Norman Vincent Peale’s Episcopalian church and had positive thinking ingrained in him — and what an extraordinary success he has been. Multi-billionaire, mega-celebrity, TV star and a best-selling author with awesome kids. Not only was he the owner of the Miss Universe franchise but he married the best of the lot… Oh and he was president of the United States. No-one in American history has had such a record of jaw-dropping success.

Many who have led a lifetime of poor decisions and unfulfilled their potential choose not self-improvement but despise the successful — and since Trump is the king of success they viscerally hate him. Trump is cheerful and awesomely funny but those grumpy about life, those who’ve convinced themselves they’re victims, detest him.

Fifth, there’s intimidation.  If you’re barely interested in politics, you will still be aware that one side of politics has the potential for actual violence and is endlessly engaging in soft violence — cancel culture. Motivated purely by self-preservation many of these cowards positioned themselves as anti-Trump if it ever came up in conversation.

Finally, we need to look at low information voters. These are not necessarily low IQ voters but instead people who have a moderate degree of interest in politics and do follow the news — but only the mainstream news. Lacking the curiosity to seek alternate views they were only exposed to endless anti-Trump bias.

One little example (from a million) is when Trump tweeted a boycott of Goodyear tyres and the Goodyear stock price slumped. That made world news for a day. Trump was cranky because Goodyear had told staff not to wear MAGA hats. It sounded petulant but a key detail was left out of most media reports. Some Goodyear employees were wearing BLM apparel and others were wearing MAGA hats. Goodyear said BLM stuff is fine but MAGA’s banned. If you weren’t exposed to the full picture then Trump looks like a jerk – if you were then Trump was taking a stand for fairness.

The good news is that around half of America are now smart enough not to fit into any of the above categories. It won’t be long before it’s half plus more.

#Trump2024.