My ancestors were Mennonites and Amish folk. They came to William Penn’s start up colony in the 1770s searching for the freedom to follow their religion and be left alone. Those motivations and values remain deeply written in my personality code, and they have helped me understand why so many Americans have come to trust Donald Trump. 

Those who can’t stand and can’t understand the supporters of Trump too easily dump them into cliched categories: they are flag waving, pick up truck, gun totin’ rednecks or they are sincere Evangelical, teetotalin’, Bible quotin’ farmers and their families. Not seeking to either understand or sympathize with them, they just write them off.  To Europeans and coastal elites, Hilary Clinton summed it up: they are “a basket of deplorables.”

But looking and listening more closely this is clearly not the case. To be sure, plenty of the MAGA fanbase seem to fit the type, but there are plenty of others who are well educated, perceptive, open minded and compassionate. Those who don’t back Donald Trump wonder how such people can support a candidate they perceive as a sleazy, tasteless, billionaire with the libido of an alley cat and an ego that dwarfs King Kong.

I think it comes down to a question of trust—or rather distrust. The American electorate does not seem to be overly interested in policies and  personalities. Instead they are mired in monumental level of distrust. Half the population distrusts the elite—whoever they perceive the elite to be. They distrust elite politicians, the elite media moguls, the entertainment celebrity elite, the academics and experts, the elite establishment: the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, the CDC, the DHS and the whole industrial military complex. 

The other half of the population distrust the ones they perceive to be the elite—the billionaires, the big oil companies, the multi-nationals, the old, patriarchal religious rulers, the whole capitalist, sexist, misogynistic, heterosexual establishment, the destroyers of the ecosystem, the warmongers and the cruel, selfish and dispassionate men in charge.

Consequently both sides see themselves as the true Americans–the pioneers, the underdogs, the brave patriots who will not be tread on.

Individuals on both sides seem to be locked in an irrational approach in which they automatically disdainfully disbelieve whatever the mouthpiece of the other side says and automatically, unthinkingly believe whatever the leader of their side says. That the leaders on both sides lie with impunity, shift their positions according to the way the wind is blowing and practice hypocrisy on a Pharisaical scale seems not to matter. Any kind of integrity, concern for public service or the common good is unheard of. Candidates who had these qualities were spat out long ago.

Consequently both sides are susceptible to propaganda, misinformation, fake news and fabricated and exaggerated accusations and rumors.

What might feel like loyalty could be thought to be  trust. It is not. It is simply that the devotees distrust the other side more than they do their own.

Where did this deeply seated distrust originate? It is the fruit of relativism. If there is no such thing as truth we should not be surprised that everyone lies. If there is no such thing as truth no one can be trusted. In the midst of this crisis of truth we have technologies that can produce “deep fakes” artificial intelligence that creates false narratives and artificially created news. The same technology is capable of disseminating the fakery instantaneously to a global audience.  In such an atmosphere who knows what is true and who can be trusted?

Consequently we rely on our gut feelings. We rely on our subjective emotions and the person or media company that most effectively pushes the right emotional buttons wins the day.  If we rely therefore on  on subjective emotions to make political and cultural choices we’re doomed, for  while it is nice to imagine that sentimentality only deals in the sweet, kind, tender, tolerant and positive emotions, it is more realistic to remember that hatred, bigotry, resentment and rage are also emotions. Relativism releases us from objective truth, but it chains us to the tyranny of emotions. The frightening thing about being governed by those negative emotions is that eventually it leads to violence. The resentment and rage swamp rational thought and a reasonable response and it erupts into violence. Thus Relativism cries havoc and lets slip the dogs of war.

What is the answer? For my part, it brings out the Mennonite in me. I want to retreat to my farmyard and church yard and yelp, “a plague on both your houses!”. Seeing storm clouds on the horizon I want to , head for the hills, read my Bible, say my prayers, celebrate Mass and hunker down.

Instead I think it is time to summon our courage, affirm the eternal truths and live them out in our personal lives, our families, our churches and schools.Relationships are real and Reality is local. Each of us must work where we are to do what we can with what we have to build local communities focussed on the objective truths of the Christian religion and the eternal values of family, fellowship and faith. We can not “put our trust in princes” but we can put our trust in these rock solid values.