Not in the least a surprise. The "economic disaffection" narrative is a red herring dreamed up by the press to avoid confronting honestly the depths of hostility this virulent person has stirred and normalized in too many people — hostility directed at perceived "enemies." /1 https://twitter.com/InSpiteOfTrump/status/1328795449373974528

Commentators are scratching their heads at the gains he made this election cycle among Latinos and some African-American men. They want to trot out the diversionary "economic disaffection" narrative to explain those. /2

As Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans teaches us, Germany recognized after the Hitler years that a society that permits open expression of hatred directed against vulnerable groups invites self-destruction — because once you open that door, it's hard to slam shut. /3

The Republican party has been flinging that door wider and wider — and with the person now in the White House — as wide as possible, and it's not at all a surprise that some people who previously were not caught up in the vituperative targeting of the other are now hooked. /4

That's how openly expressed, unabashed racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, etc., operate. Let them vaunt themselves in public with no shame attached to the behavior, and you'll see more and more people reveling in the hate. /5

A society that wants a healthy future does all it can to push back on a constant basis against this kind of normalized, freely expressed animosity to vulnerable communities. In the U.S., unfortunately, one of the biggest engines for the expression of such animosity is religion./6

Why did more and more groups show greater affection for the man in the White House this election, many of them members of the very group he and his followers love to target?

Religion is a big part of the answer — religion that normalizes the kind of social hostilities that /7

attracted increasing numbers to him in this election.

We have a big problem in the U.S. with toxic expressions of religion that do the opposite of inviting people's better angels to express themselves. If you doubt that, look at how many churches are behaving in the pandemic. /8