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Part I
ABSTRACT: This project, which examines support for Trump, fundamentalist childrearing, and the social trance, assesses how Donald Trump won and maintains his presidency against the opposition of more than half of the country. Focusing on Christian fundamentalists and those influenced by them, it is suggested that support for Trump is sustained by a network of conservative groups, institutions, and individuals charged with molding and coordinating religious and political interests to maintain and extend GOP governance. Psychohistorically, it is argued that conservative voters, especially fundamentalist Christians, are immersed in a group-trance that sustains the Trump presidency. The dynamism and rudimentary components for the trance originate in childhood, when children are traumatized by biblical teachings and the utilization of corporal punishment. It is asserted that the response to trauma is the formation of social alters, which are mobilized into group-fantasies and harnessed in adulthood for the benefit of conservative political interests. At the macro level, the article argues that fundamentalist religion propagandizes believers with the Big Lie, a group-fantasy that Donald Trump is an emissary of God; with God in control, Christians need not worry. At the micro level, the Big Lie succeeds because fundamentalist parents' childrearing practices create authoritarian personalities, who obey authority and are susceptible to trance induction. Such individuals are thus easily-influenced targets for manipulation by the network of institutions that promote and support Donald Trump.
The project is divided into three parts. Part I examines support for Trump and suggests that his religious advocates present him as an agent of God. It is argued that Trump's ascension to power is the culmination of masculine protest against what is experienced as feminine encroachment. Trump is portrayed as a bully to take on the bullying that conservatives feel they have faced. It is suggested that for fundamentalists Trump epitomizes muscular Christianity, a champion to fight against enemies. Part I concludes with a discussion of Trump's triumph over feminization in the 2016 battle of the sexes, only to face the blowback from his misogyny and the possibility of white women resolving the "patriarchal bargain" differently. Part II will examine fundamentalist childrearing, corporal punishment and support for Trump. Part III will examine the social trance in Trump's America and its induction.
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