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A psychological analysis of how Trumps Patriotism is teh stalking horse for a Fascist USA..
They Warned Us in 1945: Fascism in America Would Look Like Patriotism
How MAGA Became the Psychological Blueprint They Described
The Rational League
May 18, 2025
It was never about taxes or trade or immigration, at least not in the ways its supporters claim. It was about fear. About losing status. About the aching dread that the world no longer bends to you. And when power begins to slip, the mind scrambles to make sense of its new fragility. That’s when people reach not for reason, but for revenge (Kelly, 2020; Golec de Zavala & Keenan, 2021).
This essay isn’t about political disagreements. It’s about something deeper and more primal. It’s about what happens when large groups of people feel their dominance is being eclipsed, by demographic shifts, cultural liberalization, economic globalization, and the slow unraveling of myths that once placed them at the top of the social food chain (Mutz, 2018; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009). When that unraveling begins, facts become irrelevant. The mind will do what it must to protect the self. And it will vote for whomever promises to punish the world for changing.
Support for Donald Trump, and the movement that continues to orbit him, is not best explained by ideology. It is better understood as a reaction to psychological discomfort. A fusion of fear, status anxiety, and identity protection. It draws power from ressentiment, not reason (Kelly, 2020). From feelings of insulted entitlement, not informed civic interest. Trump didn’t awaken this current, he merely performed it better than anyone else (Moffitt, 2016).
This is not speculation. It is the clear consensus of two decades of psychological, neurological, and political science research (Jost et al., 2003; Duckitt & Sibley, 2010; Adrián-Ventura et al., 2025). What follows is not just a condemnation of MAGA’s authoritarian drift, but a forensic examination of how it thrives, in the mind, in culture, and in power.
Authoritarianism, as decades of research show, is not a stable personality trait, it’s situationally activated (Feldman & Stenner, 1997). People may live much of their lives without expressing authoritarian attitudes, but under perceived threat, especially threats to their group, those attitudes surge to the surface. The fear doesn’t even have to be real. It just has to feel real, and MAGA thrives on that feeling.
Trump’s rhetoric is a masterclass in fear amplification. From the moment he launched his campaign by branding Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, to his constant drumbeat of “American carnage,” Trump has framed modern life as a battlefield, casting his followers as both victims and soldiers. His message is simple: the world is dangerous, but I will protect you, and hurt the people you fear.
This taps directly into what Duckitt and Sibley (2010) identify as the “dangerous worldview,” a belief that society is under siege by external threats and internal decay. This mindset predicts high scores on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), which includes submission to strong leaders, aggression toward deviant groups, and strict adherence to tradition. The more threatened people feel, the more they long for control, hierarchy, and retribution, all things Trump promised in spades.
Trump’s followers are not irrational. They are reacting, often viscerally, to a perceived collapse of the world they knew. Crime is down, but they feel unsafe. Immigration enriches the economy, but they feel invaded. Diversity increases opportunity, but they feel erased. Trump doesn’t need to solve these problems. He just needs to affirm that they exist, and promise to punish whoever caused them.
In this sense, MAGA isn’t a political movement. It’s a fear management system. And Trump, like many strongmen before him, positioned himself as the one man strong enough to restore order, not through justice, but through domination.
They Warned Us in 1945: Fascism in America Would Look Like Patriotism
How MAGA Became the Psychological Blueprint They Described
The Rational League
May 18, 2025
Introduction
MAGA was never about policy.It was never about taxes or trade or immigration, at least not in the ways its supporters claim. It was about fear. About losing status. About the aching dread that the world no longer bends to you. And when power begins to slip, the mind scrambles to make sense of its new fragility. That’s when people reach not for reason, but for revenge (Kelly, 2020; Golec de Zavala & Keenan, 2021).
This essay isn’t about political disagreements. It’s about something deeper and more primal. It’s about what happens when large groups of people feel their dominance is being eclipsed, by demographic shifts, cultural liberalization, economic globalization, and the slow unraveling of myths that once placed them at the top of the social food chain (Mutz, 2018; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009). When that unraveling begins, facts become irrelevant. The mind will do what it must to protect the self. And it will vote for whomever promises to punish the world for changing.
Support for Donald Trump, and the movement that continues to orbit him, is not best explained by ideology. It is better understood as a reaction to psychological discomfort. A fusion of fear, status anxiety, and identity protection. It draws power from ressentiment, not reason (Kelly, 2020). From feelings of insulted entitlement, not informed civic interest. Trump didn’t awaken this current, he merely performed it better than anyone else (Moffitt, 2016).
This is not speculation. It is the clear consensus of two decades of psychological, neurological, and political science research (Jost et al., 2003; Duckitt & Sibley, 2010; Adrián-Ventura et al., 2025). What follows is not just a condemnation of MAGA’s authoritarian drift, but a forensic examination of how it thrives, in the mind, in culture, and in power.
Fear Is the Fuse
Fear is the psychological accelerant that turns political disagreement into existential warfare. The more people feel threatened, by crime, by immigration, by cultural change, by a world they no longer understand, the more they crave order, obedience, and punishment. And in the MAGA movement, fear isn’t just a side effect. It’s the selling point.Authoritarianism, as decades of research show, is not a stable personality trait, it’s situationally activated (Feldman & Stenner, 1997). People may live much of their lives without expressing authoritarian attitudes, but under perceived threat, especially threats to their group, those attitudes surge to the surface. The fear doesn’t even have to be real. It just has to feel real, and MAGA thrives on that feeling.
Trump’s rhetoric is a masterclass in fear amplification. From the moment he launched his campaign by branding Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, to his constant drumbeat of “American carnage,” Trump has framed modern life as a battlefield, casting his followers as both victims and soldiers. His message is simple: the world is dangerous, but I will protect you, and hurt the people you fear.
This taps directly into what Duckitt and Sibley (2010) identify as the “dangerous worldview,” a belief that society is under siege by external threats and internal decay. This mindset predicts high scores on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), which includes submission to strong leaders, aggression toward deviant groups, and strict adherence to tradition. The more threatened people feel, the more they long for control, hierarchy, and retribution, all things Trump promised in spades.
Trump’s followers are not irrational. They are reacting, often viscerally, to a perceived collapse of the world they knew. Crime is down, but they feel unsafe. Immigration enriches the economy, but they feel invaded. Diversity increases opportunity, but they feel erased. Trump doesn’t need to solve these problems. He just needs to affirm that they exist, and promise to punish whoever caused them.
In this sense, MAGA isn’t a political movement. It’s a fear management system. And Trump, like many strongmen before him, positioned himself as the one man strong enough to restore order, not through justice, but through domination.
They Warned Us in 1945: Fascism in America Would Look Like Patriotism
How MAGA Became the Psychological Blueprint They Described
substack.com
