Mariella Gattini

Donald Trump is the quintessential misogynist, and no recently-revealed video of him is necessary to assert such justified, fair, and clear description. Misogyny is basically hatred targeted at women, which not only pervades male minds, it also has resonance in the minds of certain females, like those middle-aged women, and Trump supporters, who appeared on TV defining themselves as “Trumpettes,” even wearing T-shirts that identified them as such.

The second presidential debate was a clear example of Trump’s demeanor—looming next to Hillary while she managed to keep her composure faced with this primitive man. Hillary has been dealing with strong disrespect coming from all fronts for decades, but last night she couldn’t have been exposed to a more low, barbaric specimen of a man.

His work is very easy, he only needs to channel the hatred that is all around, just like Hitler did in the Germany of the 30’s. Many use Hitler as an example of the quintessential psychopath who made Jews scapegoats of all the evils in the Germany of his time. But the truth is that Hitler wouldn’t be that notorious today if he hadn’t had such traction. The hatred was already there, he only needed to redirect all that frustration, lack of resources, and failed economic policies, and blame the Jews. And not content with that he could even dehumanize them, declaring them inferior beings, not worth anything.

In Trump’s case, he just needs to assert himself as a man, and bully his way forward, putting down everything and everybody considered beneath him—women in particular. Why change? When he himself has stated that he can do no wrong; no matter what he says, nobody stops him.

Unfortunately, he is right. There is a group of people in this country who define themselves as conservatives, but who would basically support anybody who says what they want to hear, no matter the consequences—not even the consequences in their own lives. That’s the reason why conservative elites have a strong base; they have poor people convinced that they too can achieve high levels of economic growth. The small caveat, though, is that they have to follow the rules of the conservative elites. The problem is that those elites in particular are not there for anybody but themselves, so they are never going to work for the advancement of either low-income or middle-class families in their constituencies, because they need their base in constant economic turmoil, misinformed, narrow-minded, and therefore resentful in order to be able to associate everything bad that happens in their lives with the left, or with the more centrists in their own party, making a lot of noise to deflect from those elites’ own blatant irresponsibility.

And why are some women on Trump’s side? Well, the ones close to him are obviously there because they receive direct monetary incentives to do so. Well-to-do women for Trump will benefit by maintaining the status quo, which will allow them to keep their social standing. But what about the others? The low-income conservative women, why are they still supporting him? From what I’ve observed, being abused by men is something normal in their everyday lives, so, for that very same reason, nothing that Trump can say or do sounds really offensive to them, and as they themselves would say: They have bigger fish to fry. They are so used to be mistreated by men that they have become numbed.

Whether Donald Trump wins the election or he is defeated, he and his kind are not going to disappear, not even if Trump dies. His sons will carry the tradition of hate forward, because it sells. They have already made statements against refugees and immigrants, and we have seen photographs of them with dead animals in Africa.

Hatred is a thriving business, it’s highly profitable for the ones in it, and it’s here to stay. Its proponents only have to channel the frustration around, the limited resources, bad economic policies, and blame someone for that. Today women and immigrants are the perfect targets, because they are still considered inferior beings, without regard to their level of education, accomplishments, or intelligence. Finally, this hateful bunch simply has to tweet about it, because in today’s values, what they have to say is not about quality, substance, or the truth—it doesn’t even have to make sense—it’s about the number of followers they can harvest in the name of hate. In that way, they get a lot of traction. Same old same old, but with different faces, and different technologies.

Trump, the so-called “Trumpettes,” and the politics of hate are part of a sad reality TV show that unfortunately about 40% of the population in this country not only wants to watch, they want to be part of. And no matter who is elected president this year, it’s a fact nobody can afford to ignore.

The good thing is that the other 60% still have the opportunity to make a difference this November, in the Oval Office, in Congress, and, as a consequence, in the Supreme Court, never, ever, taking anybody for granted or as a joke. Everybody needs to understand that it’s not a question of fighting. It’s a question of learning to work through desperation, uncertainty, and frustration, keeping in mind that, no matter what, we can achieve great things when we are able to embrace what is around and make it better, for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for everyone else.

Much of hatred is pure fear, fear of the future, of being left behind, of not meaning anything for anybody anymore. At the same time, we have this infinite human capacity for reinvention; this ability to take the best from our surroundings, turn things around for the better, and keep going, so that new generations will have concrete and bigger opportunities to build new pathways toward reason, knowledge, and creativity.

Now is the moment for us to go out and make a positive difference in this country and in the rest of the world before is too late.