Trump is a quintessential American, raised by authoritarian and therefore abusive parenting. But you don’t need a book to tell you what his parents were like because anyone can easily extrapolate backwards to figure it out. https://twitter.com/CarolLeonnig/status/1280531256179122180

Trump is the rule, not the exception. Authoritarian parenting in the US created this shitshow, not just Trump or the Republican Party. Americans are raised to worship and obey authority. All authorities. It is our national character.

As a nation:
We are religious. We obey religious authority. We are told God gave us this country. We choose to believe this because we got the country through theft and murder and don’t want to feel bad or make reparations.

We are patriotic. We love our country and think it is this greatest in the land and, more important, we think we are special because we are born or choose to live here. We believe this because it is flattering and authoritarian children are very insecure.

To break their spirit and force them to accept obedience to authority, authoritarian parents destroy their children’s self-confidence and trust in their own judgment. They tell them their emotions are bad. They make the child fearful, insecure, and mistrustful of himself.

Desperate for self-esteem and trained to think that only the authority knows anything, including right from wrong, authoritarians grab any lie that inflates their ego and/or gives them emotional security.

We “respect the sacrifice of the military,” another ego-boost that is actually obedience to military authority. We worship power because power can take whatever it wants and authoritarians grow to be resentful, angry adults who feel perpetually deprived and manipulated.

We are patriotic. We salute the flag, love the national Team Sport, cheer for the Team Entertainer, because the authority told us to, because it gives authoritarian ex-children a sense of belonging which they never received from their parents.

Everything in our lives is seen through the prism of authoritarianism, which is why people get hysterical over seemingly trivial matters, including which tv shows we watch, which books we read, which stores we shop in.

Most of all, because authoritarianism usually begins in childhood, we are patriarchal. The parents are usually our first Authority and teach us from birth to obey authority, starting with the man in the home and reinforced by the woman in the home.

Because children have their own wants and needs, they rebel against the parents. The parent authority used religious authority to back up his own authority. The child must either obey or give up the hope of being loved, and then they are taught to fear torture for disobedience.

Trump is neither a good nor a clever man. He had no resources to counteract his authoritarian upbringing, nobody to show him love or respect. He is angry, resentful, cruel, and very, very deeply insecure.

He needs praise and worship like an animal needs water. He is a bottomless well of need.
He is American.