It's not uncommon to ask ourselves: What was he/she thinking?
People often do inexplicable things. What we have to do is to get inside their head(s), and try to follow the reasoning they must have gone through. We've heard the advice that we should not condemn someone until we have walked a mile in their shoes. That's a slightly different thing: to imagine what they've experienced.
It's my belief that education makes this activity—of imagining what someone else is thinking—a little easier. It's never truly easy; if it seems easy, you're probably not doing it with enough enthusiasm.
In these days, I try to imagine what it's like being a follower of Trump. Near in mind, though, that there are a number of different sorts of Trump followers. There are those who (1) have followed Trump for years, and feel that they know exactly what Trump is thinking. I have to believe that, having done that, they're ready with good reasons why he says things, promises things that he couldn't possibly deliver. They probably don't take those promises seriously; they probably think: that's just politics; only just a fraction of election promises will be made good!
Then there are (2) people who have made a calculated decision to take Trump as their man because of some aspect of his character: perhaps he looks just like some family member who was uncannily sharp about political outcomes. Maybe it's the way he talks. Maybe it's his blonde hair and blue eyes, or how tall he is.
Maybe there are some (3) who cling to him in the hope that he can do something tangible for them. There are a lot of people (4) who dislike Democrats and Congress with a passion, and just want to make life a difficult for them as possible. And of course, there are those who think that there are just too many Federal Regulations. They don't feel that this is a free country anymore.
Given all this, (a) what do we think that Trump followers are thinking? Can we get inside their heads? And (b) what do these Trump followers think we're thinking? Some writing by Trumpees (about what anti-Trumpers are thinking) are totally off the wall. Well, at any given moment, people hostile to Trump and his followers could be thinking a lot of different things, that's true. But I think the proportion of anti-Trumpers thinking to make the Trumpees angry are probably very few! (Making ICE angry is different. Also making Lindsey Graham angry could be a lot of fun.) I, for one, am totally occupied with very different matters, and baiting Trumpees are very far from my mind.
Thinking what's going on inside the heads of Trumpees
