There are two reasons to keep supporting Ukraine in staving off the Russian invasion. First, it is important for the security of Europe, and of our country. For a second, we made a commitment.

It used to be that everyone performed in accordance with their contract obligations. And people who wanted to stand out, performed in accordance with their handshakes, or their word alone. Now, none of this seems to matter.

Putin, now claiming that Ukraine is in fact part of Russia, ignores the contractual obligations his country made when it took possession of the nuclear weaponry in Ukraine in return for a guarantee of Ukraine’s borders. Trump, claiming to want to make America great again, wants to ignore the various commitments the United States made to Ukraine once it was invaded by Russia, putting to waste all the money and effort we have so far committed to the task of repelling the Russians, and putting at risk the lives of so many Ukrainians as the Russian invasion will continue to wreak havoc on the country.

At the same time, Trump wants it to be known that, if he is again elected president, the United States cannot be counted on to fight against Russia if certain NATO countries are invaded, in spite of the contractual obligation (and moral obligation) we have to defend them if attacked.

Yet no Trump supporters, as far as I can see, are doing anything but continuing to support Trump and to agree with his statements.

Why is this? 

I am reading an interesting book titled In America: Tales from Trump Country by Caitriona Perry, an Irish journalist based in Washington. She wrote the book in 2017, during the Trump administration and before the 2018 midterms. The book was published in Dublin to an Irish, not an American, audience, which makes it all that more interesting.

Perry is doing two things in this book. She is trying to explain the American political system and how it works, at least regarding presidential elections. We know our system is idiosyncratic, but perhaps we don’t recognize how unusual it is. Although this is not what she does, when you read Perry’s explanations as to how America works, you can just see the silent clause that could start every sentence. It would be something like: ”You probably won’t believe this, but ……”.

Then, she is trying to explain Trump’s popularity.

She does this by visiting about a dozen states, and going particularly to poorer, white areas. Places like McKeesport PA, or Portsmouth OH, or McAllen TX. Mainly areas that are much less prosperous than they once were. Where steel mills, or other industries, have closed and moved out. Where some people are barely hanging on, and see their children have to move away to get any sort of worthwhile employment. These are generally people whose families have been in this country for several generations, who typically hold some form of religious faith and are skeptical at best with regard to social changes such as same sex marriage. Many of these people (I’d say even most of them) have voted for Democrats most of their lives, but are making a change now.

What is going on? For one thing, they believe that the “system” has not served them well, that they always get the short stick, and that – if the same group of people continue to run the country – they will always be forgotten. For another (and these are all related), they think that the Democrats have been very good at making promises, but that their promises are empty promises, that they cannot see that the current Obama administration is doing anything for them or far their communities, at all.

The result of this is that they wanted someone different. They wanted someone who could really shake things up. And things now are bad enough that they really weren’t terribly concerned about the type of shake up. Anything would be better than this.

At the same time, they felt that Donald Trump, a man with a very different background than the ones they have, knows how to talk to them, understands what they are saying, knows what they want, and is making the types of promises they want to hear. will he fulfill those promises? They seem to trust his sincerity, and certainly willing to give him a chance.

They also like his personality. His feisty nature. His saying what he thinks. His sense of humor. They like the idea of making America great again (that’s part of the shake up) and putting America first. Yes, he can be gross and embarrassing at times, but they will over look all of that because they think he will get the job done.

I can extrapolate a bit. They had four years of Trump, interrupted by a pandemic, and were told that it would take eight years. But the rest of the country didn’t give Trump eight years, or so they said. Because they were convinced that those in power were self-seeking, worthless and corrupt, they probably believed that election cheating is their norm. And the result of that cheating – the Biden years – have not brought them any visible improvement, and they aren’t going to fall for people telling them that things are better, when they clearly are not. So, they say, let’s get Trump back, without COVID, and see what he can do.

It’s as simple as that.