The three basic steps of Donald Trump’s campaign

1. Create a strong group unity with you as the exceptional and trusted leader.
2. Create hope by promising accomplish a lot of great things.
3. Portray everyone who question your ability to create those great things as an enemy towards the group.

It’s easy to mock Trump for his thin-skinned fixation on the size of his audiences, but that misses a deeper point: you can’t have a riot without a mob. Even before he was a candidate, Trump displayed a rare gift for cultivating the dark power of a crowd. In his role as the primary advocate of the “birther” fiction, he proved himself to be a maestro of the mob mentality, capable of conducting his fans through crescendos of rage and self-pity and suspicion. Speaking to the Times editorial board, in January, he said, “You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe, thinking about leaving, I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!,’ and they go nuts.”

The symbiotic exchange between a leader and his mob can thrive on what social psychologists call “emotional contagion,” a hot-blooded feedback loop that the science writer Maggie Koerth-Baker describes as “our tendency to unconsciously mimic the outward expression of other people’s emotions (smiles, furrowed brows, leaning forward, etc.) until, inevitably, we begin to feel what they’re feeling.”

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The downside of this feedback loop between leader and follower is that people tend to make worse decisions when they are in a positive emotional state. Johnson notes that’s how salespeople work, getting the client in a good mood before they make a deal. “You can get people fired up and lot of serotonin going through their body, and they will be less critical about what he has to say,” Johnson says.

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From a psychological perspective, though, the people backing Trump are perfectly normal. Interviews with psychologists and other experts suggest one explanation for the candidate's success -- and for the collective failure to anticipate it: The political elite hasn't confronted a few fundamental, universal and uncomfortable facts about the human mind.

We like people who talk big.


We like people who tell us that our problems are simple and easy to solve, even when they aren't.


And we don't like people who don't look like us.

Most people share these characteristics to some degree, but they seem to be especially prevalent among Trump's base. Trump's appeal certainly has other sources, too, such as the nostalgia he so skillfully evokes, his financial independence from special interests, and the crucial fact that he had his own reality TV show. Some Republicans like Trump's anti-establishment approach. And many support Trump because of his substantive positions -- his views on immigration, his antipathy toward China, his defense of Social Security, or his opposition to tax deductions for wealthy bankers.

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Human nature, though, is not destiny -- or so argues Hibbing of the University of Nebraska. Our innate propensities can be overcome through persuasion and principled leadership in the long term, he said.

He compares the human mind to an ocean-going tanker. Changing the ship's direction takes time, and a map with the new course clearly marked. Instead of dismissing them as crazies, political leaders will have to acknowledge their constituents' biases against all that is complex, uncertain and unfamiliar.

"I don't think we can pretend that that's not who we are," Hibbing said.

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Bergslagstroll said:

The three basic steps of Donald Trump’s campaign are.

1. Create a strong group unity with you as the exceptional and trusted leader.
2. Create hope by promising accomplish a lot of great things.
3. Portray everyone who question your ability to create those great things as an enemy towards the group.

More about the psychology behind his campaign.



Trump’s Convention Strategy: “The Fix Is In� - The New Yorker



The Psychology Behind the Violence at Trump Rallies | WIRED



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...lyze-trump-supporters-this-is-what-i-learned/


It is of course also about timing that the historical time has to be right for leaders like Donald Trump.

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MaggieD said:

The three basic steps of Hillary Clinton's campaign are:

Create a strong group unity with you as the exceptional and trusted leader.
Create hope by promising accomplish a lot of great things.
Portray everyone who question your ability to create those great things as an enemy towards the group

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MaggieD said:

The three basic steps of Hillary Clinton's campaign are:

Create a strong group unity with you as the exceptional and trusted leader.
Create hope by promising accomplish a lot of great things.
Portray everyone who question your ability to create those great things as an enemy towards the group

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“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

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Bergslagstroll said:

Yes, that you can of course argue that those three steps are valid for any political campaign. Still Trump takes them to a much more extreme and as many argue also destructive level.
Like for example what other politician comes up with the same level of nickname like Trump and his nicknames on others like for example lying Ted, little Marco, Crazy Bernie, crooked Hillary etc.? Here is also a list of Trumps insults, can you say that the same type of insults is common for any other politician?


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html?_r=0


Also think of how he discusses the complex issue of illegal immigration with lines like this one.


That at the same time he proposed a very simple solution a wall against Mexico.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ents-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/

Not only is the allegation of massive crimes committed by illegals wrong. You have also a lot more complex issue. Like for example half of the illegal have overstayed their Visas and building a wall that would stop all immigrants would be extremely costly and hard.


Also the big reason why illegals come to USA is that private citizens and companies like Trump’s is hiring illegal immigrants instead of offering job to legal immigrants and American citizens. So Trump quotes is consistent with a person that want to offer simple solutions and create a we against them.


Also one Political fact Truth-of-meter Donald Trump have 60 Percentage of his claims that have been rated False or Pants on Fire.

The truth (so far) behind the 2016 campaign | PolitiFact

You can also look at your own post, that instead of discussing if the populism Donald Trump represent is good or bad you response instead is hey look at Hillary!

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Bergslagstroll said:

The three basic steps of Donald Trump’s campaign are.

1. Create a strong group unity with you as the exceptional and trusted leader.
2. Create hope by promising accomplish a lot of great things.
3. Portray everyone who question your ability to create those great things as an enemy towards the group.

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TheGoverness said:

That's Hillary Clinton's campaign platform as well.

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