Trump Is “The Chosen One”

Because he’s a perfect instrument of the patriarchal dominance hierarchy

Donald Trump is pretty much a walking embodiment of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth. And yet, Rick Perry recently declared that he is the chosen one of God, sent to save this country. Perry is not the first or only one to have reached such a conclusion, despite the fact that the thrice-married Trump is hardly a model of “family values.” Franklin Graham and other evangelical leaders have also publicly supported Trump with the same kind of rhetoric. Graham even went so far as to liken Trump’s political opponents to “demonic forces.”

Why would a man who spent time talking with shock jock Howard Stern about his daughter’s breasts and voluptuousness, agreeing that it was OK to refer to her as a “piece of ass” be considered the ordained of God? Because Donald Trump stands for and defends the dominance hierarchy as being appropriate and good and that is what the religious right believes as well.

The dominance hierarchy is the pyramid-shaped social structure that has been a given in this country until very recently — one where rich white Christian men hold the top positions of power and authority, and all others fall below them to varying degrees. It hearkens back to the pre-Civil Rights era, and the pre-women’s lib era when people “knew their place.” The problem is that for the past 50 years, those static places on the pyramid have been eroding, and people who used to quietly keep to the shadows are now asking for a seat at the table.

Some of the characteristics of the dominance hierarchy include:

• Ranking of the male half of humanity over the female half. Rigid gender stereotypes, with “masculine” traits and activities such as toughness and conquest ranked over “feminine” ones such as caregiving and nonviolence.
• High degree of fear and violence, from child- and wife-beating to abuse by “superiors” in families, workplaces, and society.
• Beliefs and stories justify and idealize domination and violence, which are deemed inevitable, moral, and desirable.

Most religious organizations adhere pretty strongly to a dominance-based hierarchy, but evangelical religious organizations definitely do. The man is the head of the family, and both wife and children are his to direct in an authoritarian manner. This same kind of hierarchy exists within the church leadership where people must unquestioningly submit to the authority above them or pay the consequences. Bullying of those with less power is expected, if not encouraged. When Trump publicly mocked a disabled reporter, some people didn’t bat an eye because that’s just the way this kind of hierarchy works.

In a dominance hierarchy, there are no peers — you are either above or below someone else and you are encouraged to constantly compare yourself to the people around you. It’s the American way to always be trying to “keep up with the Joneses” because it drives consumer culture. Pushing other people out of the way in order to obtain a better ranking is lauded as healthy competition. Rather than empathetic cooperation and authority that seeks to take good care of those in its charge, you’ve got an “I got mine” mentality.

It’s a kind of social Darwinism where only the fittest survive and where the poor and downtrodden must, therefore, deserve what they have gotten. It feeds into a type of Christianity where the true values Jesus taught of loving your neighbor and caring for the poor are largely irrelevant. This type of person views elevation in the dominance hierarchy as an indication of God’s favor, even though it was achieved through ruthlessness, greed, and the maintenance of traditional power.

If less advantaged, non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual citizens begin to ask for and get some measure of power and equality, this is highly disruptive to the status quo. Leveling out the pyramid feels like a loss of rights and a betrayal of the Darwinian pyramid. When Tennessee councilman Warren Hurst recently went on a public rant decrying the fact that a “queer” was running for president, he and those who cheered for him were feeling this dynamic. “I’m not prejudiced, but by golly,” continued Hurst, waving his finger in the air, “a white male in this country has very few rights, and they’re getting took more every day.”

Until 50 years ago, the mainstream consensus was that the US was a white, male-dominated, heterosexual, Christian country. As this continues to be challenged and women and minorities take up more visible positions in the public arena, it begins to feel to some like a war on the establishment. Donald Trump is an embodied representation of that establishment. He strongly believes in maintaining it and isn’t shy about saying so. That is his main attraction.

Resistance to this erosion of the traditional strata of power may well not always be about overt racism or sexism but is often simply a disquiet with the social changes that a challenge to the known and expected hierarchy engenders. It’s a disruption of the social order, and Donald Trump represents bringing that social order back, which is why he is seen as a savior by those who most value the patriarchal dominance hierarchy.

He is the chosen of the people who really want to go back to the way the United States was 50 years ago, back when people “knew their place.” He is the chosen of those churches and religious institutions who want the same thing. They believe in the dominance hierarchy as the proper way that the world should function, and it disturbs them to see it disrupted. When they talk about “traditional values” this is to a large extent what they mean. Donald Trump is their champion and the face of their cause. That is why he seems like the anointed of God to them.