There has been a lot of analysis (and handwringing by Democrats) of how and why Donald Trump won the US presidential election. From the exit polls, some of these factors are stark and clear: racial bias and misogyny against Kamala Harris; adulation and uncritical support for Trump the celebrity; a desire for political change at all costs. What gets overlooked is the role and influence of fear and anxiety in the American psyche.
The USA is the most powerful and successful capitalist society. Capitalism, with all its strengths and flaws is unquestioned (and unquestionable) by ordinary Americans. It is unconsciously accepted as the right and only way a society should be structured.
Successful capitalism rests on two main psychological motivators: greed and fear. Together they create a powerful engine for innovation and enterprise, expressed symbolically in the American Dream of individual fame and financial security.
Unless you are brought up in America, it is hard to imagine the unconscious dread people feel about becoming poverty stricken and homeless. There are essentially no social safety nets, so it is quite possible for a middle-class person to become sick, unable to work, rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt in a matter of months and thus lose their house. This is both a reasonable and an irrational fear.
In my therapeutic work in the US, I have found this underlying fear of poverty and homelessness to be endemic throughout the population. With recession and inflation, with the cost of food rising, this anxiety escalates. In the US, someone has to take the blame; Biden/Harris and all those immigrants are perfect scapegoats.
Trump speaks to what Abraham Maslow calls Deficiency or D Needs: basic survival and safety. These unmet needs create fear. Unfortunately, Harris and Democrats tend to speak to values and belonging which are Being or B Needs. These are driven by aspiration.
We know as therapists that clients ignore their own wellbeing and interests and do the most irrational things if driven by fear. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, D Needs always trump B Needs. Trump wins!