As a woman and mother of girls, I have been disturbed and horrified by Donald Trump’s responses to women, publicly. I have found him inconsistent, incoherent and at times unbelievable, in his attitude to science, economics, foreign policy... the list goes on. He is a man who is hard to like.
And yet he has done something that many people thought impossible. Sure he has money and influence, but he has done something else too. He connected with millions of people. Millions of women. Millions of older people. Millions of Hispanics. Millions of people in groups he had directly and publicly insulted. He connected so deeply with a part of their identity that they could put the rest aside.
Just stay with that for a moment: put the rest aside. And like the stone in the pond, the ripples of that, mean that that dissonance becomes division. So holding onto your charismatic leader means you then have to put aside more and more. You have to stay separate. It's a huge cost and yet human beings are prepared to pay.
