it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.
When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.
I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard. Here, there are plenty of posters who post disparagingly about people living in flyover country or indeed, outside of urban areas. Of course, there are those uber wealthy people who support Trump because he will favor policies which favor them: anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-taxes--for the wealthy. And of course, Trump appeals to the isolationists and those with internalized racism, homophobia and sexism.
Please tell me what policies have harmed/overlooked them that hasn't also harmed overlooked every middle working class American. So sorry, but that's not a reason to support trump.
Please do not misunderstand me: I am disgusted and heartbroken that anybody with a thinking brain ever entertained the idea of Trump in charge of anything. And I feel even worse given the support he gets from people he would scrape off the bottom of his shoes. Or have someone do it for him.
Policies that provide social services for immigrants and immigrant children hit lower income areas harder than wealthier areas. It is expensive to need to hire interpreters for different language speakers and at all levels of schooling. Small town/rural school districts struggle to appropriately fund their school systems already. Having an extra financial burden because of newcomers is hard to swallow. Similar strains on hospitals and clinics and other infrastructure. Increase in demand for low income housing where this is already an issue. That's just one area. I am not denying that there is some racism and xenophobia at play here but mostly, it is a loss of a way of life that people who live there have valued for generations: people knowing each other, helping each other when help is needed.
Fracking: Two different sides at least. On one hand, it can provide decent paying jobs for people hungry for decent paying jobs. OTOH, it causes a lot of pollution of water and air. No one wants to live near a fracking project but there are competing interests, long and short term. And of course, the money leaves and goes out of town. Even adjacent industries such as sand mining (common near where I live) leave deep scars on the land, fill the air with silica dust that makes it unhealthy to play outside (this is what country kids do) or work outside or hang your laundry outside. It makes it difficult to simply enjoy your home which you must keep buttoned up really tight to try to mitigate the dust.
Farm prices and supports are always a huge bone of contention. It's not all market driven but is also driven by policies and prices established by people who live far away. Property taxes increase to support increased demands on infrastructure and help drive farmers out of business. The area where I grew up used to be nothing but lovely farmland with an occasional small town. Now, it's pocked with warehouses and fulfillment centers. Staffed by large numbers of people who are mostly immigrants with dark skin and 'funny' religions and weird languages and food and customs. (I'm in favor of increased diversity. One thing that drove me crazy as a kid was how everybody all looked the same and I was certain I could walk into any home in my town and know exactly where everything was in the kitchen and which was the junk drawer because the houses were almost all alike, just as the people were. Heck, I was related to a significant portion of my corner of the county I grew up in. At the same time, the school district has seen a massive influx of money raised from taxes those warehouse owners pay. And of course the schools greatly benefit from having a more diverse student population but it does make at least some of the white folks whose families have lived there for generations feel pushed aside. My own sibling is talking about wanting to move elsewhere not because of the increased diversity (they agree with me that this is a strong benefit) but because of the increased traffic. Virtually no more mom and pop shops but endless low tier strip malls. Not even nicer stuff: just junk. More crime. No more farm stands. Everything that was charming and cozy and friendly has been wiped out. This happened decades earlier but my father's cousin owned a lovely farm with a beautiful old farmhouse on the top of a hill. Decades ago, an interstate ran right down the middle of his land, making much of it inaccessible and unsuitable for farming. Of course he was paid nicely for it but I remember how it broke him. The farm was his life and had been in his family for generations. Money doesn't compensate for everything. And I remember my father who was simultaneously a bit envious of the big amount of cash but at the same time, mourned with his cousin over the loss. The land was taken by imminent domain so my cousin had no choice in the matter except whether or not to try to continue to farm what land was left. I don't think non-farm people quite understand just how much that means to people: It's tradition, it's a way of life, it is life for ....unfortunately a smaller and smaller number of people. Imagine your grandfather or great grandfather built a lovely family home over the course of a decade or more, using timber he felled on land he cleared, carefully designing a dream home for his family, something to leave to the next generation which added to and improved the family place--and then it is simply wiped out by decisions made by someone who has never seen the place and does not care about anything other than $ to be made. I cannot even drive around that corner of the county anymore and know where I am unless I see a road sign. No more turning at this farm or that or by that red barn or where they always keep horses (or cows or pigs, depending). It just does not exist anymore and is replaced by houses that are all made of ticky tack and all look the same and strip malls and places that sell cheap stuff for not much money but sell a lot of it, most of it ending up in landfills in a couple of years.
Hospitals are closed down to increase the 'efficiency' of health care delivery to regions, often leaving women no choice but to travel hours to and from prenatal appointments and for labor/delivery. Labor and delivery is one of the first services to go when hospitals decide to get 'efficient.' School districts similarly consolidate and close down smaller buildings and bus children further. Happens even in my town(different state altogether than where I grew up). When we moved here, my kids could easily walk to elementary school, middle school and high school. Now they could still walk to the same high school but the elementary school is now apartments (they are finally putting in a playground again that had been in the school yard and served the entire neighborhood of kids and is now almost entirely a parking lot, and lots of signs that say keep out. In the process of converting the school to housing (definitely a need--can't argue about that), they ripped out tens of thousands of dollars of playground equipment paid for by the local PTA fundraisers. What is going in is not as much or as nice but it is something. A small bone to throw to the neighborhood. Kids now spend an hour a day on buses going back and forth to buildings....
By and large, one way or another, jobs and businesses are leaving small towns and rural areas as big boxes and big corporations take over. And everything looks exactly like the next town down the road.
Obviously, things change over time. It's often but not always progress but even progress has its winners and losers. A lot of people feel like they are on the losing end of the stick, losing what they value to nameless bureaucrats and CEOs who look over their family land or town and see $$ instead of lives lived.