Remote Trump psychoanalysis author Dr. Justin Frank joined liberal talk show host Thom Hartmann to trace how the appeal of former President Donald Trump evolved from a Reagan-era realization that “Hey, I didn’t know I could vote for a racist. This is great!”

On an episode of The Thom Hartmann Program this week, the host interviewed Dr. Frank, author of a series of books psychoanalyzing presidents — including Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.

Hartmann asked Frank how “pervasive” Trump’s characteristics are in the GOP, and the author expounded on the theme of “racial hatred” among Republicans:

THOM HARTMANN: I mean, is this is this a common characteristic among these wannabe authoritarians?

JUSTIN FRANK: Yes, it’s a common characteristic. There’s a lot of things written about it. If you want to go to the basic earliest stuff about it is to read, you can read your people you in, is to read Wilhelm Wright written them which he said he wrote a book called The Mass Psychology of Fascism that was written for the Internet, before television, before any of that. And he really understood how the masses can be moved and turned on and excited and then have a tidal wave of hate. And the issue is about hate, for instance. The difference is that what Trump has done is he’s unleashed and helped people derepress all of their feelings that they never felt they could express before in public. They never felt safe to do it.

THOM HARTMANN: You’re talking about things like racial hatred.

JUSTIN FRANK: Racial hatred is the first one. In fact.

THOM HARTMANN: Misogyny.

JUSTIN FRANK: When I — misogyny. When Reagan ran for president, I still remember this in 1980. At some point towards the end of the campaign, Carter made a comment that I can’t remember if he said exactly like this, but he said essentially that Reagan is a racist. And my first thought when he said that was, oh my God, Reagan’s going to win. And because we have, which we should have, secret ballots. A lot of people would say to themselves “Hey, I didn’t know I could vote for a racist. This is great!”

THOM HARTMANN: Right.

JUSTIN FRANK: And I think a lot of people who have not repressed their racism but suppressed that they’ve learned to control it and then people let it out. And it’s a very huge process. And what Trump has done is he’s led people to derepress, to stop having to keep those feelings on hold. And it’s not like everybody is evil or violent, but lots of us have feelings that, you know, as you know, Clarence Darrow said, you know, I’ve never killed anybody. But I have to admit, sometimes I enjoy reading the obituaries. I mean, it’s true and people feel that way. But what Reagan did, combined with our social media and the speed of information so we can jump to conclusions without taking time to think before jumping to conclusions is so great. I mean, it’s just easy now I know, right?

Watch above via  The Thom Hartmann Program.

The post ‘I Didn’t Know I Could Vote For A Racist, This Is Great!’ Thom Hartmann Breaks Down Trump’s Appeal With Psych Scribe Justin Frank first appeared on Mediaite.

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