That he personally is likely getting a sick kick out of the visual of Harris getting a humiliating and painful spanking, no doubt. But that he felt it would resonate with the audience - which it did - takes it into the seriously disturbing and hateful territory that abuse of and violence against women and children is ok if 'Daddy' (aka white American males like him) decides so.
Agreed.
But if you’re surprised by this you’re not paying attention. Or you’re not making the connections.
This is the same constituency that believes that a convicted rapist saying “Grab em by the pussy, if you’re a star
you can do anything you want” is just harmless locker room talk. Their daddy and their brother talk like that. They’ve heard it all their lives. Hell, their husband talks like that, but only in the locker room. If anything, it’s funny that anyone would find it problematic. It proves that he’s a real man.
Think about it: how little respect do fathers and brothers have for their sisters if they use locker room talk in front of them, but wouldn’t in front of anyone they want to date or marry. And then they build a “not my little girl” boundary around their daughters (those stupid T.shirts about killing the boyfriend when the daughter starts dating) and pretend those children have not been exposed to explicit language, and certainly aren’t permitted to use such language themselves. The double standards and weird backflips they adopt and operate are absolutely reflexive and unconscious. On all sides, men and women. Women in that crowd were also cheering very loudly. And I’m sure you’ve seen the strange Trump groupies.
My surprise is not that Carlson is saying it’s laudable to beat someone who transgresses the house rules (the implication is that “this house” is America); after all, it follows the “enemy within” stuff Trump was saying a week ago. Not surprised that he’s focusing on the idea of girls and women being naughty/ bad (and the implied connection there to sexual freedom, abortion rights, contraception).
My surprise is that he’s sticking the elbow into the rib of the red blooded alpha males and bringing them in with the “eh? eh? Know what I mean? eh?” stuff. Openly publicly appealing to the mythic sexuality of the mythic alpha male and identifying Trump as the Big Daddy of them all.
You don’t have to go far to find actual tutorials online about how to pull a woman’s hair correctly during sex, how to slap her so it sounds good but doesn’t leave a mark etc. And these ones are also finance bros.
Pulling the threads together and making a braid. Identifying the different groups that support Trump and making them into one. Finding common ground and identifying it for them.
Now I’m writing this, my surprise is lessening. It’s actually a short step from “you can do anything when you’re a star” to “Daddy Trump”.
Remember Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
It’s all all all in there, like a word through a stick of rock.