Trumpism didn’t rise from nowhere, and it’s not simply the result of one man’s manipulation or one party’s extremism. From an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) lens, what we’re seeing is the inevitable outcome of long-standing disconnection between people and institutions, between communities and leadership, between lived experience and official narrative. The Democratic Party, for all its claims of progress and inclusion, played a major role in creating those conditions.
For decades, the Democratic establishment has operated from a place that prioritizes stability over transformation, reputation over relationship. While painting themselves as the party of compassion, they often governed through cold, distant, and managerial modes that bypassed the real suffering of people on the ground. They offered symbolism and polished language instead of repair. They championed incremental policy gains while letting the foundation of collective life erode underneath.
Instead of addressing systemic violence as the emergency it is, they framed it as a political issue to be debated. Trauma, inequality, housing precarity, medical abuse, and racism became categories in white papers rather than calls to action. Meanwhile, they aligned with corporations, advanced neoliberal economic agendas, and helped dismantle the very public structures that once gave people a sense of shared purpose and support.
When people live in sustained states of stress–when they’re told things are getting better but feel increasingly worse–it fractures the basic trust needed to co-regulate with others and stay grounded. It doesn’t just make people angry. It dysregulates them. And when that disconnection deepens over time, people become more susceptible to movements that offer clear lines, strong emotion, and the illusion of belonging. That’s exactly the opening that Trump stepped into.
The Democratic National Committee, in its drive to control the narrative and protect its position, failed to listen, attune, and to hold complexity, contradiction, and moral pain. Instead, they relied on messaging strategies and statistical reasoning that left millions of people feeling unseen, unheld, and on their own. And over time, that kind of abandonment becomes a wound. A wound that makes even the most harmful version of connection feel better than none at all.
So MAGA didn’t rise in a vacuum. It rose in a context of widespread disillusionment, shaped by both parties but especially sharpened by the way Democrats claimed to care while consistently aligning with the forces causing harm. Their betrayal came through neglect, disconnection, and gaslighting. They kept insisting the system was working, even as people were being crushed beneath it.
From an IPNB view, what’s needed for a stable and just society is the same as what’s needed for individual well-being: attunement, coherence, repair. And that’s exactly what was missing. For too long, the Democratic Party governed without emotional integrity. Without relational accountability. And in doing so, they helped cultivate the very conditions that made Trump not only possible, but inevitable.
We must recognize that that we can’t move forward unless we reckon with the relational betrayals that led us here. Until that happens, the ground will stay fertile for the next wave of false certainty. And people, still hurting, will keep reaching for anything that feels like it might hold them, even if it harms them in the end.
This post includes content generated by ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI. The AI-generated content has been reviewed and edited for accuracy and relevance.
