Baffling Public Reactions: OJ and Trump

Watching the black community celebrate the OJ verdict, many felt, with great horror, that a significant chunk of America had gone batshit insane*. This year, not one but two TV series (a reenactment and a documentary, both wonderful) have shown the other perspective with belated explanation of factors unknown to white America at the time.

This feels like a similar moment, with a segment of the country seemingly having gone out of their minds, falling for a plainly dangerous con man.**

I wonder if a miniseries twenty year hence will show - with clarity of hindsight and an explanation of little-understood factors - why Trump's supporters weren't completely insane (OJ's patent guilt, and Trump's patent dangerousness aside).


* - I wasn't quite as alienated. As I recalled here, "I was one of the few white people at the time who knew how police treated black people in Los Angeles (I toured there in 1989 with an all-black band, and was surprised to see my normally nonchalant bandmates waiting anxiously for lights to change before entering crosswalks. It was explained to me. I gulped. Hard.)."

** - And, once again, I'm a bit less alienated. I have friends who like Trump - good people, as explained here.