Last night Marco Rubio went on the attack against Trump. He and Cruz scored some points, but their battle with Trump is unlikely to change the minds of his supporters. Here's why:

What we are witnessing in the support for Donald Trump is the mob mentality. This is how it works: First, people are unhappy and if they're unhappy they need to find a reason for their unhappiness. Invariably (given human nature) they blame somebody else. Very often that blame is justified. The unhappy people have been given a raw deal. They have been abused. They have been taken for granted. Their misery is real and the reasons for the misery might be real.

However, something else also starts to cook in the minds and hearts of those who are unhappy. They begin to blame others in an irrational way, and instead of focussing on the particular persons or institutions that have caused their problems they start to blame whole groups of people. "It's the federal government. It's the bankers. It's the whites. It's the blacks. It's the Mexicans. It's the Muslims. It's the rich folk. It's the poor folk. It's the Protestants. It's the Catholics."

Once individuals start to blame whole groups they soon, very naturally start looking for allies. They fall in with other people who are similarly unhappy and are also falling into the trap of blaming whole groups of other people. All these individuals need at this point is for a leader to channel their irrational rage. Once the leader voices their concerns and helps them focus their rage on specific groups the fire is lit and there is little that will change their minds.

This is why the crowds who support Donald Trump don't really care if he gave money to the Democrats. They don't care that he's not conservative. They don't care that he's been married three times and that his first marriages broke down because of his serial philandering. They don't care if he lusts after his daughter. They don't care that his wife is a foreigner. They don't care that his wife is a nude model. They don't care if he bankrupted his companies, employed illegal foreign workers, ran a fraudulent university, cons people in his casinos and is friends with the Clintons. They don't care about any of that because he is channeling their rage.

This is the greatest reason why Donald Trump is dangerous.

He is dangerous because (whether he is aware of it or not) he is doing exactly what every other demagogue and dictator has done. They all learn how to channel the rage of the mob. They ride the wave.

Of course, not everyone who supports Trump is submitting to the mob mentality, but many are, and the difficulty with this dynamic is that it is a form of self righteousness, and self righteousness is always blind. The person (or mob) who cannot admit they are wrong are always wrong. My post about Trump not being able to apologize reflects the mentality of the mob who cannot be wrong. When the mob mentality is going full steam their self righteousness cannot be stopped. They will not stop until the enemy is killed. To witness the mob mentality at work in the gospel all you need to do is read the account of Jesus' trial and passion.

The Trump supporter who is not a member of the mob will be able to examine the man's policies, moral principles, character and political stance with objectivity and rationality. The ones who will not discuss these things, shrugs them off, denies that there are any problems or explains them away are the ones who (quite unknowingly) are either mob members or potential mob members.

What creates the mob in any society, therefore, is not just the problems that make people unhappy. The root cause is a deeper poison in the soul of man. It is the pride that prohibits the person from saying they are sorry. It's the pride that makes them blame someone else for what is wrong. It's the pride that refuses to admit that they are part of the problem, and even if they are not, that they are responsible for doing something about it.

This is the root problem, and it is as old as the Father of Lies himself.

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