Donald Trump: The Rorschach Candidate

The Rorschach test is a physiological examination which presents a series of ink blots to test subjects. The individual taking the test relays what objects they see in the nondescript blots. What an individual sees is supposed to lend insight into their psyche by revealing subconscious thoughts, desires, or perceptions.

There is an old adage about how the man who tries to be everything to everyone will end up being no one to anybody. This is generally true in politics, as those who try to be everything to everyone are traditionally viewed as wishy-washy and untrustworthy. But Donald Trump has turned conventional wisdom on its head and seems impervious to criticism.

How has he done it?

Trump has become the Rorschach candidate: nondescript, vague rhetoric and empty platitudes. He speaks in such generalities that his flip-flops can seem almost trivial. He offers grandiose promises boiled down to simple concepts offered up with a hefty portion of adjectives: strong, great, big, huge, amazing.

The vagueness and empty rhetoric that troubles many is actually appealing to a wide swath of Americans. Because Trump is a a vague ink blot of a candidate, voters are able to see whatever they want to see in him. He’s just defined enough on a few issues for voters to latch on to and the rest they simply fill in themselves.

This is precisely why he has such an ardent following. Voters are quite literally investing themselves and parts of their psyche into this man and making him into whatever they desire him to be. Once that kind of personal investment has been made, it is quite hard to break. Trump can and has come out with positions or policy suggestions that his supporters would normally not tolerate, and they swallow them whole. Just keep the speeches vague enough and everyone can get behind it. Don’t say “government healthcare,” say, “we’re going to take care of people” — there’s plenty of blank space for the voter to fill out the details however they would like.

I would say Trump is brilliant for campaigning this way, whether or not I like the man, but the truth is that he is simply building upon the Obama “Hope and Change” model. He has added his understanding of marketing and salesmanship to it, but underneath, the nuts and bolts are Obama 2.0.

Trump himself has said, “I’m capable of changing to anything I want to be.” What he really means is, he is capable of convincing voters he’s whoever they want him to be.