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Donald Trump very clearly and purposefully often said outrageous things to get in the news cycle. He intuitively understood the toxoplasma of rage and harnessed it. Other politicians occasionally say the wrong thing and the sound bite follows them around(Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables", Gary Johnson's "What's Aleppo?"), and they're always constantly watching what they say to try to avoid that. Donald Trump put something new out there every week on purpose. A couple of his policies were a bit more extreme than other Republicans(border wall, Muslim ban), but not that much I think, especially when you look at how they were actually implemented. But what makes him different is that he purposefully said things and framed his words in a way to make himself sound outrageous. I think you can only get so upset when you try your best to make half the population outraged, and then they stay angry at you. Personally I think the left should be the bigger person and not prosecute Trump over tiny, irrelevant stuff. But I think it's dumb to pretend it's because Trump just doesn't fit the coastal elite stereotype. It's because he says things in the most inflammatory way possible, and he doesn't stop. Pre-Trump, politicians would insult and mock their opponent a couple times an election cycle. Trump would tweet out some new mean(and funny) nickname every day.
There's a Finnish saying, mostly used in political circles, that translates to "You shouldn't get provoked when being provoked", which basically is like what you are suggesting here. However, thinking about things like this, when someone is provoked all the time purposefully, it's all too natural they get provoked! It's the expected thing! One should at least not be befuddled when that happens. Trump provoked, well, everyone expect his supporters all the time, so people got provoked. Hardly inconceivable.
Exactly. I think trying to come up with strategies about how to behave intelligently even when being provoked, or trying to tell people that the provocations weren't so bad that we should break democratic norms over them, is fine. But acting all confused like "why could liberals possibly hate Trump more than other Republicans?" is just silly.
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