As tempting as it may be to dismiss Rob Ford’s supporters as “fanatics,” they are anything but.

The truth is that Ford Nation is made up of thousands and thousands of ordinary Torontonians, suburban Torontonians, who, like the mayor they so admire, see the city as little more than a place they drive through on the way somewhere else.

Like him, they don’t really think of themselves as Torontonians. That was an accident of amalgamation. They actually come from Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York.

Like Ford, they see little value in the city, prefer Tim Hortons and choose to drive everywhere. Their interest in civic issues goes no further than how much they pay in taxes, noisy neighbours and the state of the roads they depend on to get around. Like him, they want subways not because they will use them, but because they will replace the streetcars that would otherwise slow them down.

Like Ford, they view any attempt to curtail the car as an assault on their right to drive, a “war on the car,” as the man himself likes to say.

Living, as most Ford supporters do, in post-war suburbia, their experience of the city is qualitatively different than that of those who inhabit “old” Toronto. Their city encompasses a house, a street, a mall, work and home, and the car that connects them.

Like Ford, they feel little sense of civic loyalty, let alone engagement. Indeed, to them the city is the enemy, always reaching deeper into their pockets, intruding into their lives and demanding we care about the poor, the young, the old, the environment, whatever ... .

Ford supporters want none of that. They want to be left alone. They want government off their back. It has never done anything for them. Besides, most politicians are crooks.

Ford, on the other hand, is on their side. He’s honest, understands their gripes and returns their calls. Because he’s not too bright, badly turned out and poorly raised, he couldn’t even try to be anything but exactly what he is. Ford Nation likes that about him. His every outrage draws him a little closer to his supporters. Supporters see him as someone like themselves, not terribly articulate but on their side and well aware of all the wrongs going on at city hall.

If a guy — a mayor — has a few drinks or maybe smokes a little crack on his own time, what business is it of ours? Ford’s no role model, certainly no angel, just a man trying to do what he was elected to do — cut taxes and stop the gravy train. That’s all. The media, which hound Ford, mock him and sit in judgment of his every move, would have us believe there’s more. But there isn’t.

If anything, Ford Nation has made fanatics of his detractors, the “elitists,” “bike-riding pinkos” and free-spending lefties offended by Ford’s very being, not to mention his ascendency to the city’s highest office.

Ford Nation couldn’t care less. To hell with them all — the Toronto Star, socialists, smartypants downtowners, police chiefs....

Despite everything, the latest polls say Ford’s popularity has increased. It’s up from 39 to 44 percent, even higher in Scarborough and certainly enough to win re-election next year. The video be damned. In any case, it’s probably been altered. And if it was a crack pipe, how do we know the pipe had crack in it? Besides, now he’s apologized, publicly.

When everything they read or see on TV is a lie, why should this be different?

Even if Rob Ford has made fools of his supporters, he won’t be the first.

More in the Star:

Listen to a clip from Rob Ford’s appearance Sunday on Newstalk 1010

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Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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