Donald J. Trump: Symptom of an American Disease
Many of us know Donald Trump to be a conman, grifter, and a habitual liar. Sadly, he is much more than that. He typifies the racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobic and religious bigotry that permeates many sectors of our country. He is the spokesman for the base attributes of large segments of our population. When Trump exits the scene, Trumpism will, unfortunately, not disappear with him.
The underbelly of American society has always existed. In many eras, it has been on the sidelines. A relatively small number of kooks, some with rather considerable power (think Farther Coughlin during the depression, Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s, the John Birchers during the 60s and 70s, and Sheriff Bull Connor and his ilk during the Civil Rights Movement) traded on the peoples’ prejudices and fears. They often ran out of steam, before they could do lasting damage.
Yet, within our history we had times when the coarser angels of our nature did wield power that affected huge numbers of people and placed a stain on our nation. Some illustrations of these were Jim Crow laws in the South, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the internment of Americans with especially Japanese, and to a lesser extent Italian and German backgrounds during the Second World War, the turning back of ships with Jews fleeing Nazi death camps, and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, to name a small number of such occurrences.
Today, we often reflect back on these sordid times in our history and think, “happened then, couldn’t happen now”. Maybe we shouldn’t be so smug. Millions and millions of people have voted for Trump in two past elections and, odds are, millions will do so again this year. People should recognize that he is a want-to-be fascist dictator. For many people, this observation won’t make any difference. They will vote for him anyway. It may be difficult to come to grips with the realization that we have an American Mussolini leading one of the traditional political parties that used to be seen as the Republican Party and is now the Party of Trump.
In order to become a tinhorn dictator, one must have a strong propaganda campaign. If Trump is nothing else, he is a master at spouting propaganda. He has propagated the big lie that the last election was “rigged”, “stolen” or “fixed”, depending on what day of the week it is. It was Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazis in Germany who said “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. Unfortunately, for millions of Republicans and some others, this is exactly what has happened. They have bought this lie, hook, line and sinker, without an iota of proof!
Trump Chumps or Trumpers have become a cult. This is easily verified by a poll in 2023 that asked Republicans whom they trust of the following to tell them what are true breaks down like this:
- Trump: 71 percent
- Friends and family: 63 percent
- Conservative media figures: 56 percent
- Religious leaders: 42 percent.
Cult members display an excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader, and regard his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as Law. Cult members cannot be dealt with rationally. Facts and logical thinking do not go far with cult members.
Hard-core Trumpers are probably not reachable. As Trump said in 2016 he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and he “wouldn’t lose any voters.” The soft-core Trump people may be salvagable. Is it the task of Democrats to engage with these people?
What are Democrats to do about the threats looming on our horizon? The currents against a return to normalacy and the endearing values of our country are strong. Poll after poll show the attitudes and values of many Americans forsaking what we know to be real and true for conspirarcy theories and irrational falsehoods. We Americans who care about the future of the country must share our belief in truth, facts, critical thinking, the scientific method, and the unaienlable rights of all people. We need to VOTE in the next election, talk to our family, friends and neighbors who can see clearly the choice we have to make to get them to vote. We need to provide support, of many kinds, to Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. We need to continue to believe in making this country better in every aspect of life for all of us.
Respectively Submitted,
