This week’s first anniversary of the breach of the Capitol by Trump supporters will be another shocking display of the fragile state of our democratic system of governance. Whereas President in a speech and congressional Democrats in a vigil plan to honor the defenders of our democracy and their elected representatives, the former president and his sycophants are reported to plan a strong defense of the violence of January 6, 2021 and its perpetrators. Nothing displays the political divide in America more shockingly than those two opposing views about the assault on Congress a year ago—one based on reality and truth, the other on “alternative reality” and lies.
Political polarization is what serves authoritarian politicians best. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes in her book Strongmen: Mussolini to Present, “authoritarians hold appeal when society is polarized, or divided into two opposing ideological camps, which is why they do all they can to exacerbate strife.” This helps to explain the rise and continuing appeal of Donald Trump among many millions of Americans.
The starting point was the Tea Party movement that arose in early 2009 in response to the election of Barack Obama and sharpened the partisan and ideological divergences of political elites and the public at large. When Trump became the public face of the birther conspiracy theory that had massive support among Tea Partiers, he won over what became his core support in his run for the presidency—Tea Party supporters and evangelical Christians, many of whom sympathized with the reactionary Tea Party agenda.
During his candidacy and presidency, Trump appealed relentlessly to the emotions of his base and possible converts to his MAGA movement. It is highly revealing what the then GOP candidate Trump told Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in an interview in March 2016 about two powerful emotions he recognized,
- “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”
- “I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have.”
Thus, the titles of two Woodward books on Trump (FEAR and RAGE); the third book, co-written with Costa is titled PERIL (perhaps meant to be the result of stirring fear and rage in the MAGA movement?).
Ultimately, emotions, not rational choices are the main drivers of political and policy preferences. And fear and anger/rage are among the most potent ones.
The transcripts of Trump speeches reveal that he always stirs fear and anger of the “others,” the enemies of the American people. But he also appeals strongly to another important emotion: hope!
In his speech on January 6th last year, he fed the raw emotions of the crowd, their fear and anger, when he made statements like this,
“Our country has been under siege for a long time, far longer than this four-year period,” he told an enraged crowd on January 6th last year.
But he also delivered hopeful, triumphant messages like the following,
“We have overwhelming pride in this great country and we have it deep in our souls. Together, we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Our brightest days are before us. Our greatest achievements, still away.”
The other day, the former president released a written endorsement of Hungary’s strongman Viktor Orban, who explains as “illiberal democracy” that is in reality an autocracy. Organ and his party are in control of all institutions of the government and most of the media. Not only for Trump but for influentials in the former GOP and now Trump Party, Hungary’s non-democratic government is their future model to replace our nearly 250-year-old democracy.
Fox News is on board. Last summer, the network’s host and Trump adviser Tucker Carlson beamed his show for one week from Hungary…
And all of this is unfolding in bright daylight—not in the darkness of night.
Professor Nacos,
One tangible, and for you feasible and appropriate, competitive measure that you can undertake in the political arena to counteract the "MAGA" movement is clarifying to the public the actual or basic law-and-fact justification of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Keep in mind that from the start to this day the "MAGA" faction has critically relied upon the vitriolic disinformation that OIF was unjustified in order to discredit and marginalize traditional moderate Republicans like George Bush, John McCain (RIP), and the Cheneys. The "MAGA" faction uses the anti-OIF false narrative strategically to clear the political space in the GOP that the "MAGA" faction occupies.
If you definitively clarify OIF's justification to the public, you would do much to displace and discredit the "MAGA" faction that relies on the anti-OIF false narrative. At the same time, by upholding OIF for the public, you can also reinvigorate the paradigmatic liberal principles that essentially defined the UNSCR 660-series, Gulf War ceasefire compliance enforcement. On the international stage, anti-liberal actors led by Russia strategically utilize the anti-OIF false narrative to undermine the West at the political premise level.
To help you get started, I recommend my newest post at the OIF FAQ, "Critique of the Iraq-related portions of Miller Center's revised "George W. Bush: Foreign Affairs"" https://operationiraqifreedomfaq.blogspot.com/2022/01/critique-iraq-portions-miller-center-december-2021-revised-georgewbush-foreign-affairs.html .
Of course, the OIF FAQ site at large https://operationiraqifreedomfaq.blogspot.com/ is purpose-designed to organize the corrective law and fact content necessary for concerned pundits like you to clarify the Iraq issue to the public.
Posted by: Eric LC | January 19, 2022 at 05:27 PM