“I will participate in the game. It’s a wonderful, wonderful opera, except that it hurts. And that wonderful Irish saying, you know, “Is this a private fight, or can anybody get into it?” This is the way life is, and the hero is the one who can participate in it decently, in the way of nature, not in the way of personal rancor, revenge or anything of the kind.” Joseph Campbell. The Message of the Myth.
Joseph Campbell didn’t have to leave in this crazy making political climate. Take for instance, Trump’s latest manufactured crisis over immigration. Everyone in the Trump circle was denying that Trump behaved like a racist Frankenstein, but not really denying it. The whole episode was like Trump proving to himself he could take doublespeak to a theatrical level. And it worked. Pundits were tearing into each other about what he said and what he meant. I even heard one pundit say to a Trump supporter on Don Lemon “I will gut you like a fish.” And though I cringed, I got it. You can’t blame the man.
At which point I was feeling crazy enough to take to the comment sections. When I got to the comments on immigration articles, I wasn’t surprised to see Trump’s support reinvigorated with racism. It was a Trump rally in full force. It was the kind of organized animosity to make Trump and his supporters forget they were having their first fight. A fight that started two days before when Trump stated he wanted to do immigration “with love.” He could say he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and they would still love him. Get recorded talking about sexual assault and they would love him. But he talked about doing immigration with “love” during hate week. That went too far.
In the past I would have called people out for racist comments. Then they call me a libtard, accuse me of race baiting and so. It’s that type of house of mirrors, which reason can never find its way out of. And I don’t actually get a feeling of relief from such exchanges. I feel slimed.
And so my search for a little hope and or brevity progresses to MSNBC or CNN. I’ve come to know the hosts and guests the way I knew about baseball players when I started collecting there cards. The ability of Democratic politicians to give reasoned and appropriate arguments, in this political climate, takes a lot more steel than I have. But the cognitive dissonance I experience still remains.
Why is Trump president? Why did the entire GOP sweep 2016 when the country was doing well, and the GOP’s track record in modern history is atrocious? Why did Democrats distance themselves from Barrack Obama in 2012. Why did white women vote for Trump 52 to 43? Why is the bar for Democrats set a mile higher than for conservatives, and when Democrats meet that bar, the bar suddenly moves again? Why were conservatives able to claim corporations are people, with the support of real living and breathing people? Why are current investigations in congress openly being scuttled without people caring? Why do evangelicals support Trump? The inability to answer these questions is beyond frustrating.
It’s anxiety provoking to the point of crazy making. It’s the type of environment in which I watched a pundit to another pundit, “I’ll gut you like a fish,” and frankly no one thought that was out of line. He was expressing an emotional tipping point that a lot of us are on the verge of. Yet tipping over emotionally in the face of a conservative argument only validates their cause. It’s the final nail in the coffin of any doubt which still might exist within them.
Right now we’re driving towards something. Women and minorities are jumping in races at an unprecedented rate. Protests and runoff elections are giving cause for confidence. But I would characterize the current progressive momentum as a reaction. As such I fear the passion driving the resistance won’t last. Particularly considering how effective conservatives are in the court of public opinion. Bush won re-election in 2004 when everyone already knew the atrocity of the Iraq war.
After the 2016 election the Democratic Party revitalized its platform. But the problem isn’t the platform. The problem is were out of power, despite consistently falling on the right side of history. Democrats make sense when they talk. They sound like grownups. Yet Democrats consistently fall prey to conservative bombastic nonsense . Nonsense that seems to change based on the politics of the hour. But I’ve come to believe there is a consistency to our political opponents.
Process and content are common words in therapeutic worlds. They describe layers of human behavior, and can useful descriptors in locating where the consistency of conservatives lies. To give a conceptual image, think of everything you can see on a plant. There’s leaves, branches, flowers, and any number of things above ground. That’s the content of the plant. Now think of everything below the surface you can’t see. That’s everything that actually creates what you do see. That’s the process.
For a real life political example take Trump’s habit of name calling. He routinely referred to Hillary as “crooked” Hillary. Rarely does a person cross him without being called a name. Democrats ignore the name calling, or they hit back with their own sniping comments. Sometimes people will claim such language is beneath the dignity of the office. All these reactions focus on the content. A lion’s share of a journalist’s integrity is predicated on the ability to stick strictly to content.
The process part of name calling is about the effect it has in the minds of voters. In that sense name calling is a technique of propaganda. Name calling manipulates voters by using a negative association so they will reject a person or belief, without an examination of the evidence. The proof of its effectiveness is Trump’s ongoing use of it. One could make a case the name “Crooked Hillary” put Trump over the top as much as anything else. Lots of conservatives didn’t like Trump but they voted for him because they believed Hillary Clinton was corrupt. That’s insane.
This isn’t new. A study in 2007 at the University of Indiana found that Bill O’Reilly used name calling once every 6.8 seconds on average. http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/5535.html They also found he frequently used “glittering generalities”. Glittering generalities describes the use of a positive association to manipulate people into conviction, without an examination of the evidence. Ever hear Trump use words like tremendous in place of actual explanations?
Name calling and glittering create social comparisons, in which one group is in a one up position and one group is in a one down position. Social comparison isn’t exclusive to Republicans. We all compare ourselves to others on an individual level. When I started driving my kids to an expensive day care, I would pull my old beater into a parking lot of Lexus and Infinity SUV’s. On good days I could find another jalopy to park next to. I was aware of the comparisons, and aware of toxic nature of the thought process. Then I would remonstrate myself that I didn’t have the courage of an Uncle Buck, whom seemed to never fall victim to social comparisons.
Whereas I struggle with the notion my mind operates in this capacity, conservatives seem to embrace it. They readily adopt the norms of groups which are perceived to be one up on other groups by comparison. They just need a content oriented reason to join. It doesn’t need to be a good, true, or logical reason. Any reason will do, which is why conservative reasoning has become so changeable.
But there are very real process oriented reasons for joining one up groups. Social comparison amongst groups creates cultural hierarchies. Hierarchies are consistent. They cement in existing cultural power structures in response to a dynamic economy, and increasingly diverse society. It’s a source of stability for people predisposed to a high psychological need for consistency. And sadly it’s a source of esteem.
Social comparison is also prejudice. Validity of the process is based on a group belief. It’s not accountable to critical thought, introspection, truth, evidence, decency, humanity, or dignity. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t contain any of those, but accountability is to the boundaries of a classification.
Fox has nurtured the psychological process of comparing one population unfavorably to another for decades. One way they do it is to stage daily skits, where white conservatives do battle with an ineffectual liberal person of color. White viewers are primed to punch the liberal right thru the TV, before a white conservative pundit gives a scripted beat down. It’s a special kind of school to teach white people are better than people of color, but in a way subtle enough for their white viewers to deny the lessons exist.
Trump campaigned on bringing back factory jobs and coal mining jobs. Jobs predominately held by white people. Those jobs haven’t come back, and they’re not likely too. There are more people whom work for Arby’s than work in coal mines so impact was always going to be negligible. Conversely Trump threatened to send in the feds to Chicago and proclaimed Mexicans were rapist. From a perspective of content, these campaign slogans, promises, and rants don’t square. From a process point of view, the message is very clear. It was a reaffirmation of an already existing belief system. White people are better than people of color, specifically blue collar white people.
You can’t throw a dead cat in the GOP without hitting a cultural hierarchy. Men are better than women. Boys are better than girls. White people are better than people of color. Conservative media is better than mainstream liberal media. Free market is better than government. Industry is better than nature. Oil and gas are better than alternative energy. Campaigning for coal mining jobs scored a lot of points in this hierarchy. Christians are better than non-Christians. Opinion is better than science. Heterosexuals are better than gay or transgender. Loyalty is better than questioning. America is better than every other country. Middle class are better than the poor. Working people are better than the unemployed. The wealthy are better than everyone. Among the wealthy, old power and wealth are better than new power and wealth. Republicans are better than Democrats. Authoritarianism is better than Democracy.
The one up position of Authoritarianism sounds counter intuitive. Conservatives have been touting themselves as freedom fighters for decades. They wave guns in defense of tyrants, in the same way Clint Eastwood yelled at an empty chair. And Bush was supposedly spreading freedom and Democracy in the Middle East. But Bush’s campaign to spread Democracy only came about as a response to the disillusionment our country experienced after we found out our initial reason for going to war wasn’t true. Bush needed the country to get back on the bike, or face an open abyss of historical humiliation. It was relatively easy to simply switch to associating with another one up position in the hierarchy. America is better than other countries. Democracy is America. And most people on either side of the aisle get glittered by that one.
Recent attempts to bring the FBI under the influence of the conservative party are characteristically authoritarian. The norm now is to incite rage towards speech and journalism, unless it toes the company line. Nearly everything the GOP does is for the purpose of bringing the process of outcomes entirely under the Republican Party’s control. There is a long and lengthy list of norms of a Democracy that Republicans now oppose. Citizens United, Gerry Meandering, Merrick Garland, voter ID, protests of the anthem, and on and on….
Conservative talking points consistently lead back to social comparisons. For example the recent move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem set the world on fire with hostilities, arguments, and a lot of interesting conversation about cause and effect. The international community is still confused as to the purpose. But the motive of the move had nothing to do with circumstances on the ground, nor anything to do with the content of current debates. The move was made to shore up the administrations evangelical support. The reason why evangelicals care is to fucking convoluted to get into here, but this article gives a summary. https://www.vox.com/2017/12/12/16761540/trump-israel-jerusalem-embassy-evangelical-christians. What’s important to know is that Christians are better than non-Christians where this administration is concerned. Trump doesn’t believe in Christianity, but he does believe in cultural hierarchies.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt” Sun Tzu.
We’re still experiencing a cognitive disillusionment with the reality of a Trump presidency. As a result we follow any thought processes which lead to a premature ending of his presidency. But Trump is a symptom, not the problem. He’s an empty vessel. We need long term plans to prosecute the entire Republican Party in the court of public opinion. Keeping Trump and the Republican Party together like conjoined twins is a good place for the prosecution to start.
Bill Maurer likes to say “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Having Trump in office till 2020 with a democratically controlled House and or Senate can provide a lot of sunlight. Congress could initiate real investigations into Trump’s violations of the emoluments clause. Twist the arms of Sessions and all the others whom perjured themselves or refused to answer questions. They could subpoena financial and tax records for money laundering investigations. Investigate the NRA for laundering Russian money in the 2016 election. Expose the ongoing complicity of Facebook and Twitter with bots, astroturfing, and fake news. Expose Russian and Republican propaganda as indistinguishable. Write thorough reports for the entire world to see.
After just a year Trump is struggling to hold his personality together. Think of what he’s going to be like come 2020. Think of what his trust will be like after years of exits, leaks, and investigations. When he does self-implode conservative media will change topic and keep the ship afloat. He won’t be able to successfully self-implode. That’s a problem because Trump’s escape route is self-implosion. He can’t get out. He’s trapped in the office of the presidency.
If or when Mueller brings charges to Congress, those reasoned and steely Democratic politicians should make sure the country knows impeachment proceedings are too important for only one party to initiate. The majority and minority leaders should both be on board. We should insist Republicans take part in cleaning up the mess they created, or we’ll doom ourselves to being the party that cleans up there messes like Barack Obama had to. Conservatives won’t do it. It’ll be like Iraq war. They’ll find another one up group to associate with and compare to a one down group. Most conservative voters will follow up along without questioning, without hesitating. That’s how it works. It’s a great system for never taking responsibility.
That’s okay. The saving grace of Trump is he still doesn’t seem to grasp how to leverage the machinery of his office. And congress can take steps to limit real disaster. Close the loop holes that allow the executive branch to go to war without congressional approval and get enough bi-partisan to override Trump’s veto.
So let the world see day after day the empty vessel Trump is. Year after year of no championship teams visiting the White House. No annual White House representation at the Kennedy Center Honors. No White House Correspondent’s Dinners. No MLK day. No heartwarming family moments to reflect back to the country on Easter and Christmas. It’ll just be porn stars, cold shoulders, and the death of culture. Let the Trump White House be a mirror for Republicans to view their own emptiness. Expose Evangelicals for having sold their beliefs for power. Let Pence sink with the lead weight of Trump tied around his unexposed ankles.
Come 2020 let Republicans wrestle with whether or not they primary Trump. Then when he’s nominated hit the streets. And when Trump holds his lynch mob slash campaign rallies, dwarf them with bigger protests of people chanting and having fun right outside.
In the meantime we should be pacing the growth of our confidence. Speak directly to process. Get educated on propaganda and expose how it works. Support the political ascendancy of minoritiesand women. Smash the wheel of social comparison. Defend Democracy. Fuck impeachment. Bring on 2020. We should be the ones to end this.