Consider the lowly lemming. Although urban myth surrounding the little creature has it blindly following its leader to its death as they run over the edge of a cliff onto the rocks below or off the end of a pier into the depths of the ocean, the fact of the matter is no such behavior exists within their DNA. It’s a rumor started after some movie producer, years ago, threw hundreds of them to their deaths over a cliff while filming a sequence for some long forgotten movie. But while that attributed behavior does not dwell within reality, its comparison to the actions of people blindly following leaders of dubious character, morality or the lack of any direction on their moral compass does. Many cult leaders, from Jim Jones to Charles Manson to Marshall Applewhite and David Koresh used brain washing tactics, fear of disapproval or just plain hatred of some wrongdoing, be it real or imagined, to control their subjects. Since 2015, Donald Trump has used the same tactic to maintain control over his supporters. In fact, it’s item number one at the top of page one of his playbook. Assuming the problem isn’t all his followers actually are brain-dead and have last all capacity for independent thought, one must conclude a ‘My leader, right or wrong’ mindset runs through all these people. The examples are overwhelming. Take for instance the phrase he uttered into a ‘hot mike’ he had no idea was live. His notorious ‘Grab ’em by the pussy’ remark that circulated the globe. How, I find myself wondering, does any self-respecting woman, in this day and age, not find that remark repulsive and disturbing beyond imagination. And yet, women….of all ages and all classes… are some of his most ardent supporters. Some have even been seen at Trump rallies wearing t-shirts with the words on the front saying ‘He can grab mine anytime’ with an arrow pointing straight down. What do these women tell their daughters about how they should be treated by men? How do they rationalize this attitude to be okay. And that’s just one. He has succeeded in dividing this country in a way that hasn’t been seen in its history.
Trump’s followers no longer see Democrats as legitimate opposition. They see them as the enemy. This is not a mistake. This is the plan and it’s straight out of Trump’s playbook. It’s known as affective polarization and that phenomenon has led to increased violence and political destabilization in other nations. Just this month, FBI agents fatally shot an armed Utah man who had threatened to kill President Biden and referred to himself online as a “MAGA Trumper.” It’s not just that Democrats are wrong. It’s that they are evil, and they deserve to be punished…. even physically harmed. False claims of pedophiles within the ranks and child sex trafficking run rampant. And his supporters believe them. It is no longer about facts. It’s about teams, and which side you’re on and if you’re not on Trump’s team, you are on the side of evil. Trump’s distortions have left an indelible stain on the nation’s political system by increasing polarization and convincing a sizeable portion of the American public that its elections and justice system can no longer be trusted. The scary thing is, those pushing these lies actually believe them…. even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Kari Lake, to this day, refuses to believe she lost her election for governor. She savagely campaigned on the ‘Trump Won’ lie that the election was stolen. Trump knows they are lies. Everybody knows they are lies. Not a single court or investigation, anywhere in the country ever substantiated a single incident of voter fraud. And yet…… the more often and louder Trump has disseminated that lie, the more it has gained the appearance of truth. All the democratic institutions we’ve built up over 250 years are at risk, and if we don’t wake up and vote these people out of office we, and the rest of the world, will not recognize this country in ten years.
As bad as things had been in the past, I always believed people of good will still dominated. The civil rights and feminist movements had been about gender equality and freedom and the anti-war movement about the blind stupidity among certain parts of the political class that wound up killing 60,000 Americans, mostly young draftees and wounding another 150,000, to say nothing about a million or more Vietnamese. The leaders of all those protest movements had been optimists, trying to pull people together. Now, the echoes of those movements are mostly about hate; Hating your opponents on either side of any of the questions or on the other side of the aisle. Hating is one thing. Action is something else.
Politics used to be civil. Opponents could disagree on a particular issue, or one party would disagree with the other on what the best solution for a particular problem would best address the issue. But the Trump era brought about a whole new way to play the game. Hatred, lies, false accusations, name calling, spewing venom, threatening and violence has turned America into a third world nation where politics is run by hatred fueled rhetoric and, on January 6th, an attempt at tearing down the very fabric of the democracy. Trump supporters in a caravan of trucks surround and force a Biden branded campaign bus off a road in Texas and he calls them ‘Patriots’. Oath Keepers show up at the Capitol on January 6 wearing body armor and military grade helmets and use bear spray and attack and disable Capitol Police officers with flag poles and Trump calls them ‘Patriots’. He tells the Proud Boys hate group to ‘Stand back and Stand By’ and never once disavows their existence or acknowledges their criminal activities. And the party responsible for the chaos is looking to this same mentally deranged liar, cheater and bully to crack open the divide to the point of civil disorder all over again. There are any number of gun lovers who never in their lives would pull the trigger on another human. They are simply living in a fantasy world that was created by the physical reality of a gun and the implicit power of a bullet. But the trump era changed all that. Radical militia groups and white supremacy groups and haters of everything they don’t agree with have grown and prospered in the poison soil of his hatred. He takes no responsibility for his actions. If he can’t win, he attacks those sworn to prosecute his illegal activities. He calls them trump haters and turns the spotlight away from his criminal activities and moves on to personal attacks on anyone he regards as his unlawful tormentor. His cult believes every lie he utters and ignores his role in the worst domestic insurrection attempt since the civil war. They ignore his countless court battles and lawsuits and the total absence of any evidence of a moral compass. His supporters in Congress are even starting investigations targeting the very people assigned to prosecute the cases against him and thereby bringing their actions into suspicion. Every charge against him is ‘Politically motivated’ and a ‘Travesty of justice’. Everything he has ever done was perfectly legal. He laughs at the indictments. He has publicly stated, “One more indictment and I’ve got this election in the bag.” He honestly thinks he’s Teflon Don and none of these charges will stick to him. His supporters publicly declare ‘He has done nothing wrong’. Even his opponents within the party are nothing more than lesser carbon copies who will, if gaining power, further decimate what the founding fathers had hoped to be a democracy for the ages. The Republican Party has become the single most dangerous threat to the peace and survival of the United States of America and the sooner we wake up and acknowledge that fact, the better the chances are this nation will survive.
