Our regular commenter Bob Shepherd writes about the familiarity of the spectacle at the Trump National Convention:
The Style of the Trump Fascist Spectacle (Known in Previous Years as the Republican National Convention)
Did Albert Speer design this convention? Where was Leni Riefenstahl to film this Triumph of the Trumpian Will?
Flags and marble, shot from below to make them as imposing as possible. The First Lady delivering her address in what looked like a Russian military uniform.
Our wannabe Stalin made very clear in this spectacle who he is and what he stands for. Here, a few of the parallels between the RNC remade by Trump and other spectacles put on by dictators like Stalin:
1. Ultranationalism. Military bands playing jingoistic patriotic tunes, flags, flags, flags.
2. Pretend kindness from Great Leader. Staged events showing He Who Shines More Orange than the Sun deigning to extend mercy to ordinary persons, representative “citizens.” Fall in line, and you, too, can benefit from Great Leader’s largess!
3. Nepotism. A parade of Great Leader’s vile spawn. Dictators can’t trust anyone except family, so, of course, this. The apple doesn’t fall far.
4. Cult of personality. All Trump, all the time. Trump’s name in fireworks above the Washington Monument.
5. Baldfaced lying. Telling lies that are completely blatant because those around him don’t dare contradict him. This always gives autocrats a big thrill. President: Grass is pink. Yes, Mr. President, very pink.
6. The myth of the return to the golden age. All this make America great again bs. Right out of Hitler’s playbook–hearkening back to a glorious Aryan past that only he can restore.
7. Appropriation of national symbols to the leader.
8. Fascist imagery, architecture, and design. Lots and lots of “from below” shots to make the setting seem even more grand, more monumental, more fascist. The new stark and very white Rose Garden, Trump’s pointing to the now Whiter House during his speech and saying, “Great house. Not a house but a home. [e.g., MY HOME] I’m here, and they aren’t. And what color is it?”
9. Great Leader as the sole platform, the sole font of policy. For the first time in its history, the Republican National Convention put forward no new campaign platform. Appropriate, of course, because under Trump, the Party platform is whatever Great Leader happens to have said six seconds ago, even if it’s exactly the opposite of what he said seven seconds ago. (Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.)
10. The impassioned speech by Great Leader about the enemy within and the necessity of crushing that enemy in order to achieve a return to greatness. Biden the Socialist (LOL), the terrorists in the streets.
We’ve seen this film before.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, Bob, excellent rundown of the visual and verbal rhetoric of the Trump’s RNC spectacle.
I did not watch the Idiot’s speech, but saw some clips in news reports. The most chilling line to me was when he pointed his fat, stubby hands to the White House and said “We’re here. They’re not.” With people standing and cheering! He and they are too stupid to understand that it is the People’s House, just as “We the People…” is defined as a certain segment of the population. The idea that government represents “the winners” and its “supporters” is, to me, the most insidiously evil, fascist proclamation of the Idiot’s regime. From that fountain all the subsequent injustice, graft and criminality flows.
…is defined by them as…
The goal- enslavement to capitalists
The means- fascism
The drivers- Godless libertarians allied with the two major U.S. religions.
Shepherd described the spectacle -no mention of the religious content.
A cogent example:
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/08/lying-steve-scalise-tries-defend-his
Greg-
Art Cullen, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the Storm Lake Times (Iowa) wrote that he thinks Trump will lose in the mid country. (published in the Guardian)
Cullen thinks the “socialism and fear” GOP messaging will fall on deaf ears. Covid, economic and climate worries, etc. will lead midwesterners to vote for Biden.
I hope Cullen is correct. My gut tells me that he’s not, but my gut isn’t what it used to be. Both in girth and ability to take anything dumped into it.
Greg: I think my gut is a lot more than. Used to be.
All Democratic voters must stay well. November is important.
Biden gave a wonderful speech today. Google it if you didn’t see it.
All those scenes of upheaval and violence, he said are not happening in “Joe Biden’s America.” They are happening right now in Trump’s America. Can we stand four more years of his provocations and divisiveness?
Progressive input improves establishment Dem. messaging.
As example, Markey who worked for his seat, turned JFK’s message back on Pelosi favorite, Joe Kennedy, who thinks he’s entitled by virtue of his legacy. Markey said, “People should ask, what can your country can do for you.”
An end to divisiveness, if it improves the situation for the 99% is good. If it means a return to neoliberal and conservative parties joined at the hip, it’s not. Situations like CAP in bed with AEI and Fordham is a curse on the American people. The Bipartisan Policy Center founded by CAP’s board chair is the same curse.
Selfish Joe Kennedy vacated a house seat to run against Markey (with Pelosi’s endorsement). Auchincloss, a former Republican who predictably wants charter schools, is expected to win the seat.
Bob,
I’m agape at your deconstruction of Trump’s performance last week and horrified by your comparative analysis of the messaging behind it. The parallels you draw to the emotional appeals used by more powerful dictators are stark and undeniable.
Only missing were shouts of Heil. I guess unmasked, jump-to-your-feet cries of “12 more years” had to suffice.
Thankfully, so far as we know, Trump must run for office this year. Whenever the outcome, is known, I hope we find him lying in the greatest White House bunker ever built.
Bob, your piercing commentary deserves to be picked up by the Washington Post.
Maybe he will hide in a spider hole.
Spiders do love their hidey holes…
He’s too fat and it would take to much effort to get into.
I’m trying to picture Trump in a Spider Man suit, swinging around the tall buildings in NY on micro-filaments.
I’m having a hard time.
Maybe someone can draw a picture.
Check out Roger Cohen’s column in today’s NYT.
Greg,
I couldn’t find the Roger Cohen column you referenced??
Left column of the 2nd op-ed page.
“Only missing were shouts of Heil. ”
Well, they did play Leonard Cohen’s Heileluya.
But maybe you missed it.
Leonard Cohen was Canadian. He died a few years ago. I seriously doubt that he would have approved the GOP appropriation of his song.
An inappropriate, opprobrious appropriation if ever there was one.
I knew that SAT word (opprobrious) would come in handy eventually.
The managers of Cohen’s estate are looking into paths of recourse.
Opprobrious Appropriation
The unlawful appropriation,
Unapproved and inappropriate,
Was unworthy of approbation,
Unappealing and opprobrious
Trump will just claim he thought Cohen actually did sing Heilelujah, so would have approved.
Too bad Trump can’t get his former lawyer ( Cohen) to defend him
Cohen v Cohen
Though I suspect prolly not.
Cohen (Michael be Leonard) would undoubtedly find it to be an opprobrious proposition.
Another wonderful poem, SomeDAM!
“The RNC used the song despite being denied permission, according to Cohen’s estate.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/leonard-cohen-estate-rebukes-trumps-unauthorized-use-of-hallelujah-republican-national-convention/
I think Adolf Trumptler missed this meaning of Cohen’s most famous song
This would have been the appropriate Leonard Cohen song:
“Everybody Knows”
Exactly
Thanks, Fred.
I am listening to Biden deliver an effective speech from Pittsburgh. I am so glad Biden and Harris are out campaigning before Labor Day. Trump has been constant negative presence in the media. I do hope Biden and Harris get out to Midwest including Michigan.
Bob has perfectly summarized the Trump show that some of us saw. The spectacle was chilling to anyone who has some knowledge of the rise of Hitler and the deadly consequences of the cheering throngs he mustered.
Good afternoon Diane and everyone,
We’ve had so many conversations about Trump, his psychology, his methods, etc. But what is it that his followers see in him? What is it that they are getting from him emotionally? Reason, facts, common sense do not resonate at all with his supporters. Trump is appealing to and fulfilling something emotional and deeper within these people. He has charisma. He has a seductive energy. Why are they willing to abdicate their power and responsibility to him? What are they gaining from him? Why will they give up things that are in their own self-interest to follow him? Where do gurus, demagogues, authoritarians and dictators get their power? They can’t be “successful” without followers. We all face the temptation to abdicate our power and personal authority to some idea, institution, nation or person at some point in our lives. So these might be the more important questions.
Mamie,
You ask the right question. I have often wondered why millions of people adored Hitler and Stalin. Why strange charisma do tyrants like them have? And I’ve often thought that the bigger problem than Trump was his base. It frightens me to think that 40% or more of the American people adore him. They forgive him every trespass. Some think he is a god. I don’t get it. He will someday be gone but they won’t be.
Hello Diane,
Jung once said of WW2 that the people needed a war to give them a sense of meaning in their lives and to make them feel connected to something larger beyond their everyday lives. Trump stimulates emotions that were already there. He gives the appearance of confidence and strength. He appeals to the FEAR in people – the fear of foreigners, the fear of losing their jobs, the fear of liberals. In a sense, they can abdicate their responsibility for themselves because they can place their trust in him to have the answers and give them the certainty they need. I think this is where dictators get their power. This is why the Democrats and others are constantly frustrated that reason and science and facts don’t get through to his supporters. That’s not where his appeal lies. I’ve often wondered what Trump supporters would say if the media asked them about how he makes them FEEL instead of their political ideas. We might get some very interesting answers!
Mamie: “to make them feel connected to something larger beyond their everyday lives”: yes, this is it.
Of course, people always need such a connection. They find it in religion, in public service, in extracurricular groups of every stripe, and in their jobs– in normal times. “Normal” meaning their society provides the basics economically, with some confidence in the future. This leaves them free to pursue the larger social connections that lend meaning to their lives.
When they are afraid for their economic future, or for that of their children, they lose confidence in those connections– become susceptible to political organizations promising a brighter future– especially if the political group provides that sort of religio/ cultural ideal that they’d lost faith in, as it failed to support them when the chips were down– makes them feel they’re part of that larger movement again.
I always end up at the same place: US since 1979 or so has been a downward spiral for mid/wkg classes: mfg base supporting them disappeared; all but public-service unions are gone (& those only supported by the same mid/wkg classes which can ill afford them); basics i.e. healthcare, housing & education have spiraled beyond affordability; infrastructure for schools & transportation are in disarray.
Is it any wonder that increasing numbers of Americans vote for whatever looks different than what has failed for 40 yrs? That people are looking for a cult, or a militia, or whatever looks to liberals like “they’re voting against their own interests” when they’re just falling back on the only thing they know, which is when the chips are down nobody looks out foryou but you?
Psychology Today, 12-31-2017, “An analysis of Trump’s supporters has identified 5 key traits”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201712/analysis-trump-supporters-has-identified-5-key-traits
Just a horrible, horrible excuse for a human being. Literally incapable of caring for a single person other than himself:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-golf-coronavirus-secret-service-1052771/
Ed & Linda, #5 says it all. If the economy were thriving– if people had access to ample remunerative [i.e. well above minimum wage] jobs– the rest would not even be in play.
no one would be looking for an authoritarian leader to straighten things out, or would be worrying about social hierarchy or prejudice or what other ethnic groups they had no contact with were doing– all tribalism stuff that only comes to the fore when folks are worried about survival.
Income disparity is the product of Charles Koch and his brethren who include Bill Gates, Zuck, John Arnold, Uhlein, Walton heirs, etc.
I’ve given some thought to this question, and I think that the answer is the same for followers in any cult. These are people who have often felt small and uncertain and ordinary and ignorant and alone and afraid and powerless and hopeless. The cult leader promises greatness, absolute certainty, specialness, secret knowledge, belonging, courage (in numbers), power, and hope for deliverance to a new era when they are no longer losers playing video games in their parents’ basements or no longer left behind economically but winners in all these ways. It’s a fantasy of personal fulfillment that undoes the deep insecurity and fear and self-loathing of the neglected and abused child who seeks and father who is omnipotent, like the one who abused him or her (the internalized model of what a father is), but a benevolent one. What is Trump’s malignant pathological narcissism but an adult reaction to being made small and fearful as a child.
In short, it’s a reaction to a crisis of self worth.
It screams: “See? See? I really am of value.”
That previous person, the one before this transfiguration into my new form, was the small, fearful, larval stage me. Here I am in my crisp new uniform, carrying my weapon, magnificent and powerful (in comparison to the foil of the Enemy). And all it took was Great Leader showing me The Way.
Violence follows as night follows day from this, for any attack on the new group-derived identity is an attack on the new Powerful Personal Identity. It is an attempt to steal away this precious thing that has been gained. And so what the Great Leaders sell is fear. THEY are trying to steal this from you. Eliminate them.
And thus the contempt that Great Leaders and members of what Orwell called the Inner Party typically have for their followers, who are so easily manipulated. The Great Leaders don’t see this in themselves, of course. They believe their own bs, and that causes their eventual downfall.
I still say: if we had a viable economy, where living-wage jobs were plentiful & social mobility was a reality, none of that stuff would come into play. We wouldn’t need any of that warped-psychology s***, which all boils down to the tribalism et al reptilian-brain instincts that are triggered by threat to survival.
Remember Trump’s first and, we hope, last inauguration speech, the one written by Steve Bannon? He spoke of the forgotten Americans who would be forgotten no more, of the massive infrastructure projects that he would initiate to put blue-collar people in rural areas and run-down former industrial cities back to work in high-paying jobs. He hasn’t delivered ANY of this, but he hangs onto those people anyway. It’s bizarre.
We pay lip service to labor in this country and its nobility, especially in election season, but if one dares talk about putting money into vocational high schools for non-college-bound kids, people are shocked that we don’t have higher aspirations for every child. It’s elitist crap. We need a much more highly progressive tax system that will generate money for vocational education and job retraining and for those infrastructure programs. Otherwise, we will continue to have these forgotten (and ignorant) people who find a demagogue like Trump appealing. He’ll be gone soon enough. It’s the one who comes after him, the one who has the same fascist beliefs but is more articulate and intelligent that I’m really, really worried about. Trump is preparing the ground. . . .
In other words, Trump promised the New Deal and delivered for the rich. And he still holds onto his base because this base is so angry and ignorant and, yes, forgotten.
What do poor white people see in Trump? He, like them, seethes continually. And he positions himself as the opposition to the system that has left them behind. He lays blame elsewhere, and they buy it, even as he delivers for their masters (or, rather, the Repugnican Party does, for that’s the secret to their support for Don the Con, IQ45–with an idiot like this in the office, they can pillage to their tiny walnut-sized hearts’ content.
Bob, watch journalist/ author Jim Tankersley on CSPAN’s Wash Journal yesterday (9/2). Excerpt: “It is really a wild phenomenon the last few years. We have been doing polling with an online program called SurveyMonkey since the beginning of the Trump era. At the worst time in the economy, which is basically right now, Republicans feel better about the economy right now than the best time for Democrats well before the pandemic hit. Democrats were doing very well economically in 2017 or 2018 but they felt very pessimistic about it. Republicans who are really hurting now feel optimistic about it. I think it reflects a long-running disconnect… You could move on and say the economy is just one more thing. Do I feel people like me are being heard? Democrats do not feel empowered or like they are being heard. Republicans feel empowered and like they are being heard.”
They are being herd.
Hannah Arendt wrote about his almost 70 years ago: “Totalitarian solutions may well survive the fall of totalitarian regimes in the form of strong temptations which will come up whenever it seems impossible to alleviate political, social, or economic misery in a manner worthy of man.”
These “strong temptations” are, according to Arendt, built on a foundation of human isolation—which is distinct from loneliness and solitude. Isolation can be manipulated to create a mob, as opposed to the organic concept of “the people.” This includes use of legends, “which were needed precisely because history itself would hold man responsible for deeds he had not done and for consequences he had not foreseen.” Arendt sees similarities in tribal nationalism and the seemingly contradictory pan-movements that crossed national boundaries, both of which were born from “tremendous arrogance, inherent in its self-concentration, which dares to measure a people, its past and present, by a yardstick of exalted inner qualities and inevitable rejects it visible existence, tradition, institutions, and culture.” Each leads to a historical ignorance which can be fabricated and manipulated and are “ways of escaping…common responsibility,” which is essential to lull isolated people into thinking and believing that they are part of a larger authentic culture or movement.
A mob of isolated individuals’ group identity is built on many fictions. They are more likely to accept rule by arbitrary decree because accepting “the carefully organized ignorance of specific circumstances which only an expert can know it detail” removes them from responsibility. Moreover, “What convinces” them “are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are presumably a part” and they would rather live in “a lying world of consistency.” This is much easier than the hard work of civic education and engagement. It is harder to explain to these individuals, as Arendt says more forcefully, “We are not born equal; we become equal as members of a group on the strength of our decision to guarantee ourselves mutual rights.”
These people become “fellow-travelers…[who are] a curiously varying mixture of gullibility and cynicism” are “expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders and the central unchanging ideological fiction of the movement.” Or how the fellow-travelers “had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything or nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true” and “how its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd.” And it breeds “mutual suspicion” that “permeates all social relationships” and “provocation…becomes a method of dealing with…neighbor[s]” in “which everybody, willing or unwilling, is forced to follow.” Sounds a lot like Trumpism to me.
Perversely, mass media and the internet have, rather than increase genuine human contact and spread information, exacerbated many of the conditions that nurture totalitarian ideas. It is now easier to find—and accept as valid—information that supports misconceptions and lies. It is easier to find fellow travelers while still remaining isolated behind a keyboard and screen. “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
Bingo
What do I win?
We’re all losing. Bannon the hedgehog was right about one thing: there is a great mass, in the U.S., of left behind people awaiting the arrival of the Great Leader.
Bob Shepherd
I don’t even think it is so much” left behind people” as much as it is a sense of “White Privilege” being lost most of the time imagined. The union construction trades are and have always been in the “Labor Elite ” . 70 % of the trades voted Trump in16 in spite of being warned by the leadership.
Being an economic populist I would love to say that it has economic roots. When economic warnings are given the response is always “there are more important things” Like ?
Whew. I’ve read your post over 3 times now, & still trying to digest. [This is why tho I acknowledge Arendt as a historical genius, I’ve never made it thro one of her books…].
Squinting into the distance, I’m going to guess, as I have often speculated, that we Americans are not exceptional– just young. We often compare ourselves to the progressive social democracies of Europe & wonder why we cannot just get with the program. It’s not for nothing they went through a millennium of wars to arrive at some modicum of national identities– & then still had to endure a paroxysm of fascism to come out on the other side & begin to implement a govtl form implementing “common responsibility.” We have a long way to go.
“We have a long way to go.”
Not necessarily. Unlike the people in Europe, who had to experiment with stuff like communism to figure out the real thing, we have worked-out examples to follow. We just have to stop saying “our country and our situation are different” as an excuse for not listening. The road to provide happiness is quite universal. Our times are exceptional: we do have societies which found harmony and their recipe is available.
Joel: “a sense of “White Privilege” being lost most of the time imagined,” re: construction trade “elites”: yes – even tho unions are a paltry 10% of the electorate. After all, it45 was elected thanks to 70k well-placed [electoral-college-wise] voters in the rust belt. And likely the union it45-voters among them were mostly alumna who’d lost their jobs.
I don’t begrudge them, in fact it seems to me they represent a much larger contingent. People around the country were saying, hey, there was a time not so long ago when I could look forward to earning a living wage that could support a family [w/my wife working too]
They’re still saying that today [pre-covid; now things are far worse]. This is not just about alienated white union workers. There’s a whole ‘nother contingent out there—another generation (millennials & the next group) who are working gig jobs & putting off marriage/ families & who won’t be able to afford house-ownership until they’re in their fifties. Hopefully the younger contingent will have a more enlightened view on what’s needed to go forward (& what party to vote for).
Beautifully said, Mate!!!
Thank you, Bob Shepherd.
Ah, Bob, you’ve done it again–perfectly. Thank you sir!
Good job Bob.
Here is a little something to give a laugh
Good one. Not sure whether to laugh, cry, or have another one, just like the other one.
Oh, Joel, that’s beautiful!!!!
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this.
Why do they love him?
He’s a bad boy! He breaks all the rules and doesn’t care
He’s James Dean, Elvis, Nicholas Cage, Lenny Bruce, Wanda Sykes, Larry David, Jim McMahon, John McEnroe… and Rush Limbaugh.
Archie Bunker had no one to speak for him and the things he’d only say in his own house. Give him a president who says the same things – out loud – and gets a way with it! There’s your voter.
AND HE IS THE ANTITHESIS OF THE SMARTEST KID IN THE CLASS WHO EVERYONE HATES!
HE SCREAMS AT THE KIDS AT THE COOL-KIDS TABLE!
He is ANTI-INTELLECTUAL, ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-READING AN ACTUAL BOOK, ANTI-HONOR SOCIETY OR MEMBER OF THE BAND.
To the racists he’s a hero.
To the gun owners he’s a hero.
To the angry about anything people – they think no one listens to them – and he screams and people listen so they get a “voice.”
He’s a fear mongerer and plays right into their hands and suburban bubbles.
Fascinating. I hadn’t thought of the bad boy hero bit. Probably truth in that as well. Another: There are some people who just like an excuse to hurt someone else–the psychopaths.
Triumph of the Shill.
Perfect, Mr. Goff!
Everything Bob points out is the reason I cannot see the United States surviving as the country it is today. If Trump manages to cheat his way to steal this election as he has done for almost every business deal he has ever had, I think that before 2024, the United States will split into two or three countries about the same time the 2nd Civil War blows up in a massive firestorm across the United States. In states that voted heavily for Trump, we will see Democratic being rounded up and executed.
And once the Civil War is raging, guess who Trump will ask for help so he can hold on to power in the red states he controls and start to take back the blue states as he eliminates all the people that voted against him.
Yes, Trump will ask Putin for help and Putin is already getting his military ready to send in once Trump asks.
That means Hawaii and the west coast states will have to seek military support from China if they want to stay free of Putin’s puppet state Trumplandia once the Russian army starts arriving.
What will China do? Well, China will not want Russia to gain control of the United States so they will move fast to help the west coast states. What will happen once Chinese troops start arriving to offset Russia’s influence in the U.S. is anyone’s guess.
In states that are firmly in Democratic hands, we will see Trump’s followers that live in those states becoming the VeitCong as they try to look normal and peaceful during the workweek and sneak out at night and on the weekends to shoot Democrats in the back.
The only chance we have to avoid this scenario is to VOTE as if our lives depend on it and overwhelm the Trump vote with a huge gap between Trump’s Electoral College numbers and Biden’s, and even then Trump is still going to gamble that he’ll win and try to grab power anyway by shouting loud and repeatedly that Biden cheated.
I’ve often wondered what the country would look like if it had remained divided. Would the Confederate States of America have been part of the Axis Powers?
I have also wondered, Lloyd, whether in future something like the anti-government militia movement in the United States could catch on across the South and have such a result.
That’s a frightening prospect.
I hope no one minds my trying to put together my responses to Mamie’s question in one coherent statement:
The Creation of Trumpanzees: A Theory
I’ve given some thought to the question of the making of Trumpanzees, and I think that the answer is the same for followers in any cult. These are people who have often felt small and uncertain and ordinary and ignorant and alone and afraid and powerless and hopeless. The cult leader promises greatness, absolute certainty, specialness, secret knowledge, belonging, courage (in numbers), power, and hope for deliverance into a new era in which they are no longer losers playing video games in their parents’ basements or no longer left behind economically in some parochial backwater but winners in all the ways mentioned above. It’s a fantasy of personal fulfillment that attempts to address the deep insecurity and fear and self-loathing of the neglected and abused child who seeks a father who is omnipotent, like the one who abused him or her (the internalized model of what a father is), but benevolent toward the special ones (“Like ME!!!!” the disciple says).
What is Trump’s malignant pathological narcissism but an adult reaction to being made small and fearful as a child?
In short, Trumpism, and the following of fascists and cult leaders generally, is a reaction to a crisis of self worth. It screams: “See? See? I really am of value”:
“That previous person, the one before this transfiguration into my new form, was the small, fearful, larval stage me. Here I am in my crisp new uniform, carrying my weapon, magnificent and powerful.”
Racism is inevitably part of the fascist’s appeal (and the benightedness and ultimate destruction of nonmembers part of the cult leader’s appeal–they won’t be saved) because that personal magnificence and power that the disciple feels is heightened in comparison to the foil of The Enemy. “All it took was Great Leader showing me The Way.”
Violence follows as night follows day from this etiology of the new fascist man or woman, for any attack on the new group-derived identity is an attack on the disciple’s New Powerful Personal Identity. It is an attempt to steal away this precious thing that has been gained. And so what Great Leader sells is fear: “THEY are trying to steal this from you. Eliminate them.”
And thus the contempt that Great Leader types (and members of what Orwell called the Inner Party) typically have for their followers, who are so easily manipulated. The Great Leaders don’t see this in themselves, of course–the same motivations that their followers have. They believe their own bs, and that causes their eventual downfall.
Really, read Mary Trump’s book. She explains everything you need to know about the twisted personality of it45 in all of about 17 sentences–to the point & all the reading besides is entertaining. She was asked to be a consultant (or analyst) after/during the RNC on Rachel Maddow. Her deconstruction was fascinating. She.Explains.It.All.
I hope they continue to use her skills as an analyst during the entirety of the months leading up to the election, especially at the debates.
“1. Ultranationalism. ”
The Trump campaign refers to its fans as “patriots”. This implies that those in their camp are unpatriotic. Do you remember Göhring’s advice to the American journalist in Nuremberg who claimed that what the nazis did cannot happen in a democratic country like the US?
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.
Manipulators find it easy, as the 2nd paragraph identifies.
In the U.S., the “attack” is packaged as anti-religion. Tapping into tribalism is part of the strategy, a topic studied by both McConnell and Nick Sandmann’s lawyer.
I wanted to say, Mate, how much I loved your comment, above, about the recipe for a nation state that actually serves the interests of the people is readily available. We have but to look to a number of states in Europe. Thank you. This is an extremely important observation.
Yes,Bob, and this is the first time in the history of civilization. But certain things are there anywhere in Europe. Last year, after my open heart surgery, I drove through many countries there. I had some problems along the way, and I had to be examined, treated in four different countries I paid not a dime. You do not fill out lengthy forms about your medical history, you do not sign 4 different disclaimers anywhere. You give your little EU medical card, and that’s it. Not even copay.
Wow. That’s fascinating, Mate. I wish that every person in the U.S. could hear you talk about this!
What! Free medicine! Socialized! Our leaders have warned about this for decades!
Yeah, but look at Europe. The economies are in shambles because they have to pay for all this plus free higher ed. 🙂
Last year, the total bill for my surgery and 3 nights of Hospital stay was $200K. Yeah, the whole thing was very well done here in Memphis, but is that price tag really necessary? The fact that because of my health insurance through the university I “only” had to pay $4K out of pocket is besides the point. Last year, I got well over 100 letters about bills and I spent countless hours on the phone arguing over them.
Now at least once a year, I have to go for stress and some related tests. The bill is $12K for each visit. I am there for 2 hours.
Those who argue that free healthcare would be too expensive pretend that the $200K and $12K bills are necessary, and that’s what the government would have to pay for.
This is an amazing cartoon
That is damn good.
I had missed this. Wow.
The Time cover is part of the cartoon. It’s not a real Time cover. Maybe that’s why you missed it.
Ah, thanks, Mate. So well done.
Adolf Hairtler
All we are is hair
It’s all that’s really there
When dead and gone
Our hair lives on
And causes folks to stare
A CBS report about increased violence, which the report surprisingly distinguished from protests, cited the loss of community schools as cause.
The fabric of America has been frayed by Chester Finn, Mike Petrilli, Bill Gates, Walton heirs, John Arnold, Eli Broad, Rex Sinquefield, Charles and David Koch, and Grover Noquist.
It was a heartbreaking moment to see this ostentatious display at the White House by the RNC. If the White House can be used for political conventions, what is next for Trump. Perhaps the next Miss Universe Pageant could be held in the Rose Garden, an the Supreme Court might serve as judges.
Well said, Ms. Hentschel! At this point, I’m thinking that there is nothing so vulgar or vile that Trump would draw a line at doing it.
I had a terrible deja-vu type of unease watching the Trump Nationalist Convention last week. Now I know why! Thanks for pointing out all of the sickening parallels! The question now is what do we do if the election is canceled/stolen, which seems ever more likely?
If Trump wins but the Democrats take the Senate, we will be OK. If he wins and McConnell hangs onto a Senate majority, this will be a disaster. A very, very frightening prospect.
I just read that the chairman of the USPS governing board is leader of Mitch McConnell’s Super PAC
!!!!!!!
Robert M. Duncan (Kentucky) head of the USPS Board of Governors was a director on the board of the Christian Appalachian project for 13 years. It is the 12th largest human services charity in the U.S. So, while Duncan was helping the GOP undercut government programs for the people, he was legitimizing Christians’ “charity”.
Now, he’s turned his attention to the elimination of the USPS, a service that the people of Appalachia desperately depend on.
His party’s judges have opened the door, with the St.James Catholic school SCOTUS decision, to deny civil rights employment protection to the employees of the 12th largest human services charity in the U.S.
Why does it feel like no one cares?
The senate is a lost cause and I sure hope those with elections (ours does not) vote the fools off the hill.
And the media is so numb that he is getting a pass on things that would have made banner headlines and crippled any presidency in the past.
Headlines only cripple Democrats. Fox and talk radio spins the egregious behavior of Republicans, exonerating them.
And the media is so numb that he is getting a pass on things that would have made banner headlines and crippled any presidency in the past.
Yes. An enormous fatigue has set in.