(*Give Me Four More Years)
On the radio this morning was a local story about how small businesses are struggling to remain solvent in the midst of the economic turndown resulting from the coronavirus epidemic. On any given day now, news of this sort fills the airways and, every time I hear it, my mind almost immediately turns to the president and the role his mishandling of the coronavirus crisis is playing in bringing ruin to the lives of so many Americans.
By almost any metric, it’s become apparent that trump is a failure, yet his supporters, turning reality on its side, view his performance as evidence of his superb leadership, some even going so far as to call him the greatest president in the history of the republic. How on earth can his followers, many of them otherwise sane-seeming, intelligent people, cling to him with almost religion-like devotion?
Some describe the hold the president has over his followers as cult-like. A quick perusal of “cult-like” in online dictionaries offers “some pastors have a cult-like control over their church members,” and “former members of congregations point to the cult-like power of many independent fundamental Baptist churches and the constant pressure to never question pastors or leave the church.”
Merriam-Webster defines ‘cult’ as “great devotion to a person (or) idea,” adding that the word evolved from the Latin cultus, whose original meanings were, variously, “cultivation, training or education,” and “adoration.” By the 17th century, according to Merriam-Webster, the word had evolved to mean “worship;“ by the 18th, “non-religious admiration or devotion, such as to a person, idea or fad;” and by the 19th century, to “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.”
Merriam-Webster defines “devotion” as “the state of being ardently dedicated and loyal.”
Adoration, dedication and especially, devotion— all adjectives aptly describing traits commonly shared by ardent trump supporters—dovetail nicely with the commitment to unquestioned loyalty exhibited by his more enthusiastic followers.
People sometimes make comparisons between trump and Hitler. While some people viewed Hitler, like many now see trump, as the “devil incarnate,” Rense.com, a source dedicated to the propagation of conspiracy theory-related materials, describes Hitler as a “savior of man standing up against the enslavers of the world,” a view only the most ardent of trump’s supporters might share.
But, while Hitler, at least initially, brought prosperity and a return of national pride to the people of Germany following the degradations suffered after Germany’s defeat in the first World War, trump has benefitted more from the policies of his predecessors for the thriving economy he inherited than by any actions of his doing. Under his leadership, these economic gains were mostly furthered by an onerous tax restructuring that favored the few at the expense of the many; the gains achieved thereby have been largely undone at this point through his amateurish mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic.
A report on the psychology of Adolf Hitler, prepared by the Office of Strategic Services in the midst of WWII, predicted that, as the war turned against him, Hitler’s emotions would intensify, manifesting in more frequent outbursts, not unlike the increasingly erratic behaviors trump has been exhibiting in his appearances and public pronouncements.
Comparisons can be made between the propaganda employed by Hitler and his associates and the propaganda-like pronouncements of the president and his administration and, at this point, the Republican party itself. According to Wikipedia, Hitler’s use of propaganda was “a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power.” Without propaganda, according to the New York Times, (2019.10.16, How Hitler Pioneered ‘Fake News’) Hitler “never could have become a public figure, let alone risen to power.”
Trained by the Army as a propagandist, Hitler was assigned in 1919 to infiltrate the German Workers Party, a right-wing group. He soon gained notice, per Wikipedia, for his “oratorical flourishes” and began “using a mirror to perfect his expressions and gestures,” transforming himself into “a performer, an artist.” He later wrote in Mein Kampf that “the correct use of propaganda is a true art.”
“The key to understanding why so many Germans supported” Hitler, writes Benjamin Carter Hett, “lies in the Nazi’s rejection of a rational, factual world.” The style of propaganda employed by Hitler, as described by the philosopher Jason Stanley, “begins with a total persuasive technique, passes through the creation of a pure myth, and ends with the speaker leading his country on a chase for fake phantoms.”
Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that propaganda “must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
Based upon multiple reports that trump doesn’t read, it is unlikely he ever studied Mein Kampf, but, based on his mastery of the art of propaganda, one might reasonably conclude he didn’t need to.
During the Great Depression, Hitler and the Nazis hastened the collapse of independent newspapers in Germany with the slogan, “Lügenpresse,” which translates into English as “fake news.”
Coincidences?
Given, then, the dysphoric state envisioned by white disenfranchised voters in this country and what they perceive as inaction on the part of government to meaningfully address their issues, is it any wonder they worship so zealously at the altar of the Orange One?
Tim Konrad
2020.09.02
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