I’m not a professional psychologist by any means, but one would be hard pressed when watching a Trump rally not to think that you had mistakenly tuned into a Vince McMahon professional wrestling promotion.
As a child I watched these matches, admittedly not yet knowing that they were performers as opposed to true athletes. I really enjoyed the pathos and the good vs evil themes. My mother had a few friends working back stage at one match, and afterwards got me backstage to meet the wrestlers. I was shocked to find the bad guy Kangaroo Brothers and their manager hanging out smiling and talking to good guy hero Johnny Valentine (now you know how old I am!).
More than a few bad guy wrestlers had orange hair.
And then as I grew up, like most of us, I realized that it was all a put on fantasy and violence in real life was no joke. I would still occasionally attend matches as a teen, but started to wonder why there were some adults there that seemed to take it so seriously. Fast forwarding to the present, a fresh view of Trump’s brand of fascism makes a controversial statement both on the roots of American fascism and about Trump. Racism may explain much of Trump’s appeal, but certainly not all of it, as other Republicans have been playing to racism for years. Also interesting to note that the audience at wrestling matches often is still 50/50 in terms of rooting for the good guy vs bad guys, with women attending more often rooting for the good guys and men the bad. Misogyny in terms of “feminizing” bad guy male wrestlers with the addition of longish blond hair (usually dyed) was also a trait in demand during the olden days of wrestling. There is something deep in the emotional make up of many Americans that can be seen surfacing at exhibition type wrestling matches. It has morphed into a super violent and cruel medium over the past decade or two, far exceeding the level of animus in previous matches I watched as a kid. I doubt if today my mother would have taken me anywhere near one. The bad guys today may look different but remain just as popular even though they still usually present as super arrogant, sadistic, cruel, boastful, and outrageous liars. All seemingly Trump characteristics.
Republicans Practice Political Version of Wrestling
Leaders which cast a spell over us will lead us to doom.
And make no mistake about it, Trump and his Republican enablers hold a monopoly on organizing around the dark side of human emotions, and would make even McMahon jealous. In that respect, it still compares in many ways to the appeal of wrestling. Trump closely resembles the bad guy, blond hair turned orange, white wrestler. His appeal is precisely for his “Orwellian embracing of our dark side”, and for his all encompassing ability to believe his own lies. His most frequent and popular babblings coincide with the type of lies and false conspiracy theories that so many people ascribe to. So as a public figure and president of our country, it was hugely popular to have these biases and prejudices reinforced by a president.
While wrestling is not by definition a fascist business, it does appeal to emotions which can be easily directed in that direction. In a society that is still dominated in terms of its central leadership by a selected few individuals and policies which are largely determined by the interests of corporate capitalism, the authoritarian leader has appeal for those that thirst for control over one’s life with no real collective ability to accomplish it. Even though it offers an illusion of control and comfort through emotional/political support for the leader, it of course still offers no real progress or solutions for the nation’s many problems.
The Role of Emotions in Politics
Emotions may be an essential part of our humanity, but they can be easily manipulated and exploited in a still largely patriarchal society. The fascist male leader promises solutions if you blindly worship and follow him. There has been an overload of Trump’s fascistic behavior, racism, negativism, hostility, constant whining and self promotion during his presidency. Biden has taken those openings such behavior creates and ran with them. He has tried to reach out to the positive and logical side of our emotions, a sort of good guy wrestling approach. It is a sound approach, remembering that people respond, both for better and worse, to emotional factors. Emotions which at times can overpower logic. In fact logic and even science itself has come into question in today’s America, as well as who and what to believe. It is an enormous and still developing crisis.
The next Trump must not reach the White House.
Republicans have perfected the art of lying, distortion, obstruction, and deflection, but until Trump came on the scene, lacked a convincing enough leader/liar. To be honest, politics itself suffers from a similar tendency. And we have seen some of that behavior from past Democratic governments as well — just think back to the Vietnam War days. For years, polls have shown well below 50% approval ratings for both parties in Congress. While the more recent and extreme polarization of politics has tended to concentrate the worst elements in the Republican Party and the best in the Democratic Party, both parties have not historically been considered especially honest or trustworthy since the death of FDR. Control over the ultimate long term direction of the country is still to be determined. Republican elements have led us to the barely defeated fascistic January 6th coup. Centrist elements, in the past, were only willing to be marginally better than the Republicans in an economic sense, and equally pro war when it suited them. It is hoped that some harsh lessons have been learned and the Democratic Party begins to function as a real progressive party and not just be satisfied to be a little better than the Republicans.
