If the Democratic Convention was all about bringing America together again, the themes of the GOP Trump Party* are grievance and celebration of the Great Leader. Democrats are reaching out; Trumpers are circling the wagons and arming up.
* There is no Republican Party anymore. It is all Trump, all the time. It is a cult of personality with no principles other than Trump as the great leader.
The Trump show is all about playing to Trump’s base: confirming and reinforcing their fears, and presenting Trump as the one person who can protect them and punish their enemies. Trump fits the profile of an authoritarian leader to a “T” — so what about his followers? Sara Robinson’s writings from 2006 spell it out:
...The three core traits that define them are:
1. Submission to authority. "These people accept almost without question the statements and actions of established authorities, and comply with such instructions without further ado" writes [John] Dean. "[They] are intolerant of criticism of their authorities, because they believe the authority is unassailably correct. Rather than feeling vulnerable in the presence of powerful authorities, they feel safer. For example, they are not troubled by government surveillance of citizens because they think only wrongdoers need to be concerned by such intrusions. Still, their submission to authority is not blind or automatic; [they] believe there are proper and improper authorities…and their decision to submit is shaped by whether a particular authority is compatible with their views."
2. Aggressive support of authority. Right-wing followers do not hesitate to inflict physical, psychological, financial, social, or other forms of harm on those they see as threatening the legitimacy of their belief system and their chosen authority figure. This includes anyone they see as being too different from their norm (like gays or racial minorities). It's also what drives their extremely punitive attitude toward discipline and justice. Notes Dean: "Authoritarian aggression is fueled by fear and encouraged by a remarkable self-righteousness, which frees aggressive impulses."
3. Conventionality. Right-wing authoritarian followers prefer to see the world in stark black-and-white. They conform closely with the rules defined for them by their authorities, and do not stray far from their own communities. This extreme, unquestioning conformity makes them insular, fearful, hostile to new information, uncritical of received wisdom, and able to accept vast contradictions without perceiving the inherent hypocrisy.
These are the people the Trump show is aimed at. The media is still largely treating the Republican Party Trump Party as a legitimate political party and carrying the show as though it’s a normal political event. NBC is running ads for their coverage that make the convention sound like an entertainment special, complete with uplifting music. They ought to be billed to the Trump campaign as ads. Sure — the Trump Party shit-show is just another normal day in American politics.
It’s not. Everyone has some tendencies to authoritarian follower behavior described above in some circumstances, but Trump, the Trump Party, and right-wing media are doing their best to amplify it in those susceptible to the kind of appeal they are making:
US versus Them.
Trump has broken every norm; he’s using the U.S. government as his own personal campaign tool. He is playing directly to his base to reinforce his grip on them — and vice versa. The apocalyptic language is priming his base for violence if Trump doesn’t get re-elected. They are being conditioned to believe it will be the end of their world. It’s not a coincidence that CT enthusiasts like QAnon or violent nihilists like the Boogaloo Bois are flourishing in Trumpworld.
Here’s a list of traits that make the Trump Party primed for this kind of appeal:
Dean lists other traits of right-wing authoritarian followers, most of which flow directly from the three core traits above:
- Both men and women
- Highly religious
- Moderate to little education
- Trust untrustworthy authorities
- Prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions other than their own)
- Mean-spirited
- Narrow-minded
- Intolerant
- Bullying
- Zealous
- Dogmatic
- Uncritical toward chosen authority
- Hypocritical
- Inconsistent and contradictory
- Prone to panic easily
- Highly self-righteous
- Moralistic
- Strict disciplinarian
- Severely punitive
- Demands loyalty and returns it
- Little self-awareness
- Usually politically conservative/Republican
David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Heaven’s Gate, the KKK — there’s no need to refer to Hitler when America has had plenty of home-grown authoritarian leaders and movements. Those who have unquestioned faith in the peaceful transfer of power in Exceptional America conveniently forget the Civil War. We are not immune to the worst elements of human nature.
We have a pandemic that is on track to kill over 250,000 Americans by Election Day. We have millions of people out of work — and record levels of inequality as the rich get even richer. We have racial tensions that are beginning to recall the 1960s — and this time around we have videos showing how the police are fanning the flames. We have natural disasters coming ever more frequently as climate change ramps up: fires in California, Hurricane Laura coming ashore.
The state of the union is increasingly stressed — and we have a president who thrives on creating chaos. We’ve had right-wing media preparing the ground for decades; this is the end game of the Reagan Revolution.
Sometimes it seems like America’s super-power is denial. The warning lights are flashing red; the sirens are whooping. If you aren’t worried about where this could go, you haven't been paying attention — or you work for the mainstream media.
