1.
Getting a glimpse of recent Trump rallies on YouTube, I was taken aback--still taken aback, despite all the shocking aspects of the current administration. I saw vicious verbal attacks directed at a CNN reporter, whose organization--along with much of the news media with the exception of Fox News-- Trump has calumnized as an originator of so-called Fake News. (Increasingly desperate, Trump now calls the fourth estate, consisting of journalists striving for objectivity, the enemy of the people. This is a wholly unfounded meme that has entered the brains of die-hard Trump supporters, driving some of them, at least temporarily, into a state of frenzy that only a fascist could love. This transformation is quite dangerous; there have been increasing threats toward those that report "fake news" that is, those who are doing their best to be objective.
It is truly disheartening to look into all those white faces with expressions of delight as Trump spouted lies, hate and inanities--It reminded me of a horrible updating of a Nuremberg rally, with a man whom the conservative columnist George Will referred to as a "broken wreck of a man" doing the rallying. Yes, intellectual conservatives are increasingly cognizant of the danger facing our nation by having this "oleaginous" (George Will again) man as our president. An example: Steve Schmidt, a long-time Republican strategist, has recently left the party in disgust. Non-bought off Republican politicians are beginning to see the light amid advancing darkness as well.
No so with Trump's supporters, who are apparently still depressingly loyal to the Red-Tied Snide Piper of Queens. (May his tribe decrease!)
2.
I recently saw a theoretical electoral map of the 2020 presidential election, It looked very familiar: there were coastal strips of blue with just about everything else red in between. The division is so striking that there appears to be two separate countries; the rural, predominantly white areas, contrasting with urban areas, more diverse, more educated, and prominent on each coast. The extreme partisan division in the country might be somewhat more apparent than real, since the states in which Republicans are governors--the majority of the states, especially in the South and Midwest, the counties are gerrymandered in favor of the Republicans. Proof that this is so is the fact that the majority of voters vote for the Democratic Party even in red states, albeit by a lower margin than is the case with the coastal, blue states.
Two very different mindsets, two different countries. The Democats might be called the WE country (West and East), while the Republican country might be called SM, (South and Midwest). But I'm not about to give up the idea of American unity. After all, many of the counties which went for Trump in 2016 went for Obama in 2012. There is hope.
I would like to quote a statement here by the 19th century British political scientist, John Stewart Mill: "It is hardly possible to overrate the value, in the present low state of human improvement, of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar."
From an American point of view, Mill's view is consistent with the practice of one of the greatest aspects of American democracy as defined by the First Amendment. The First Amendment encourages the free debate of issues without coercion in the hope that a consensus can be agreed upon, to the benefit of all. The Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court, which allows unlimited financial involvement in politics by corporations and wealthy donors, ("Corporations are people too"), is a blow to the First Amendment, but this freedom is still very much with us.
In the spirit of John Stewart Mill, I am trying to understand Trump supporters, but I have hit a wall--not Trump's notorious wall, but a more noteworthy and figurative one. In a recent article about Mill in The Economist, the anonymous author states that Mill, in his first book, "argues that humanity's greatest weakness is its tendency to delude itself as to the veracity of unexamined convictions."
Trump's supporters, in my opinion, are passionately devoted to their unexamined convictions. They snap up and swallow Republican memes with the ferocity of a crocodile attacking a wildebeest. As I stated in a previous article, they tend to vote with their mid-brains, the more primitive, reptilian brain, rather than with their frontal lobes, the site of reason.
This judgement does not apply to all Trump supporters. I am referring here to those who are voting against their own interests, not the rich and powerful who are doing their damned best to remain rich and powerful.
There are some in the former category who are not full of passionate intensity, but have convinced themselves they are being reasonable. For instance, I heard a young man on YouTube calmly state that he is for Trump because Obamacare is bad for the middle class. He is, of course, wrong, the victim of Republican memes. Universal health care is not good for the middle class? The abolishment of denying health care because of a pre-existing condition does not benefit the middle class? Etc.
I think I understood what the young man was really talking about. He knew that President Obama expanded Medicaid to the poor. I think the young man, who was white, believes that the expansion of Medicaid was an attempt to help the poor-=read Blacks--at the expense of the middle class--read, whites. Again, nothing could be further from the truth, but the idea that Democrats are primarily dedicated to helping Those People, at the expense of the white working class, is nothing short of calumny. It is an example, in my opinion, of a very effective Republican meme that has its basis in racism.
How can so many members of the white working class continue to support a man who is doing everything in his power to do them in? Replacing frogs with crocodiles in not exactly "draining the swamp."
Trying to understand Trump supporters has only strengthened my opposition to the president. The white working class has reasons to be angry, very angry, but they are angry for the wrong reasons. The powerful of this country have always found it expedient to divide and rule, especially racially, a miserable history that goes back to the aftermath of the Bacon Rebellion of 1676, when poor whites were encouraged by legislation to feel superior to poor blacks, their natural allies, The policy of Divide and Rule--inciting Muslims against Hindus--worked for the British; perhaps no other example of divide and rule has been so effective as the American culture of racial division, still so prominent in the United States.
There is no equivalency between Trump supporters and Trump opponents; it is not a matter of left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal etc--opposing Trump and his supporters is a fight for the very soul of this country.
3.
I will finish this article with a brief summary of the LeBron James-Trump controversy; there is more to this conflict than has been generaily reported. Yes, racism is a prominent factor, but it is actually even worse than that, as we shall see.
When it was determined that the NBA championship would be between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, the Cavaliers guard, said if his team won, he would not visit the White House, due to his opposition to the president. (A White House invitation to the winning team has been the custom for years). President Trump, whose skin is thinner than papyrus, reacted in his usual childish way, tweeting that Curry was not invited. LeBron James, the famous forward of the Golden State Warriors, tweeted the following message to Trump in September of 2017: "U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor till you showed up."
Under normal circumstances, it would be considered quite disrespectful to address the president of the United Sates with "U bum," but these are not normal times. (If you need the latest egregious example of Trump's abuses, the way refugees have been treated at the border will certainly do. Regarding anti-Black racism, a good example is Trump's declaration that there are "good people" on both sides, in reference to the white racist march on Charlottesville, a shameful, shameless opinion which he asserted after the Nazi-like torchlight parade last year. Can you blame Mr. James for using a strong word to describe a truly awful president, increasingly engulfed by scandal?)
Recently, Don Lemon, the black CNN anchor sat down for an interview with LeBron James. Mr. Lemon asked what he would like to say to Trump if he were sitting beside him. Mr. James said he would refuse to be in the same room with such a disgraceful president, and added with a smile, that he would certainly be pleased to be in the same room with President Obama.
An aside: During that interview, Mr. James stated that the president is trying to divide through sports, (that is, by his racist denunciations of--mostly black--NFL protesters, etc.) Mr. James said he first came in contact with whites due to his involvement with sports, and became friends with many of them. He had apparently rarely come into contact with whites prior to that. This I found poignant, tragically poignant, It reminded me of what my wife once told me. She was born and raised in India; she informed me that she had almost no contact with whites prior to coming to the United States. This is understandable, since India is more than 99% non-white. That Mr. James didn't come into contact with whites before his sports career while living in a country where the majority is white--Blacks constitute only around 13% of the population--brought home to me, once again, the horrible effectiveness of racial segregation).
In response to the interview, Trump tweeted the following; "Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike!"
(Another aisde, it's LeBron, not Lebron, Mr. President! Haven't you ever googled anything?)
Has the country been so inured to Trump's pathology to gloss over this tweet? Apparently. The tweet would come across as childish even if it had been written by a turbulent schoolboy. This coming from the President of the United States??!!
Is it racist, yes, but it is more than that. As I've asserted before and assert again: Trump is mentally ill. He suffers from malignant narcissism. He has no empathy. Everything, according to him, is about him. He can abide no criticism. If you read between the lines, you can sense the neediness and anxiety under which Trump suffers, defects that all malignant narcissists share: his pathology stems from insecurity--which is the reason why Trump is a slave to praise. He must know, deep down there, that he is far less intelligent than he claims to be. His illness, however, causes him to double-down against his opponents: "If you oppose me, you must be stupid!"
If he would admit to himself that even if one card, among the house of cards that is Trump, is a Joker, the whole fragile colossus would collapse. This is the source of his fear. This is the source of his increasing desperation. This is why he is increasingly becoming unhinged.
A malignant narcissist might survive--with difficulty--among sycophants, but as the President of the United Sates, a position that encounters opposition as part of the territory? Under such circumstances, a malignant narcissist will become increasingly unhinged and will probably not survive. Will we?
Once again I assert that while racism was certainly involved, Trump's tweet regarding Don Lemon was more than that: it is another example of a pathetic attempt at self-defense by a mentally ill man.
If he weren't such a danger to the country and to the world, I would pity him. I recall his response to someone who asked that, as a Christian (!), had he ever felt the need to ask God for forgiveness? "No," was the instant response; he didn't need forgiveness; he hadn't committed any sins. Pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ on the outside, while suffering from the delusion that he is, on the inside--Who? Jesus Christ! We're in trouble.
