The president has proven distressingly adept at smashing cherished symbols and principles.
And "unconventional" hardly does justice to what he has done. Really, he is an iconoclast: he has succeeded by smashing one cherished American symbol and principle after another. To name just a few: he attacked John McCain for his military heroism. In an age of tolerance, he has has been pretty openly hostile to Muslims. He has certainly set back race relations by being ambivalent, at best, about white supremacy. His signature issue is being a hardliner on illegal immigration, and I can't imagine that racism isn't part of the toxic brew of anti-immigration that he whips up among his political base.
The conventional understanding of American politics during my adult lifetime has been that landing on the wrong side of any one of those issues (save, perhaps, religious intolerance) would have been enough to snuff a candidate's campaign. And I haven't even named yet the issue that certainly, surely, without fail would bury any candidate: abusing women. We know that behavior is a campaign-killer because we've seen it kill other candidates' campaigns, not to mention many prominent careers outside of politics. This is the age of #MeToo.
But being a serial mistreater of women, not to mention possessing a track record of being an unfaithful spouse, didn't derail Trump's campaign, nor his presidency so far. Trump has erected one barrier after another to his own political success, but the Trump Express has smashed through all of them.
My hypothesis is that it is this icon-smashing characteristic of the Trump phenomenon that inspires such loathing - and fear! - of Trump on both sides of the political aisle. Disagreeing with a politician's view on tariffs is a disagreement of policy, and perhaps of principle. But life is full of disagreements, even among friends and lovers. But on matters like race, ethnic identity and POWs, not to mention respect for women - when those cherished principles are shattered to pieces, people are going to react viscerally. And I think that is what is happening in our politics these days.
Furthermore, it is not just Trump himself who generates the loathing and fear. Trump is himself a sort of symbol of iconoclasm. What he stands for are his voters, his political base. These are fellow Americans of ours who claim the same national identity as us, but who not only don't care a whit about things that we hold dear - things that we consider constitutive of the United States: not only do they not care, they seem to positively delight to see these cherished principles smashed to pieces. That leaves us feeling as though someone dropped a sandbag on the backs of our necks. It feels like a form of betrayal.
There are of course a lot of Trump supporters who are racist, misogynist, and who delight in smashing cherished principles. But I feel that a lot of them, maybe the majority, are simply willing to tolerate a deafening degree of cognitive dissonance. I'm just basing that on people I know, because in my neck of the woods I know very few people who were not Trump supporters. They are friends, family members, and fellow parishioners. They continue to be kind, considerate people who do good things. And I do not understand how they can support a man who is none of these things. I can only think that they do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that he, and the Republican party, are not what they appear. Because the alternative must be terrifying to them.
ReplyDeleteKatherine - I am glad to hear that the ones you happen to know are kind and considerate. I guess I would note that *someone*, somewhere, constitutes his base and actually likes all this stuff.
ReplyDeleteOn another thread Jean mentioned "tribalism", and I really do think that's a big factor. Kind of, our team's great, even if it sucks.
DeleteI have learned not to discuss politics with these people because I have a low tolerance for cognitive dissonance. Dissonance of any kind, really. Nothing anyone says is going to change their mind; I don't know what it would take to make them wake up.
DeleteIt's nice if you can avoid political discussion with them. They can be pushy, though. I, too, am surrounded by Trumpistas. They come in two types:
Delete1) They voted for Trump because they thought their Church wanted them to (they did not hear it from our pulpit) because of abortion, Benghazi and Pelosi. They are still with Trump because they voted for him. Cardinal O'Malley had some nasty words about the family break-up policy followed by the Trump administration, but I doubt they will hear what O'Malley said. He didn't make the local paper here.
2) People who are sure the country has been on its way to suicide since the bus lines and rest rooms were integrated, the people who sponsored the John Birch Society's "Communism on the March" movie at PTA meetings, people who still read the Mindszenty Report (The April issue discourses on Pope Francis's "misplaced conscience" on immigration and praises Italy's 5-Star Party, which is MAGA on roller skates), who were sure the Obama administration was the final nail of socialism on Amurka and who seem to have orders from their Holy Spirit to convince me that I am misguided and Trump can save us from communism (by cozying up to the world's last communist). Nothing can be done abut them.
Tom, a lot of the ones I know are in your first category. I'm sorry to say it, but the Church leadership in America owns a piece of this mess. Because even if most of them didn't say it from the pulpit, they dog-whistled that voting Democratic was teetering on mortal sin. And we had the Fortnight for Freedom, and all the Catholic Voter Guides that somebody put under everybody's windshield wipers in the church parking lot. One bishop in a neighboring diocese did say that nobody has to vote for Trump, you can vote third party or just leave it blank if it makes you feel better. Now they're a day late and a dollar short waking up to the fact that the pro-life party are ripping apart families. And finally some of the Repub leadership is waking up to that, too. If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am.
DeleteKatherine, that is really interesting. I didn't observe any of that behavior on the part of church leaders or church members around here. Maybe Chicago is different.
DeleteJim, Chicago. The old golden triangle, now dented but still influential, of Collegeville to Kansas City to Chicago. Cupich. Yes. Chicago, is different. They do things they don't do on Broadway.
DeleteThe W. Bush administration's torture policy taught us that some among us are willing to inflict severe pain on people if you give them a flag pin for their lapel and say, "Sic 'em." That was unsettling. But Trump has now unleashed legions of such fellow citizens. Take the 62-year-old permanent resident (legally here) who graduated from Van Nuys (Calif.) high school and raised a daughter here. He's out watering the lawn and drinking his coffee one morning and cars drive up, thugs leap out, cuff him and hustle him into a car. His daughter comes out and asks who they are. They give her a card. She asks if they have a warrant. They don't need no stinking warrant; this is an "administrative arrest." Grandpa, two decades ago, had an argument with his wife. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge and underwent court-ordered anger management. That charge is the basis of ICE's decision that he must be deported now. He will spend months, or maybe more, in detention prison waiting to argue his case. In other words, his 20-year-old misdemeanor (that he paid for) has turned into a months-long prison sentence followed, probably, by deportation. Because wall.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/13/california-woman-in-shock-after-ice-agents-detain-father-a-legal-resident-outside-home/
We have that kind of enforcement of that kind of law while the president bathes in the money flowing in from his various nationally publicized "interests." At the same time, the White House has people following the president around picking up the paper scraps when he tears up official documents and pasting them back together, more or less, because the law requires that those records be kept and the president can't get used to accountability. MAGA!
And that is what leads to fear and loathing.
"The W. Bush administration's torture policy taught us that some among us are willing to inflict severe pain on people if you give them a flag pin for their lapel and say, "Sic 'em." That was unsettling."
DeleteYes, I think that's a good insight. And that's the sort of thing that prompted this reflection: what happened in America that allowed the accession of Donald Trump? Because I don't think it would have been possible when I was a young adult: I don't think the country would have stood for the intolerance he promotes.
Maybe this is just a symptom of my single-issue-ism, but I also see the mainstreaming of abortion as an instance of what should be unthinkable, not only made thinkable, but promoted and defended as a good and necessary thing.
I don't think it's a good thing when we learn to accommodate the unthinkable.
FWIW: I also suppose Trump's political position has gotten somewhat stronger since the election. The economy is doing well (for now, anyway - there are some predictions that it could go south in time for the 2020 election), he's basking in the glow of faux peacemaker in the wake of the North Korea summit/non-event/pantsing, and despite everything the country seems to have sort of made its peace with him in the Oval Office. And it seems that not many people actually care very much what happens to people whose color is brown and whose first language isn't (or is) English, whether or not they're here legally.
Jim, I think it may be a generational thing. After we arrived in Florida, 30 years ago, I was the book pages editor for awhile, and I knew I could make my phone light up on Monday by running a review of a book on World War II on Sunday. I'd get calls from guys who had been where the book was about. They are dead now. But they were able to spot a four-flusher from 50 paces even when their eyesight started to go.
DeleteTheir kids don't even know what a four-flusher is, probably because they were never in the Army and never learned to play poker.
At what point did the German people realize their mistake with Hitler? I think it may have been the 60's. All in all, people are not given to critical self reflection and cling doggedly to their errors, moreso when they are revealed to BE errors. In the case of Trump, there's a critical mass of wrong people who can reassure each other they're right.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of Trumpistas, some good, some not worth the time. They seem to have a pretty wide range of reasons they support him--immigration, protecting jobs, not Hillary, fighting politically correct pansies and ball-busting feminists, abortion, religious freedom for Christians, anti-entitlements, de-liberalizing SCOTUS, lying climate changers, smaller gubmint, protecting white European heritage, making socialist Europeans pay higher protection money, speaking his mind, bad Islamisists, pro-Israel, and blah blah.
ReplyDeleteI would not discount an underlying nihilism in many Trump supporters: America is going down the tubes, so let's get this guy to at least make things entertaining.
The presidency is now run like a reality TV show by an individual who has all the hallmarks of a dry drunk.
According to the Urban Dictionary:
DeleteA dry drunk usually exibits the following traits:
* Exaggerated self-importance and pomposity
* Grandiose behavior
* A rigid, judgmental outlook
* Impatience
* Childish behavior
* Irresponsible behavior
* Irrational rationalization
* Projection
* Overreaction
Jean, thanks for that, as I had not seen that term before. Seems that shoe fits him pretty well.
DeleteYou need to hang around AA world more!
DeleteEveryone in my ACoA group has Trump tendencies; we're all tee-totallers who were raised by alcoholics who nevertheless act like drunks at times because drunk behavior of the adults in our lives was the norm.
The difference is that we surround ourselves with people who will call out our behavior. Trump has not yet got to Step 1, poor schmuck, but we continue to pray for him.
Now it appears that the Trump administration is getting some pushback from congressional members, even some Republicans, on account of the family separation and child imprisonment thing. And Sarah Huckabee Sanders comes out with a really lame defense of the policy, claiming that it's Biblically justified, because, you know, the law. Just keep talking and prevaricating. Given enough rope eventually they're going to hang themselves (and no, I don't mean that literally!)
ReplyDeleteIf was Atty Genl Jeff Sessions who came up with the biblical defense of this policy, citing Paul. Sanders apparently repeated it: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/14/politics/jeff-sessions-immigration-policy-defense-biblical/index.html
DeleteSimple: be he is and attracts a$$hole(s)!
ReplyDeleteNext question, please.