Imperious Trumpus
Identifying the President with the Government
This post follows How to Subvert the USA Government This post delves into what Trump's vision of a Dictatorship looks like some.
Trump met with Russian Top Spies this past week. They tried to keep that hush hush. The memo doesn't say what the Propaganda says it says. But you wouldn't know it from what Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh says. These people are touting Trump's Manfulness. They are using language intended to deify the President. Ironically the people most susceptible to this kind of thinking are folks in the Born Again Christian movement. They can't seem to tell the difference between the Anti-Christ and the return of Christ. They are looking for a Boss to tell them what to do.
Sacralizing Power
Masha Gessen writes about what is happening in the New Yorker, she quotes this tweet:
Note that the tweet contains these "buzz-words":
- Claims that officials politicized the investigation
- Calls the investigative process "sacred"
- labels the process as partisan "in favor of Democrats" & "against Republicans"
- Says that this would be "unthinkable" before.
She notes the contrast between "sacred" and "politicized" in the tweet. The implication is that "politicized" is "profaned," which is the opposite of sacred. The implication is that investigation into himself is profane.
The tweet is ambiguous about what he means by this "would have been unthinkable before." Taken on one level, he seems to be implying that the FBI was neutral before Obama, but the "sacred" versus "profane" tenor of his tweet (and other tweets) reveals that that is not what he's saying. He believes that investigations should be partisan. As ordered by the boss. So he's fine with partisan investigations, as long as they are favorable to him and go after his enemies.
Expecting Partisan Behavior
Masha Gessen notes that Trump expected the FISA investigation to be partisan, before he took office...
“What makes no sense to Trump, though, is that now that he has won — now that he has been in charge for a year — he still has to deal with this investigation.”
Trump Wants the Power to Go After Enemies
To Trump, when he is in charge, the Department of Justice should go after who he says it should go after; Critics, Democrats, blacks, Brownskinned people in general, immigrants, and Muslims. It should obey his orders. He cannot understand how the FBI could be investigating Him. And he sees the presidency as a Sacred Position that should be followed unquestionably. As a Narcissist he wants people to love him or else. So he's inviting advice from Russia's chief spies, Faux news, Putin and Dictators around the world. And he's ignoring 200 years of hard lessons and traditions to create a government modeled after himself. As he noted in his speech, to applause from the GOP members of Congress.
that cabinet members should have the right to “summarily fire people from his or her agency”
To Trump, he believes, he should have the right to run the country as he sees fit. To run it in the ground if he feels like it. That he can't, he sees as "politicization." Masha doesn't come out and say it. But he sees agents investigating him as treasonous to the state. Masha notes that the independent functioning of Federal Agencies "is a norm." And to folks who identify the state with the person, these are norms they want to change. To them the Federal Government should be a family Business. The rest of us see their behavior as pure corruption. But these people literally do not understand government the way we do. To them a State that is run on principles like separation of power or no person above the law is a "deep state". Too deep for them to understand.
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism grow from this identification of the State with an individual person, family. clan, "nationalism" as tribalism. Authoritarianism is a "us versus them" way of looking at reality.
Authority can take three forms,
-
li>Authority of Persons (past or present)
- Authority of Writings (past person authority)
- Authority of Reason and Facts
For a person thinking in authoritarian terms, Authority of the Person defines authority over writings, reason or facts. People are supposed to love, to the point of worship, the leader. What he says the Bible or other authority says, is what it says. That all of these people upend what their (already somewhat dogmatic) texts tell them. Thus we have Christian Fundamentalists ignoring the fundamentals of the Gospels and raising up a person who embodies all the qualities that are the opposite of their founder (Christ-Jesus-Messiah) and is literally an anti-christ. While claiming that they are still Christian.
Durable Ideology and Authority of Facts.
If we want durable ideology the stories have to shed light on reality in some way. It can be literal, figurative, pedogogical or homilitic. But authority comes from our inner and outer reality making sense of the world. Some insights are like a bright light going off, but most of the time we are using short cuts to make decisions and work through our daily life.
Authority of Persons
The most dangerous authority is personal authority. And that is what we are seeing emerge here. This is because when we take on faith what someone tells us, it is easy to be deceived. Too many people are demagogues, charlatans, sociopaths, narcissists or even criminals. People lie to us in a variety of ways. They tell us what we want to hear, or tell us wise things yet manipulate us, sometimes. Good teachers teach people to use reason and respect facts.
And Trump is deceiving us. His followers going along with the deception either because of their "love for him" and misguided loyalty. Or because their loyalty to him is hitched to dreams of power and wealth. In either case, we are seeing pretzel logic and all the hallmarks of an authoritarian/totalitarian movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment