Opportunism Followed By Manipulation

 One of the skills that successful lawyers who argue in court must have is the ability to persuade people. The practice of being able to persuade people causes some to make compromises with facts and truth. But then again, lawyers are paid to win their cases.

The same can said of politicians, especially those who become incumbents. They must be able to persuade people even though politicians can also depend on votes based on the political party loyalty. In addition, a large part of persuading people is to make associations between one's positions or one experiences with positive outcomes while making negative associations with the positions or experiences of one's opponents.

Trump is a case in point here. He partially succeeded in associating increases in crime with Mexican illegal immigrants while associating an improving economy solely with his policies. And so a significant part of persuading people is to be successful at making the associations one wants to make while avoiding unwanted associations with oneself. Note here that facts and truth are not as important in successfully persuading people as being able to make desirable associations while avoiding undesirable associations.

Of course the ability to make the associations that one want to make while avoiding unwanted associations depends on what one's audience wants to believe. And this is where opportunism can be followed by manipulation. If an audience is already angry with or biased against a politician or political party, then  associating negative outcomes with what that person or group believes or practices becomes easier. The opposite happens when one wants to associate negative outcomes with a group that an audience is sympathetic with or loyal to.

For example, Trumpublicans wanted to blame the Democrats for the inflation that followed our recovery from the pandemic. That is despite the fact that as we were emerging out of the pandemic, methods of providing the supply of goods, like fuel, lagged behind spikes in demand. In addition, the global price of oil was significantly affected by Russia's invasion into the Ukraine. And of course, the maximizing profits for shareholders  effect on our economy has also played a role as high profits for some oil companies strongly suggest. But none of these factors were mentioned by Trumpublicans.

Another example can be found in the Trumpublican response to Trump's refusal to return classified documents and the subsequent raid. Already being upset with the "Deep State," Trumpublican supporters saw the FBI raid on Trump's Mara Lago estate as a violation of Trump's rights and saw no problem with him having those documents. In addition they are charging that the disparity in how the discovery Biden's not securely keeping documents with how Trump were treated as proof of hypocrisy by the media, law enforcement, and the Democratic Party. And they make that charge despite the vast disparities in the two situations. But remember that the key to being successful in making the associations one want to make often depends more on the the beliefs and sentiments of one's target audience instead of the facts and truth involved.

So our sentiments and beliefs can make us easy prey for those who are only seeking to persuade us while not caring about adequately informing us. And while both of our two major political parties sacrifice truth and facts for the ability to persuade, the Trumpublicans are excelling in caring more about merely being convincing than on helping us understand why we should believe them. And the more that what we can be convinced of depends on our sentiments and established beliefs rather than on being disciplined in seeking the facts and following the rules of logic, the more political opportunists will emerge on the scene will be able to manipulate us.

While the January 6th Insurrection failed as did the Redwave in the 2022 election, we see in the House of Representatives the same spirit of opportunism resulting in manipulation alive and kicking. Our only protection against being hijacked by political opportunists from either party is being well informed. And being well informed depends on our ability discern what is factually true from what is false. And ability to recognize what is factually true is to reduce our personal biases, both biases for and against, as much as possible.

So it is up to us to avoid being manipulated by opportunists. The more we are willing to let go of past biases and examine claims by checking facts and applying logic, the more we are immune to the efforts of opportunists. And that is very important now because the failures of the January 6th insurrection and of the Redwave in the 2022 Midterms have not dampened the spirits and efforts of the Trumpublicans. And while, at this time, the attempts to manipulate the American people are for the most part being made by Trumpublicans, the Democrats have a history of being just as manipulative. Should the Trumpublicans find disfavor by a vast majority of the Republicans, we can expect the Democrats be more manipulative than they are now.