Why Trump?

Why could America elect Donald Trump to be the next President when there have been a plethora of red flags being raised and waving vigorously in the air. January 6, 2021 alone should have provided enough reason for not reelecting Trump, but it hasn't. If that had been tried during the 1970s, both parties would unanimously condemn such actions and prevent those involved from serving in government again. But that was yesteryear.

There are 3 reasons that I can see why we could elect Trump as President. That does not imply that these are the only 3 reasons. What follows are the reasons that I can see.

Reason #1

As a society, our thinking is more limited today than it was decades ago. That limited thinking is not due to a lack of intelligence, it is due to how we think. We should add that our limited thinking is self-imposed. Why and how? The how is because more and more of us have passionately embraced a form of all-or-nothing thinking called black-white thinking. We see things either one way or the other. An example is when then President George Bush told the world after that 9/11 attacks that people are either with us or against. us. What Bush was telling others was that it was either his way or the highway. It isn't issues that necessarily polarize us, it is passionately embracing black/white thinking that does.

Such thinking not only causes polarization, it is also the kind of thinking that authoritarian leaders dream of in their followers. Such leaders dream of such thinking because it makes their followers more susceptible to their desires. To disagree with an authoritarian leader often results in the being labeled as 'enemies.' 

We can go to Russia to see some past examples of such leaders. Both some of the Tsars and Vlad Lenin promoted this type of thinking. While the Tsars promoted the idea that because they were Russia. That how Russians treated them illustrated how they were treating their nation is an example of such thinking. And the same goes for Vlad Lenin only his identification was with the proletariat and the Revolution in the newly formed Soviet Union. \

And so today we have Trump, who previously called the Press the 'enemy of the people,' predicting that there will be utter disaster if he is not elected. In addition, he has told me and my fellow religiously conservative Christians that we will never need to vote again should he be elected.

How have we come to engage in such self-limiting thinking? It is because of people like Rush Limbaugh, who for decades, encouraged us to see all liberals as having nothing to offer or teach us and true conservatism as being the fount of all blessings. And because, like Trump, Limbaugh knew how to speak to a frustrated conservative audience, he could promote these black/white thinking in people which has caused today's polarizations in America.  And like Reagan, he could make such conservatives feel good about themselves and their political causes.

Reason #2

And just as we have limited our thinking, we have limited our ability to be fair and objective. And we should note that just like our limited thinking, this inability to be fair and objective is self inflicted. The moment that we let our loyalty go wild, we decided that we no longer  needed or even would be able to judge our own groups and other groups using the same standards and measurements. 

What has infringed on our ability to be fair an objective? As was just mentioned, it is when we allowed our loyalty to go wild. And when our loyalty goes wild, we take a black/white approach to loyalty. In this case we believe that loyalty can only be a virtue, and never a vice, so long as we are loyal to the right groups.

The more loyal we are to a group, the more resistant we are to the criticisms of that group until finally we passionately embrace moral relativism.That occurs when right and wrong depends on who does what to whom. We see this in authoritarian led groups where either the person or ideology is seen as being relatively omniscient. In other words, borrowing a phraseology from Martin Luther King Jr., we see this moral relativity when a group believes that it has everything to teach and nothing to learn from others. And so with becoming so loyal to a group comes the elevation of the pedestal on which we put that group. 

Reason #3

Many of us have seen a decline in our affection for democracy. And what has caused that decline is the materialism that comes from our consumer society. Once we've become materialistic,  then democracy, with equality,  is no longer seen as being important.

Of course in this election, it isn't just those who are marginally opulent who are hit hard by today's economy, it is regular people too. But the same principle holds. Once our economy crosses certain thresholds, democracy with equality is no longer seen as being an important value to cherish and hold on to. We want our economy fixed and fixed now. And with our black/white thinking, we will look for simplistic explanations and solutions to our economic problems. That is why Republicans pin the blame the past spike in inflation, which is over with, solely on government spending while the Democrats blame the previous spike in inflation solely on corporate price gouging. What is missing from both narratives is the simple economic roles that supply and demand plays on prices. In lieu of recognizing that our inflation may have had multiple causes, both Republicans and Democrats oversimplified what caused our spike in inflation.

And so we look for a magic leader who can immediately fix the economic problems we have been having. And that isn't the major problem here. Just as we are looking for an immediate solution, we become more willing to do without other  important things. So what if that magic leader needs more and more power to get the job done, as long as one's own economy is fixed, then all becomes forgiven. 

And so with today's Republicans, as long as they claim that they can "fix" the economy, immigration, and our other problems, who cares if we elect a person who tried to overthrow a fair election, who wants to be a dictator for "just" the first day, who has expressed strong admiration of dictators of the world like Putin, Erdogan, and Xi Jinping, and who has constantly and shamelessly lied throughout all of his Presidential campaigns?

We should also note is that the factors mentioned in those three reasons feed personal needs that we all have. The simplistic worldview that black/white thinking produces makes us feel more in control of what is going on around us. The excessive loyal to a group that we idolize makes us feel more significant because we belong to something greater than ourselves (see Fromm's The Authoritarian Personality) 

Not only have we heard warnings from those who served him during his presidency, we also have documentation from mental health experts some of whom are from prestigious universities (for mental health concerns such as Trump's narcissism, see The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump). 

In addition to that, we have history, however recent. Like that of President George W. Bush, the end of Trump's first term ended with America in shambles. It was in shambles because of  Trump's belligerent attitude and response to the nation's medical science community; and it was in tatters because of his his response to the election. His lawyers brought no court worthy evidence in the 60 lawsuits they filed. And when they failed, there was January 6, 2021. Trump himself had told the Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by.' He advertised the event by saying that it was going to be a 'wild time.' He tried to pressure then Vice President Pence into shirking his Constitutional duties. He set up the whole conflict by claiming before the election that the only way he could lose would be by fraud. He is vowing revenge on his political opponents while claiming that the indictments and guilty verdicts made by ordinary citizens in grand juries and juries are political attacks.

If we refuse to listen to those warnings and if we ignore the recent past, we will be like Israel when, despite the prophet Samuel's warnings, they insisted on having a king (see I Samuel 8:10-22). And what prediction that Samuel gave did not come true?

Yes, Pro-Life is an important issue. But those hoping to manipulate the votes of religiously conservative Christians reduce being Pro-Life to abortion. This reduction of what is Pro-Life is another example of all-or-nothing thinking. In truth, neither the Democrats, with their legitimate concerns for the climate, environment, poverty, and social safety nets, nor the Republicans, with their legitimate concerns about abortion, are consistently pro-life.

Will we heed the warnings or will we provide yet another example of what Hegel said when he said that the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history?