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.

How Did The Tribal Tug Of War For Truth Start?

It is well recognized that our nation is deeply divided. Some fear that the divisions are so deep that there could be some drastic consequences.

At the root of the division is tribalism. Tribalism emerges as group loyalty that crosses a certain threshold. Though it is difficult to precisely define that threshold, the effects are unmistakeable. For example, the more loyal one is to their chosen group, the more difficult it becomes for that person to objectively consider any wrongdoings by their group. In fact, one can be so loyal to one's group that they passionately embrace a moral relativity that says that what is right and wrong depends on who does what to whom. We saw that in the Cold War when Americans blindly supported the Vietnam War and other US policies that participated, at different levels of involvement, in coups that overthrew left leaning democratically elected leaders and replaced them with tyrannical dictators. Those who claim to be proud, patriotic Americans could see nothing wrong with those actions. 

We see a similar tribalism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those who are tribally loyal to Israel aggressively assert that the Occupation, the confiscation of land, and whatever other actions are taken by the Israeli government against the Palestinians are morally correct. While those with a tribal loyalty to the Palestinians have already rationalized the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

We have a somewhat new tribalism that is threatening to tear America apart. That tribalism revolves around Trump and Trumpism. And though loyalty to Trump himself makes up a large part of Trumpism, it also applies to the sources of misinformation and political candidates who follow in Trump's footsteps with or without his approval.

It's not hard to see this Trumpism up close and personal. It was evident on January 6, 2021, it was and still is evident during the investigations in January 6 and in the Trumpublican responses to both Biden's forgiving of the college debt as well in FBI search for federal documents at Mar-A-Lago. Not only are the responses by Trumpublicans strong and condemnatory of those events while defending Trump, that reaction is being used to further the divide we have in this nation.

We should note that part of tribalism involves authoritarianism revolving around a given group. Realize that many modern studies on authoritarianism, authoritarian personality types to be specific, were actually started by the Frankfurt School, which has ties to Marxism or Neo-Marxism. Their study into authoritarian personality types was the result of looking at why Germans remained so loyal to Hitler even during the worst days of his regime. Below is a partial list of characteristics of an authoritarian personality type. Review those characteristic to see which of those signs are ones we are witnessing today. Just replace the word 'conventional' in the terms 'conventional beliefs' or 'conventional thinking' with the word ' the group' (click here for the source, click there for a longer list of characteristics):

• 'Blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong'
• 'Belief in aggression toward those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking, or who are different'
• 'A need for strong leadership which displays uncompromising power'
• 'A belief in simple answers and polemics - i.e. The media controls us all or The source of all our problems is the loss of morals these days.'
• 'Resistance to creative, dangerous ideas. A black and white worldview'
• 'A tendency to project one's own feelings of inadequacy, rage and fear onto a scapegoated group'
• 'A preoccupation with violence and sex'

We should note what Erich Fromm attributed authoritarian personality types to. He attributed them to being alone and then fear. Fromm identified two subtypes of the authoritarian personality: active authoritarian and the passive authoritarian. The active authoritarian gains significance by having followers whom they can dominate, and the passive authoritarian gains significance by belonging something larger than themself, by following the lead of their preferred active authoritarian (click here for source).

So if that is what you are seeing in the Trumpublicans, then we can say that there is some degree of truth in calling them authoritarians. BTW, we need to realize that Trumpublicans do not have a monopoly on authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is the other pandemic that has crossed all ideological sides. It is that for some, the signs of authoritarianism seem to be most pronounced in the Trumpublicans.

But what started all of this? It all goes back to conservative talk radio, especially with people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. How did they start today's authoritarianism? If you remember, one of the traits of the authoritarian personality listed above is that of having a black-white worldview. And that is exactly what those three fostered, as well as those who followed in their footsteps, groomed  their listeners into having. Their constant message that conservatives were this country's true patriots and backbone. Meanwhile, they described liberalism as a mental illness, 

While conservative talk radio show hosts deserve a significant amount of the blame for manipulating vulnerable audiences into embracing authoritarian thinking, they are not the only ones to blame. Religiously conservative Christianity created the foundation for the authoritarian culture that has always existed in America. This makes religiously conservative Christians more susceptible to catching the authoritarian personality virus--note that I am saying that as a religiously conservative Christian. The Scriptures lay out how we are under many authority figures. And perhaps we have been put under so many authority figures that we have forgotten how to turn off the authority switch for those settings that involve egalitarianism.

And again, authoritarianism knows no ideological boundaries. Because I lean toward Marxism and have attended certain events like May Day commemorations, I've see authoritarianism in leftists. And because I have friends who are registered Democrats, I've seen authoritarianism in them. 

So we see authoritarianism in tribalism and thus the way to challenge tribalism is not with more tribalism from the group that knows how to do it right, but with approaches that do not include authoritarian traits. In particular, we need to challenge black-white worldviews by showing how such worldviews don't explain the details. Black-white worldviews don't explain the wrongdoings of those in their own group nor the contributions that have been made by those from rival groups. And finally, we need to recognize and try to relieve the fear that has driven so many into following authoritarian leaders. And berating others is not the way to respond to the fear that is in so many Trumpublicans and others today.

Today, Rage Is All The Rage

 While anger can be a negative emotion we experience because of a perceived wrong (click here for source), rage can be described as an uncontrollable anger experienced for the same reason (click here for source). But because of what that uncontrollable anger can appear to offer, rage can act as a siren call to the aggrieved. Rage can seem that way because it promises power, and thus salvation, to the aggrieved who embrace it. However, as one begins to embrace rage, one either approaches the rocks of being under another person's tyranny and thus be vulnerable to being exploited or the hazards of becoming tyrants ourselves.

At this point it is important to compare and contrast the kind of wrongs that so anger us that we feel tempted to sail toward the siren call of rage. Though the rages expressed will have its similarities, there will be a significant difference in the reasons for rage. To see that difference, please compare the official video of Rage performed by Pussy Riot (click here for the video and click there for lyrics translated into English lyrics, both sites are important to access) with the response to the raid on Trump's Mar-a-lago residence (for a range of enraged responses, click here and there). The first video  is in response to people having been abused by a harsh, tyrannical ruler. The latter video and webpage show an enraged response to a perceived wrong where the perception is called by a tribalism enabled sensitivity. 

In the first video, we saw a heavy dosage of rage. And again, the rage felt by many in Russia because of Putin's authoritarian rule is a very understandable reaction to the circumstances. In that video, we get mindless chanting of a mantra along with delusions of grandeur by the main character. 

In the second video, we see a mild case of rage. But it was enough rage to see that being enraged prohibited one from being rational. In this case, Kirk told his people to conduct the same kind of searches or raids on groups like BLM which the FBI performed on Trump. In so doing, he told his people that there would be significant differences between their searches from the search that the FBI conducted. If Kirk was rational, he would note do that. He would not do that because while Kirk wanted his people to target groups for searches simply because Kirk believed those groups were guilty, the FBI had to first present sufficient evidence for a judge to issue a search warrant. That difference alone is glaring and thus it shows how rage is adverse to being rational.

Because Trump is a leader in Kirk's and Metaxas's political-ideological tribe, rage is their response to something that was legal but challenged Trump's dignity and reputation. One of the traits of tribalism is that what is right and wrong depends on who does what to whom. And so the constant investigating of Hillary, for whom I would never vote, was kosher to the Trumpublicans while even suspecting Trump of wrongdoing becomes a severe threat to his followers.

The problem with rage is that even when rage is understandable because of the amount of suffering endured from injustices, in the end, it does not serve those who are victims. That is because rage makes us vulnerable to believing our own delusions of grandeur that our rage has now empowered us to defeat our sworn enemy. Unfortunately, all too often that power causes us to become like our enemies. Another possible outcome is that rage can be that it causes us to fall under the spell of authoritarians who are opportunists. In either case, rationality and what we prefer to think of as being humane fly out the window and are replaced by authoritarianism. And here we should note that there are two kinds of authoritarian personalities. Being vulnerable to delusions of grandeur leads one to embrace an active authoritarian role that causes one to exploit and abuse others while being vulnerable to the control of others indicates that one has embraced a passive authoritarian role (click here for an explanation of those two authoritarian personality types). The lack of self-control, along with the absence of rationality, are why rage makes us vulnerable to either form of authoritarianism.

Whether one's rage is understandable or was due to misperception because of one heightened sensitivity, there is no good end to rage. That doesn't mean that there should be no anger to the injustices suffered or that we should deny being enraged when we are. It does mean that acting out of rage does not end well. Historically speaking, those who, out of rage, lead rebellions continue the authoritarianism of the tyrants they rebelled against. Maybe those rebellious leaders showed their authoritarianism in different ways, but they still continued the authoritarian rule of those they rebelled against. 

As for the followers who allow their leaders to inspire them to be enraged, they become complicit in the injustices and atrocities committed by their leaders. And so here we need to acknowledge that specific people are not our enemies as much as it is the authoritarianism they employ. Authoritarianism is our real enemy regardless of who employs it.

Are The Trumpublicans Exhibiting Leninism?

The Trump loss has come with a, what was for some very foreseeable, purging of the current Republican Party. This purging started with the actions taken by state Republican parties against those Republicans who voted for either the impeachment or conviction of Donald Trump. The latest ouster of Liz Cheney from her party determined positions of power because of her opposition to Trump could be considered to be the epitome of retaliations in the name of Trump. The issue here is whether the Republican Party will be known by a personal loyalty its members have to Trump or by a set of principles which they believe should guid our nation's leaders when making decisions.

Though the combination of Trump's hold on the Republican Party and his authoritarianism should have made the current state of the Party not just foreseen by some, but expected by all, it has some parallels in some of what should be surprising historical characters. Because of my own Marxist leanings and studies, one of the surprising parallels between what is happening with Trump's party today, otherwise known as the Trumpublicans, can be seen with Russia's socialists in and around the time of the Russian Revolution. Upto just prior to the 1917 October Revolution, there was also a 1917 February Revolution, Russia's socialists could be  divided between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Some time prior to the October Revolution, the Mensheviks split from the Bolsheviks because the former group wanted Russia to experience a gradual conversion to socialism while the Bolsheviks, let by Lenin, want to use a quick revolution in order to gain power.

In addition, what followed the October Revolution was a purge of Russia's socialists by Lenin and Bolsheviks. Loyalty to Lenin was required to avoid being silenced. Karl Kautsky, a contemporary of Lenin wrote against the silencing of fellow socialists (click here and there for a couple of examples). Those socialists were being silenced because they disagreed with Lenin and Bolsheviks. 

We see a silencing in today's Republican Party. And, like the split that happened between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, some in the Republican Party are considering splitting from the Trumpublicans in order to start their own party. For the Mensheviks, the split spelled the end of their influence. Only time will tell if a split by the Republicans opposed to Trump from their party will have a similar result.

But more importantly, the silencing of fellow Republicans because of a lack of personal loyalty to Trump somewhat reminds one of the silencing of socialists who were not loyal to Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though the means of silencing practiced by Lenin and the Bolsheviks were less subtle than those practiced by the Trumpublicans, the general principle of silencing based a lack of personal loyalty is similar enough. 

That such silencing is happening in America paints some dark, ominous clouds on the horizon of what is left of our democracy. For if the Trumpublican Party can silence fellow Republican because of a lack of personal loyalty to Trump, what could occur if the same Trumpublicans regain control of the whole nation. We've already seen some of the measures they would resort to in order to maintain power despite the election and what Trump's own appointed officials said about the election.

I lean toward Marxism and have no positive regard for what Lenin did. At the same time, I know that no ideology is omniscient and thus we need to hear from liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. But conservatism cannot be fairly represented in our government and the nation by any political party that revolves around personal loyalty to a self declared messiah figure. That isn't conservatism, that is a cult. And history has shown us what cult figures who are in love with their own image can do to the nation that follows and empowers them. Thus, those Republicans who are driven by conservative principles must not only split from the Trumpublicans, they must make the split work by becoming a vibrant voice in our government.

From Demonization To Insularity: The Cause Of America's Great Divide

 America is as divided today as ever according to my memory. In fact, some say that our nation hasn't been so divided since 1860--which is a bit before my time. And though some of the wounds that were suffered from the war that followed 1860 have never fully healed, that isn't the cause of our current division. 

 The real cause of our division started with the advent of conservative talk radio. It stared with Rush Limbaugh and then continued under Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. Why did it start there? It was because that is when the demonization of non-conservative started.

Limbaugh was definitely the most skilled of all conservative talk radio hosts. And though that sounds like a compliment, it is more like saying that leaders like Napolean and Hitler were skilled at conquering other nations.

What Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin did was to persuade conservatives that non-conservatives had nothing to contribute to either the national dialog or the government. To an extent, they demonized non-conservatives but not to the same extent that is being done now. What is happening now is the morphing of the past demonization into full-fledged group character assassinations.

Today's conservative descriptions of non-conservatives go beyond claiming that non-conservatives are intellectually and otherwise impotent; it labels them as evil and enemies of the people. It describes them as people who not only must be opposed, but must be attacked in self-defense because they are evil.

Thus not only are non-conservatives attacked, their sources of news and information are shunned to say the least. Trump conservatives now only pay attention to Trump conservative sources of news. If a source of news or institution disagrees with Trump, then they are demonized.

There is a fringe benfit to the current process of demonization. It is that of insularity. Trump conservatives have withdrawn from the world and have retreated into a place where they only trust themselves. And in doing so, they have made themselves into a cult. The reaction to the 2020 Presidential election easily demonstrates the dark path from demonization to insularity.

It isn't that we don't have non-conservative political cults; we do. But they are not large enough to threaten the nation as today's conservative cult does. It doesn't matter to these cult members that they cannot go outside their own echo chamber to verify their claims. They are sure of what they "know" and have no need to consult outside sources. 

What we should note here is that this wave of Trumpism consists of more than one cult. Certainly there is the Trump's personality cult. But other people caught up in Trumpism are doing so not because of Trump himself, but because of some his allies, especially the set of spiritual teachers who happen to support him. People in this latter group aren't so enamored by Trump's personality. Rather, they are simply submitting to their spiritual leaders and what these leaders have told them about why they should support Trump. And it is all motivated by a pathological response to, what is to them, traumatic change. The last straw of that traumatic change was the Obergefell decision.

Without knowing history, many of the Trump supporters make an exclusive claim to being true patriots and real Americans. They believe that they are the only ones who are faithful to the founding fathers. It is if they had reduced the Bill Of Rights down to the right to conform. 

In the end, they ignore history. They don't realize that their exclusive claim is a very short walk from declaring their leader(s) and/or themselves as dictators. That is what the Tsars as well as the Bolsheviks did in Russia.

But they are not just making arrogant claims, they have become dangerous. That is because they want to impose their beliefs about themselves on the rest of us. They not only want to impose their beliefs on us, they feel it is their duty to do so.

How should we respond? Though we are treated as an enemy, we need to realize that we are not obligated to respond by imitating how they treat us. In other words, we don't have to view these supporters of Trump as our teachers. 

We cannot afford to become insular ourselves by first demonizing those who see things differently. Here we should note that every group has the potential to become that way.  James Comey correctly described Donald Trump as having 'no external reference points.' And in terms of information resources, that is the state of Trumpublicans, especially my fellow evangelicals who have remained loyal to Trump.

We can't afford to imitate Trump's loyalists who have become insular and hostile. Thus, we cannot afford to treat Trumpublicans as enemies. Rather, we need to see them as fellow Americans and fellow Christians where that applies who need help. Why? Because their insularity will last way after Trump leaves office and our nation can't afford that. And we can't afford to treat them as enemies because we should remember that we all need help at various times in our lives. Plus, because they are people, these Trump loyalists deserve help.

 America's current great divide came about by one group demonizing those who disagreed to the extent that it lost all external reference points. Thus it became a cult. And the only way to approach the cult is to try to invite people to come out of the cult.

 

 

 

Necessary Splits

 Should things hold as they are now, then the following separations are necessary.

First, should Trump retain control of the Republican Party after Biden is inaugurated, then regular Republicans must leave the party.  They must leave the Republican Party in the hands of the Trumpublicans and form their own party.

Why must they leave? It is for the sake of integrity. Under Trump and the Trumpublicans, reality has been under constant assault. And what the Trumpublicans consider to be real today depends on what serves the needs of the President. This assault on reality started early during Trump Administration with the resorting to 'alternative facts' by a Trump spokesperson. It has continued throughout his Administration down to what is true about the Covid-19 virus and the election. 

The attack on reality has been aided by cults. By cult, I am referring to any pro-Trump group that has its members believing that the only news sources they can go to are those that support Trump. Certainly Trump has his own cult. But there seems to be a multitude of Trump supporting religiously conservative Christian groups that operate as cults as well. As a result, we have a number of Trumpublicans, both rank-and-file members as well as office holders, who cannot accept any reality that does not favor Trump in some way shape or form. Such people easily and passionately latch onto conspiracy theories and false individual claims about a number of subjects especially the election.

Should Trump retain control over the Republican Party after Biden becomes President, Republicans with integrity must leave their party and form their own political party so that their conservatism can be heard by the public and be represented in government with integrity. I say that not as a fan of political conservatism, but as someone who wants people who hold to political conservatism to be well represented in government.

On the flip side, Biden's nomination to be the Democratic Party's Presidential candidate should tell the progressives of that Party that the Democratic Party establishment is far more interested in the votes provided by progressives than their ideas.

Like the Republican Party, the Democratic Party is controlled by the wealth of business interests, especially those of Wall Street. That reality should have become clear by now since Clinton was President with his repeal of Glass-Steagall and promotion of NAFTA. That should have been clear by now by Obama's refusal to criminally prosecute the Wall Street execs whose fraud significantly contributed to the economic collapse of 2008 and his attempt to fast track the TPP. And that should have been clear by the Democratic Party's treatment of Bernie Sanders's attempts to earn the Party's Presidential nominee.

Progressives in the Democratic Party cannot hope to fight the influence that money has over the Democratic Party. While progressives could easily protest and oppose Trump's appointments of corporate lobbyists and executives to important government positions, they should also be significantly riled by Biden's corporate appointments. After all, wasn't it credibly reported that Biden told Wall Street supporters that 'nothing would change' should he be elected?

Certainly there will be some cosmetic changes in policies with the Biden Presidency. And we will be relieved from Trump's attempts at strongman rule over the nation once Biden is inaugurated. But what won't change is the general direction of the nation under a Biden Presidency. That general direction's destination is that of furthering corporate rule over the nation. With a Biden Presidency, that general direction will undergo a major facelift. The new facade will be more appealing, more attractive to look at. But the direction will not be any different than that of direction pursued by President Trump.

Again, should Trump retain control of the Republican Party, we need splits in both parties. We need exoduses of those who are more purist in their ideologies from our two major political parties. Without those separations from the two major parties, we will can only be assured of worse and worse major party candidates for President.