An important way to understand Trump and Trumpism is as an assault on reality. At issue is the attempt to control, to own, immediate truth along with any part of history that feeds such truth.
Robert J. Lifton
The desire to control reality is typical of authoritarianism, religious zealotry, and cultism. If you control a person’s sense of what is real, you control the person. A cult leader insists that his acolytes accept HIS version of the truth.
A cult leader wants his followers to be loyal only to him. He will test their loyalty by putting them into positions where they must support him publicly or lose face. He even tests their loyalty by deliberately telling lies to see who will challenge him.
What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.
Donald J. Trump
Trump continually attacks and demeans any source of information, including from within his own government, that he feels isn’t “loyal” or supportive of him. He consistently creates chaos and controversy in order to keep the focus on himself.
Trump tells a compelling story
Trump does not have a consistent ideology, but he does provide a consistent narrative. America used to be great, but has become weak due to poor management. Our allies cheat and take advantage of us. Only he, Donald Trump, with his superior deal-making skills, can restore America’s economic power and world-dominating greatness.
This story has great power over a third of America’s citizens. Part of the story, economic struggle, is the lived experience of many of these people. This makes it easy for them to agree with Trump’s irrational scapegoating of immigrants and Muslims for their economic problems. They don’t notice the fact that Donald Trump is a leading member of the oligarchic class that is oppressing them.
Trump’s narrative is based on lies. Our country has problems, yes, but the major source of those problems is material and social inequality. Republican lawmakers consistently vote for policies that make these problems worse.
Furthermore, America’s allies are not our enemies (by definition!). Vladimir Putin is not our friend. And blaming religious minorities and the poor for America’s problems is both irrational and cruel.
America was built on common sense
American democracy depends on common sense. Common sense is the type of sound, practical judgement that is developed through life experience. It is our “common” experiences, our shared reality, that enable us to mutually discuss and agree on policies to help achieve our common goals.
Equally important, however, is that such goals and policies make “sense.” Good decisions must be based on good information and have the best interests of everyone in mind.
Common sense works at a deep level, undergirding our institutions and supporting our sense of being a people.
Muirhead and Rosenblum
By challenging our common reality with his relentless lies, Donald Trump sows disorientation and doubt into our system. He challenges our common understandings. He deliberately creates confusion and uncertainty.
It is vital that we counter his alternate realities at every turn. It was, quite frankly, the responsibility of the US Senate to check Trump’s abuse of power during the impeachment trial. Instead, the Republicans (save one) refused to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution.
This means we must work even harder, and speak even louder, to support common sense and defend the institutions of democracy that are under attack. One critical area that must be strengthened immediately and resolutely is voting rights. Without that, our democracy is lost.
Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
Mosiah 29:26
We can take away his power
Donald Trump’s power comes from us. The media gave him hours of free publicity during the 2016 Republican Primary because he, like video of a train wreck, generated viewers. We couldn’t look away. The country fell into his reality TV trap.
All a person really has to do to escape Trump’s mesmerizing power is walk away, don’t listen to him, avoid Twitter, turn off the TV, vote him out. If Americans were to simply tune him out and ignore him, he would deflate like a balloon.
Oh, he would rant and rave. He might do something really stupid to try and draw back our attention. But at some point, the adults have to just put the whining child to bed, turn out the light, and close the door.
Sources: Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2019.
Robert Jay Lifton, Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry, The New Press, 2019.
Mahita Gajanan, “‘What You’re Seeing … Is Not What’s Happening.’ People Are Comparing This Trump Quote to George Orwell,” Time, July 24, 2018.
Thomas Paine, “Common Sense,” pamphlet, January, 1776.
“Category:Conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump,” Wikipedia.
Good analysis. Why don’t we see such in the Church’s main media outlet, the Deseret News? I have finally given up on the D-News. Everyday I scan the editorial page for some slight criticism of The Donald. Such never appears. So the thousands of people killed by The Donald’s malfeasance can just disappear without comment by the great DESERET NEWS. I will not look at the rag again. The country will never be the same after Trump (if there is an after). And the church will never be the same again.
Herewith my latest CENSORED comment at the D-News. They were commenting on the Putin emergent dictatorship: “It’s also a sharp contrast to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who seems to be setting himself up to be president for life.” Exactly what Trump is doing, if only you guys at the D-News could see it!”
I am absolutely through reading the Deseret News, except for the obits. We rank-and-file Church members have been betrayed by our leaders. I’ve had it!