Delusion in America

Delusion – A fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact. (Dictionary.com)

You know these people – at work, in your family, in your church congregation. They will firmly tell you that Joe Biden “stole” the 2020 election. They will tell you that climate change is a hoax. Some of them will tell you that the Coronavirus pandemic was “created” to defeat Trump, or that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was faked.

To reasonable people, these claims come across as looney. That is because delusion can be a symptom of mental illness.

These delusions are almost entirely exclusive to Republicans. In fact, the “2020 election fraud” delusion and the delusion that climate change is not a serious problem are present in the majority of Republicans.

We live in a country in epistemological crisis, in which much of the Republican Party has become detached from reality.
Moreover, this is not just an American problem. All around the world, rising right-wing populist parties are floating on oceans of misinformation and falsehood.

David Brooks

The educational divide

As David Brooks has pointed out, the information age has given a lot more people an opportunity to earn a living by working with ideas. The information economy has given these people money and status and has concentrated them in increasingly prosperous metro areas.

While the large cities have prospered, the rest of America has not. The divide seems to manifest itself particularly between people who have college degrees and those who do not. The growing economic disparity has created a strong populist backlash against the educated “elite.”

Trumpism vs reality

Into this climate came the master of stoking and manipulating resentment, Donald Trump. He gave the lesser-educated and the progress-resistant permission to look backwards proudly. Bullying, sexism, racism, wasteful consumerism, environmental destruction, and selfishness were all normalized during his term.

Trump and his team maintained a constant all-out war against reality. Trump’s “Chief Strategist” Steve Bannon declared openly that the mainstream media, people’s source of accurate information about the world, was “the real opposition.” He publicly stated that his goal was to create chaos and discredit the media. He bragged that his method was to “flood the zone with sh–.”

Trump himself, as a malignant narcissist, has always lived in a fantasy world wherein he is a brilliant hero who can do no wrong. He gets along in the real world by making up reality as it suits his ego at any given moment.

The problem is that this unhinged fantasy worldview has spread widely among rank and file Republicans.

The Republican party has been co-opted

The politics of lies, resentment, and conspiracy has proven to be very popular. The Republicans had to nominate Trump for the Presidency in 2016 because the majority of Republican primary election voters forced them to. Now that the crazies have had a taste of power they want their party to continue to function in the irrational, bullheaded, racist, uncivil manner that their hero did.

I can’t really explain what’s going on, Jake. It’s just pure lunacy and the kind of thing I’ve been speaking out against ever since President Trump was elected. But this has gotten out of hand. We are not going to win elections in the future … if we continue to go down this crazy road of conspiracy theories and lies. We’ve got to get back to reality.

Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) speaking to Jake Tapper (CNN) about the Republican party

There is no good outcome for the Republican party if they continue down this path. A majority of the American people have seen though the charade. President Biden continues to demonstrate what a leader with honesty, compassion, and competence can accomplish. People’s lives are improving.

If the GOP is to have a future outside the fever dreams of internet trolls, we have to call out falsehoods and conspiracy theories unequivocally. We have to repudiate people who peddle those lies.

Senator Ben Sasse, (R-NE)

Desperate tactics

The Republican party could be headed toward a long, dark, winter. Since they refuse to disown Trumpism, their only hope is to severely gerrymander Congressional Districts and pass state legislation that will make it harder for people of color to vote. Republican State Legislators are already hard at work on both of these tactics.

If they succeed, if the racist, reality-denying, bullies gain a majority in Congress, or retake the White House, before the few remaining Republican moderates can flush Trumpism out of their party, the fascists will have won and the United States of America will be gone.

Sources
Miles Kampf-Lassin, “How Our Politics Came Undone,”Common Dreams, November 1, 2020.
David Brooks, “The Rotting of the Republican Mind: When one party becomes detached from reality,” Palm Beach Post, November 28, 2020.
Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), “QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within,” The Atlantic, January 16, 2021.
Jake Tapper, “Gov. Hogan,” CNN, April 26, 2021.
Jonathan Rauch, “The Constitution of Knowledge,” National Affairs, Fall 2018.
Brian Kennedy, “U.S. concern about climate change is rising, but mainly among Democrats,” Pew Research Center, April 16, 2020.
Jack Holmes, “85% of Republicans Reject That Climate Change is a Serious Problem That Requires Action,” Esquire, January 2, 2019.
Brian Ferguson, “14 Signs of Fascism,” Insight, September 28, 2020.