The American public generally doesn’t really know what goes on at a Trump rally. Progressives dismiss them as circuses for lunatics. The mainstream media tend to report only on crowd size and the one most outrageous soundbite of the day. Old-style conservatives excuse the rallies as “just Trump being Trump.”
Most people actually pay almost no attention to day to day politics. But there is something dangerous going on in those rallies. Trump deliberately stirs up anger and rage. Behind the spectacle and the lunatic nonsense is a growing conspiratorial outrage that could easily spill into future violence.
Who attends these rallies?
It is important to remember that those who attend Trump rallies are not white-shirted, small business Republicans going to hear Eisenhower talk about expanding Social Security while maintaining a balanced budget. Trump supporters are more like rabid hockey fans looking for a fight. They are not mere supporters, they are groupies.
Those with a religious background often speak of Trump in worshipful tones. When asked how they came to support Trump, they tell stories that resemble religious conversion. They claim Trump is “the chosen one of God.” A Trump crowd often contains a large number of evangelical Christian pastors.
Then there are the followers of the conspiracy theory “QAnon.” These people believe that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles are plotting against Donald Trump. They are looking forward to what they call “The Storm,” or “The Great Awakening.” They believe there will be a mass arrest of politicians and journalists for, among other things, child sex-trafficking. Eventually, they believe, the US military will brutally take over the country and the result will be utopia. (!!)
So, going in, you have an arena full of poorly-educated, easily-manipulated, conspiracy-prone people. They have come to hear the man who will defeat their enemies, save America, and make them rich like he is. They have come to cheer their savior.
And what does he give them in return? Fear and anger. Lots of it.
What happens there?
It is fairly well known that at every Trump rally the Donald devotes a portion of his diatribe to directing the anger of the audience against the members of the media that are present. The media is typically located in a metal pen in the middle of the room (presumably so the TV cameras can get a good shot of the stage). Trump uses them like a prop. He points to them, calls them liars and scum and says they are “the worst people on the earth.” Members of the crowd always turn to the press and give them the middle finger and/or shout obscenities at them.
What is lesser known is that Trump also typically tells a titillating, graphic, horror story in which a young (white) woman is violently raped and “cut up” by one or more “animals” or “hombres” (ie. non-white). The story varies each time, but it is intended to evoke fear, outrage, and anger at immigrants and minorities.
What is the result?
What do people gain from attending such rallies? Well, they come away with their self-righteous outrage stoked, their racism validated, and a sense that they are part of a holy crusade to save America from a lying media, vicious immigrants, and evil Democrats.
Of course the truth is that the real “lying media” is their own Fox News, Breitbart, and Alex Jones. Immigrants are simply people, often persecuted people, looking for a better life. And Democrats are good Americans who love their country but believe it can be improved.
By demonizing the media, immigrants, people of color, and the Democrats, Donald Trump and his Republicans have created and stirred up an ignorant, arrogant, unthinking, self-righteous, and angry mob. They are located in pockets all across America. They are mindlessly loyal to Trump. And they have guns….
America already has an ISIS, a Taliban, an SS waiting to be born. A group of young men willing to do violence at the drop of a hat, because they’ve been brainwashed into hating.
Umair Haque
Source: Umair Haque, “We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.,”Eudaimonia, August 29, 2020.
Bill Moyers, “New Podcast: Trump’s Grotesque Tulsa Speech and the Cult of Trump,” Moyers On Democracy, June 25, 2020.
Jeff Sharlett, ““You Know What to Do”: Decoding the Grotesque Symbolism of Trump’s Tulsa Rally,” Vanity Fair, June 22, 2020.
Jeff Sharlett, ““He’s the Chosen One to Run America”: Inside the Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church and He Is the Gospel,” Vanity Fair, June 18, 2020.
Trump’s movement is our fascism, and still we have no response from the Church to help us deal with it in some way. I predict conflict in the streets after Nov 3.
This seems to be a departure of the more scripture oriented topics you’ve taken on in the past but it’s something I think needs to be addressed. The spreading of hate is contrary to the scriptures at the very least. The dismissing of the media seems a lot like King Noah. Bottom line is we need to vote and we can not let it run our country.
Here’s my latest comment in the _D-News:
“Can America’s checks and balances withstand a second Trump term?”
No. The U.S. is going to repeat the Pinochet experience. Trump is establishing his dictatorship which will hold. Opponents of his will be tortured and executed like in Chile. I fully expect to be one of Trump’s victims. In the meantime organized religion, including LDS, will cower and have nothing to say, like in Chile except for some courageous Catholics. It has taken 40 years for some kind of democracy to return to Chile (I understand Allende’s daughter is now a political figure in Chile). Things will take even longer here.
Trump has made clear the last two days he intends to nullify the next election with violence if needed, and THERE IS NOT ONE SOLITARY PEEP ABOUT IT IN THE DESERET NEWS. This is a disgrace from which that paper and its Church ownership will never recover.