Trumpism At Its Core
Iconic journalist Bill Moyers begins a recent essay:
I’ve been forced to write about Donald Trump an awful lot during the past five years and the problem I always face when writing in a limited space, like this one, is which of his countless horrific qualities to focus on. The same thing happens when I need to address the consequences of the policies of his administration. There are so many terrible ones, so many victims and so many enablers. I always found myself asking, “Who deserves a thousand words today?”
Not today. I don’t dispute the genuine horror, outrage and sadness genuinely patriotic people feel at seeing the desecration of one of the most potent symbols of American democracy. I share those feelings. But another part of me is glad about it. Finally, Trumpism has clarified itself. It’s not about “economic insecurity.” It’s not about globalization. It’s not about being “forgotten,” “disdained by elites,” or “fear of the future.” It’s just about hatred: hatred of anyone and anything who is not a white, Christian, right-wing, American-born American. Any other attempt to defend or explain Trump’s appeal is a lie and a dangerous one at that because it’s a lie that perpetuates all the other lies that have allowed him and his minions to conduct a rampage against America and all that it stands for; the same rampage that finally found its physical manifestation in the insurrectional riot we saw on Wednesday.
FWIW, I too find it difficult to admit that I take pleasure in seeing human suffering. Schadenfreude, as the Germans call it, is precisely this emotion. Children are more likely to display it overtly, but only because they lack the sophisticated filtering mechanism that adults develop as they mature, and come to realize that this way of thinking and behaving makes them look stupid and mean.
Yet I’m happy to tell the world that I share this viewpoint in cases like these, because the event itself served an important purpose; it revealed what “Trumpism” stands for at its core: hate. Not deregulation, not lower taxes or smaller government, not a strong military or the Iranian peace agreement or the location of Israel’s capital, and certainly not law and order. At its base, it’s the supremacy of American-born European descendants, and the abject hatred of everyone else.
OK, so what’s to like about having the truth revealed? We can liken this to the treatment of a disease. Generally, it starts with patient-reported symptoms, perhaps a belly-ache. But what does that mean? Acid reflux? An ulcer? A cancerous tumor? Once the diagnosis is made and verified to be correct, proper and effective treatment can begin. Until that point, we’re simply flailing, and those symptoms can only be expected to worsen.
