Trump is sinking in the polls. Whether this is a temporary setback remains to be seen. (We only have five months until the election, so he doesn’t have much time to recover.)
It seems to me that things started to go wrong for him over the weekend when the word went around Twitter that he was hiding out in his bunker because he was afraid of the protesters. People mocked him and called him cowardly. (Later said he had been merely “inspecting” the Bunker.) Trump fancies himself a strongman. Being called cowardly was completely unacceptable. For a while, the hashtag #bunkerbitch was trending.
Trump responded by coming out Monday morning swinging. First he told the governors that they needed to “dominate” the protesters. From the phone call:
This is one of Trump’s standard “governing” strategies: Get the Fighters Fighting and Keep them Fighting. (It’s part of the Govern by Crisis and Spectacle strategy Timothy Snyder explains in his book The Road to Unfreedom.)
Then came the Tear Gas Bible Photo Shoot.
We’re all still reeling from the fallout as police officers batter and brutalize protesters.
Here’s a rather stunning video from one of the protests:
Karen Attiah asked:
In this amazing lecture Prof. Carol Anderson explains that what sets off white rage isn’t the presence of black people. It’s the presence of black people with ambition who refuse to accept their subjugation.
I know of two explanations for this: One from sociology and one political psychology.
(Long time readers will find some of this repetitive, so apologies.)
I’ll start with the explanation from political psychology. About a third of people across cultures have what political psychologists call an authoritarian disposition. You can read more about the right wing variety here. Karen Stenner and Jonathan Haight wrote an essay that appeared in this book called, “Authoritarianism is Not a Momentary Madness But An Eternal Dynamic Within Liberal Democracies.”
Karen Stenner made the essay available free here.
Stenner and Haight describe what they call an “authoritarian dynamic.” It works like this. Those with an authoritarian disposition are averse to complexity (which includes diversity). Those with authoritarian dispositions prefer sameness and uniformity. Those with an authoritarian disposition have a “bias against different others (racial and ethnic outgroups, immigrants)
A normative threat is something that threatens “sameness and order.” When faced with a normative threat, they become violent and cruel.
Trump governs by creating normative threats.
Authoritarian uprisings are an eternal part of liberal democracies (according to the authors) because democracy natural expands and becomes more diverse. As voting rights expand, for example, the electorate gets more diverse. Because some people are uncomfortable with diversity, as democracy becomes more diverse, demagogues can stir them to rage and fear.
This dovetails with Dr. Anderson’s observation that it’s not the presence of black people that triggers white rage, it’s black people who refuse to accept their subjugation.
Another way of seeing the same thing is through the lens of the sociologist and differing views of the purpose of government.
One view of government, the view of liberal democracy, is that governments create fairness. The New Deal, Civil Rights legislation, the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education are all based on the idea that the purpose of government is to create fairness. Obama was a fairness president. Fairness presidents try to figure out how to better the lives of the citizens. They come up with ideas like affordable health care for everyone.
The other view of government is that the purpose is to maintain the hierarchy. Republicans since the New Deal have been the party of hierarchy. That’s why they hate things like health care for all.
Republicans have been saying they’re the “law and order” party for decades. Meanwhile, they break laws. (Watergate. Iran-Contra. Scooter Libby’s perjury.)
What they meant by “law and order” was “maintain the hierarchy.” One way to maintain the hierarchy is to imprison (or lynch) black men.
One thing happening right now is the “white rage” is being turned on the protesters, including white protesters. In other words, the police are treating the protesters the way they’ve always treated blacks. In the age of cell phone cameras, Americans are getting a shocking wake up call.
This morning, the New York Times ran an article saying that Trump is even losing support among his evangelical base. It could be that they really didn’t like the Tear Gas Bible Photo Shoot. Or it could be that they don’t like Trump turning the police on the protesters.
Yes, I hold Trump responsible. Fox Viewers got the hint: The enemies are the protesters. Go after them. Dominate them. Trump and his propaganda network are doing their best to paint the protesters as the enemies. If you can bear it, check out this political ad.
So they’re triggering a normative threat. The threat is the protesters, which explains why the police are responding to protests about police brutality with more police brutality.
Exactly. Hierarchical people don’t believe fairness is possible, which is why they are always making “both sides” arguments. If they don’t believe fairness and equality are possible, they assume anyone lower in the hierarchy seeking ‘equality’ is actually trying to displace them. This explains why people at the top of the hierarchy feel victimized when others demand equality.
