Trump Feeding Our Fears
In my previous post I attempted to show that the most shameful moments in our national history all share one common trait: a dangerously fearful majority. The fears are sincere and, in some cases, justified. But when the fear becomes all-consuming, we’ve shown a propensity to deny basic rights to some in an attempt to calm the fears of others. I also asserted that fear (mostly of terrorism and domestic racial violence) is approaching this dangerous level in 2016.
Now I’d like to address the elephant in the room (political pun intended).
There’s a political theory that in open elections, voters seek the remedy to the perceived character flaw of the outgoing official. Peppy young JFK took over for stern old Eisenhower. Saintly Jimmy Carter filled Nixon’s (and by proximity, Ford’s) perceived moral void. And the careful and eloquent Obama was perhaps an attempt to remedy Bush’s public speaking shortcomings and perceived quick trigger-finger after the Iraq invasion.
It’s Obama’s carefulness (in words and actions) that put him in office, and now that slowness to anger is closely associated with what I believe voters are seeking to remedy. Obama’s greatest character flaw is not showing emotion.
He might feel sympathetic, but he doesn’t appear sympathetic to some of Americans’ biggest concerns. Particularly, Obama seems, on the surface, not to fully acknowledge or validate the fear and anger that exists in the American psyche.
Regardless of any actions his administration takes to address the source of those fears (economic fears, fears of terrorism, etc.) people don’t feel like he’s in touch with their fear or anger. And he sometimes widens the disconnect by trying to reason/intellectualize people out of their emotions. If the President doesn’t appear to feel the same anger and urgency that the average citizen feels after a terrorist attack, explaining that 8,000 airstrikes have been carried out against our terrorist enemies is no more or less effective than explaining that 800,000 airstrikes have been carried out. The feelings are as important as the facts.
Donald Trump is the walking, talking embodiment of the emotions that some feel have gone ignored by President Obama.
Now, I’ll break to say: There are real reasons to be fearful. If you are afraid of terrorism, you are not wrong. If you are afraid you wont be able to provide for your children, you are not wrong. If you distrust the government and politicians, you are not wrong. Your feelings and your concerns are valid.
I understand the desire to have emotions validated, and I understand that Trump has done that for many people. What concerns me is that a candidate in the situation Trump is in has his success hitched to the proliferation of fear. The more fearful the population, the more support there is for a candidate in his position. And that doesn’t mean that a candidate in this position is BAD. A healthy amount of fear can keep us prepared and it’s not immoral or unusual for candidates to tap into these emotions during an election. So this is all morally fine…so far.
But, as Donald Trump will tell you, he is a business man. He fancies himself proficient at surveying the market for opportunities, and using the market forces to gain an advantage. In this election, fear is a market force. At this cultural moment, Donald Trump’s interests are not best served by addressing the concerns of the public. His interests are best served by adding to the concerns of the public. His interests are best served by inflaming fear beyond reason, so that he can then position himself as the one to validate the feeling — he can be the one to make people feel justified in their outrage. And he can guard against the soothing of emotions by branding any voice contrary to outrage as “weak,” or “little,” or “low energy,” or “establishment,” or “status quo,” or “PC”.
And, importantly, in a candidacy that lasts 512 days, he has sufficient time and attention to actually manipulate the amount of fear in the atmosphere. And if any candidate intentionally creates more fear, it’s no longer an electorate remedying a character flaw in the previous President; it’s no longer well-intentioned validation of pre-existing emotion. It’s encouraging chaos in the masses for personal gain.
So, is Donald Trump knowingly provoking the American population to feel more fearful? Well, first, Donald Trump must know that embodying fear paves his widest path to victory. He polls very well among voters that list terrorism as a top concern (and we know he reads the polls). So if (1) he knows fear plays to his advantage and (2) he has the time and attention to affect how much fear is felt, we have to ask: Is Donald Trump the type of person that would pass up that kind of opportunity?
I think we’ve already seen the answer. Messaging fear, anger, and distrust has been a noticeable priority in the rhetoric of his entire campaign and it was the very clear priority of the Republican National Convention. Based on Donald Trump’s behavior and the opportunist reputation he claims for himself, I think it’s evident that his relationship to fear in the course of his campaign has not been one of innocent validation, rather, his modus operandi has been to make people more fearful.
History tells us this is dangerous. If we let that fear and anger swell in us the way Donald Trump’s rhetoric and conspiracy theories are encouraging it to, I believe that panic will once again lead the majority to deprive some minority of life and liberty. I don’t have a crystal ball, I can’t see the future. But Donald Trump’s embrace of our fears, even if it’s done with the best intentions, seems to be a likely track to that type of fear-based self-preservation that has steered us wrong in the past. We may not be able to predict the victims, but the circumstances are fertile for fear-based mistreatment.
Perhaps we’ll look back on the next decade shamefully because of our treatment of innocent people during our hysteria over terrorism. Perhaps we’ll feel guilt over our ability to ignore the humanity of refugees. Maybe what begins as genuine efforts to control immigration will once again lead to ostracizing an entire race or class of Americans. Maybe our fear of violence will overcome us and we will forget the importance of allowing peaceful protest.
Or perhaps we will be one of the courageous generations. Proudly remembered for facing real danger but courageously demanding that one person’s fears never be deemed more urgent than another person’s unalienable rights.
Perhaps we will be remembered as the generation that fought back the fear of terrorism in order to demonstrate the type of compassion human beings displaced by war deserve. Perhaps we will be the generation that makes America safer for both police officers and citizens by swallowing our fear and pride in order to completely reimagine the role our police force plays in the community. Perhaps we will be the generation that is finally willing to let go of our fear of one another and reverse the civilian arms race caused by ease of access to increasingly destructive weapons.
Feeling afraid is not a bad thing, it alerts us to opportunities for courage. But if we let fear consume us, as Donald Trump is encouraging us to, we are at risk of making another historic and shameful mistake.
