by Ruth A. Sheets
Nearly a week ago, it was clear Donald Trump had been defeated for a second term as president. Six days later, he has not been able to bring himself to acknowledge this defeat nor to stop his bullying of the Republican Party and the American people in general. Claiming all kinds of unsubstantiated voter fraud, he has stirred his base into believing Trump must be right, must know something they don’t know but have suspected, must really have won the election.
The hardest part of this lying is that it clearly does not match with what actually happened in this election. Despite the Biden victory, Republicans made large gains in many state and local races. So, Trump actually won? Does that mean that those other races were losses for Republicans because those same people who voted for Biden also voted for Republicans down-ballot? It seems logic counts for little. It’s about what feels right, and what feels right is that Donald Trump, their beloved leader won.
I noticed during the final month of the election season that Republican TV ads became more and more vicious. Lies tripped out of the mouths of mostly woman narrators with their “skeptical” voices proclaiming that Democratic candidates would in various ways bring down our nation: get rid of police so rich white women would be unprotected in their homes; would destroy the local economies in various ways; would release all criminals from prisons, and so much more. These were all lies, but so what! Freedom of speech allows candidates and their PACs to say on air whatever comes to their heads that can instill fear and distrust in a significant portion of the population, the base we have heard so much about.
I can’t help but wonder about this base. Who are they and what do they stand for? Why are they so scared of everyone and everything? Why are they so easily triggered into decisions that are so bad for them, then defend that bad decision indefinitely?
According to Tim Lott of “the Guardian,” “Fury has become our lingua franca: because we are afraid and we are becoming more afraid, and we do not wish to admit that we are afraid. For to do so is to acknowledge that our beliefs are not as cast iron as we wish they were.” He was referring to the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris in 2015, but I suspect this fury and fear maintain Mr. Trump’s base today too. Trump’s enablers know this and use this knowledge to keep the anger and fear fires burning to cause as much destruction as possible while they bide their time, hoping to hijack democracy in the wake of the chaos.
Where
does this intense fear, almost terror come from? I think it has many
origins. When all your life you are compared economically with previous
generations it sets up a kind of hysteria to achieve. We are regularly
rated, as a society, on whether our children are doing better than their
parents. Unfortunately, we have tied that almost entirely to
economics. If we are not earning more than our parents, living in houses
that are bigger and better, don’t have more things than our parents, our
society is failing. Because we allow economics to be the determiner of
social success, we are unable to safely weather emotionally or physically, the
down times that are inevitable.
Children living in their parents’ basements is the indicator that millennials are somehow inferior, unable to succeed. Then, we follow with the question, whose fault is it? Our beliefs often provide the answer. If we are white, have a high school education, are male, and live outside cities, we say it’s the liberals’ fault. They are “tax and spenders” who can’t balance a budget like “we the real Americans” do in our personal lives, an inaccurate comparison, but truth is not part of this, just feeling.
These are not equivalent despite what political ads, tweets, and posts might proclaim. The fear and fury of Mr. Trump’s base spring from a mythic past of pastures of plenty in which their forebears had enough and more because of their own hard work and frugality. They believe their diminishing wealth and standards and having their offspring living in their basement are due to government regulations restricting what they and businesses can do. They have ignored (or been helped to ignore) the diminishment of workers and unions, the increase of outsourcing, the absorption of small entities into huge conglomerates, the decrease of taxes paid by the wealthy and corporations.
Why does Trump’s base do this? It is not entirely their fault. The Trump base is very male dominated, feeling that if a man is loud and bullying, he must be strong. They do let a few women have some power in their circles (31 Republican women will be in Congress this coming term and a misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic woman has joined the Supreme Court), but those women must toe the line or be put back in their place. Those women know exactly what is required, keep the fear and fury burning high and it is working.
Men like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones pump out the testosterone along with the fear and fury and the base clings to these as their salvation from the encroachment of a world they don’t understand and are terrified of. Mitch McConnell and his Senate obstructers get re-elected so they can continue to obstruct while blaming Democrats for nothing getting done. These men know just how to manipulate their unnecessarily scared followers into supporting just about anything if “socialism” and Democrats” can be somehow tied to their unamerican opponents, no matter how harmful those politicians are to our nation.
It seems all of us would benefit from checking out the Preamble of our Constitution to understand the purpose of our government, perhaps to dispel some of the anger and fear. It starts with “We the People of the United States,” not just we the Republicans/conservatives or we the Democrats and liberals. We need to pay special attention to the following lines.
- “in order to form a more perfect union” means we are not
there yet.
- “to establish justice” not just for the ones who believe the way we do, but for everyone (are you listening Supreme and all other courts, police departments, ICE?).
- “to insure domestic tranquility” does not mean quell protests, particularly if it means people are speaking truths we don’t like. Trump’s base does not have to fear “Black Lives Matter,” but they do. They don’t have to fear “defunding the police” but they do. They don’t have to fear immigrants, but they do. They are sure all of these groups will mar their domestic tranquility, but they won’t, most of the time.
- “to provide for the common defense” does not mean defend ourselves from people we don’t like, often our neighbors and political adversaries. It means to defend our democracy from those who would threaten or bring it down from without and within.
- “to promote the general welfare” is not just welfare to the poor and folks among us with various disadvantages, although it is that to a great extent. It includes improving the well-being of all Americans and trying to lessen the impacts of the fearmongering and excessive anger that keep We the People from thriving. It is not OK for just some, with the right thoughts, beliefs, and amount of money, to thrive. It means we must actively promote the well-being of all.
- The last piece of the Preamble is “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” This is probably the hardest one of all to work with because it means we can’t focus just on ourselves and what we need and want. We need to work to insure that the opportunities we now have are expanded and will include those who come after. Claiming climate change (global warming), is a hoax, for example, is a betrayal of our posterity and probably should be framed that way by politicians, candidates, the media, and all Americans.
We the People are all the people. Allowing ourselves to believe WE are the only people who really care about this nation, are the only “true” Americans is a betrayal of the ideals the founders espoused even if they could not manage to live up to them themselves.
Right now, the many sides of our nation’s people may not yet be able to talk together but that should be our goal. Freedom of speech is essential to our democracy, but screaming lies over the airwaves and social media is like wrongly yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. People are getting hurt and disenfranchised by such fire-lying and perhaps, for a time it needs to be curbed somewhat to allow our fellow citizens to recover from the fury and fear that is smothering them. Let’s push the incoming administration under Biden and Harris, the Congress, and the Courts to honestly do their best to lead us into a new time of inclusion, caring, appreciation, and true cooperation that will let We the People survive and thrive without fury and fear.
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