Month: June 2024

                     

We, like many mainstream American citizens, share a feeling of mystery concerning the underlying basis for the apparently, large populist following of a repugnant personality such as the former President, Donald J. Trump. In past writing, we. for lack of a more cogent explanation, have suggested that his appeal was based upon the confluence of two factors, the populist eternal grievance and discontent, arguably, due to a less than satisfying life (the causes of which are projected to government, and others) and second, feelings of personally needed redemption, subjectively derived from a reductive perception of his miscreant statements and actions signifying that he was, in their behalf, “showing the middle finger” to the objectionable establishment.

While, to an extent, such conception may warrant a respectable degree of empirical validity, we are of the view that an alternate societal explanation may deserve a greater degree of verisimilitude. Viz., the desire for the personal security derived from a communally designated and accepted niche (“branding”), in the “group think,” of their social milieu.

It seems inconceivable to presume that such a substantial portion of the American population would, rationally and pragmatically, choose to be in his corner. It is reasonably predictable that, if  asked, few if any of Trump’s plethora of sycophants would, candidly express  personal approval of his serial acts of  adultery with porn stars and prostitutes, his serial mendacity, his treasonous friendship with autocratic leaders of countries known to be enemies of America, tactical opposition to “truth,” his opposition to governmental assistance to the needy, his denigration of military service, specifically, his designation of wartime, captured, wounded and killed American servicemen as “losers” or “suckers,” his large tax cuts and self-interested acts of favoritism towards the rich, his opposition to labor unions and to health and safety regulations regarding labor, food, water and medicine, his illegal and unprincipled use of the Presidential office to deceitfully garner unconstitutional profit, his opposition to free trade economic policies, the latter subjects, resulting in increased employment  and cheaper prices; all of which are matters of vital interest to the classic populist; as well as the demonstrated inventory of ubiquitous unprofessional and criminal acts to the extreme extent of treason against the United States.

There exists no conceivable possibility of a confluence of political or economic theory since, as shown, neither Trump nor his cultish followers have, empirically demonstrated the slightest degree of interest or motivation by political or economic theory and any doctrinaire mind-set. Trump’s own reductive persona is guided by no stimulus other than his neurotic egocentricity; his MAGA adherents are motivated by personally perceived grievance and mutual alliance.

Our contextual presumption is that his large coordinated following is due to empirically derived, or inherited adherence to nuanced social expectations, i.e., “branding.”

Regarding those individuals who lack the contemplative inclination or capacity to have developed a stable and referable self-image (in our view, accumulatively derived from inter-personal interaction), the assigned,  or established, personal identity of the brand-identified MAGA cult populist appears to  express itself in the coordinate, acceptable “group-think,” choices;  personal identity and acceptance is existentially dependent upon conformity with the group’s joint endorsement of Donald J. Trump.

During our childhood in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, it was no less than the commission of mortal sin to be branded a Yankee (Bronx) fan, rather than a booster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. We are identifiably known (‘branded”) by our personal choices. Is one, predictably, a drinker of coffee or tea? “Coke” or “Pepsi?” Do you favor savory or sweet menu choices? Vanilla or Chocolate? baseball or football, or both? Do you favor government authority or unrestricted liberty? Your publicly expressed position on issues of immigration, police, global warming, gun control, racial relations, formal education, the death penalty, women’s rights, environmental concerns, sports, labor unions, agricultural parity, military superiority, charity, arts and education, vaccination church and state, voting equity, racial and religious equality, work ethic, economic disparities, gender issues, marijuana use are singularly identified by your publicly assigned and accepted branding, whether or not consistent with your differentiated personal view. In such context, there is perceived to be, too much at personal stake to campaign or vote in accordance with a held, divergent opinion. The less taxing (and less principled), easiest and pragmatic route is to express your support to the candidate consistent with the group’s perception of your compliant brand.

Supporting a person for political office, founded upon one’s neurotic need for group social acceptance, rather than the candidate’s individual attributes, is a sad reflection of one’s equivocal self-image and, as well, an unhealthy exercise of existential irresponsibility respecting our precious and uniquely free, yet vulnerable, Democratic Republic.

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For purposes of clarity and economy of expression, we would begin this writing with a small, but relevant glossary of terms:
“Shiva” is a Hebrew word, meaning “seven,” and referring to seven days of formalized mourning by the members and close friends of the deceased. “Desecration” is depriving something of its sacred character or the disrespectful, contemptuous or destructive treatment of something considered sacred or holy. “Memorial Day,” is a yearly National holiday, honoring Americans who have lost their lives in military service to the Nation. Many American citizens additionally mark the somber, commemorative occasion as the official calendar advent of Summer.
This year’s Memorial Day was observed on Monday, May 27, 2024. It is instructive to note that the justly reviled ex-President, Donald J. Trump, was not included among its sober celebrants. In addition to his officially determined guilt and publicly acknowledged, perpetrator of multifarious crimes against the nation and his empirically demonstrated absence of moral compass, he desecrated the patriotic memorial by publicly declaring, in many instances, that killed, maimed, or captured prisoners of war are simply and dispassionately, “losers;” One such Trump maligned and desecrated “loser” was the late Arizona Senator John McCain, a valiant air force bomber pilot, captured and imprisoned in a Hanoi military prison where he underwent painful torture and famously refused an “out of order” release. “McCain was a loser,” declared the then, plainly execrable former orange-dyed, egocentric in chief; whose pathologically syndromic charge of “rigged,” deceitfully avoided military service by an apparent confluence of influential intercession and the assertion of a petty claim to a “bone spur” in his heel.
Millions of Americans who. having lost fathers, brothers, and sons in our Nation’s efforts to protect our Democratic Republic from the dreaded scourge of tyranny, have been haplessly privy to the shameless and determinate proclamations of that draft-dodging, egoistic, former President,( and caterer to our autocratic enemy leaders) that, if elected, he will be a “dictator;” mindless of the many Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect and preserve our democratic way of life. Memorial Day, one would assume, based upon Trump’s public declaration of his sentiments, is a day in wasted, “celebration of losers.”
This contextually chosen and highlighted facet of one of the multi-faceted features of Trump’s non-empathic, ego-oriented lust for Nazi-style power, should be sufficient in itself, to reject the orange pathological, egomaniac from holding office; notwithstanding the substantially recited plentitude of additional, shamelessly immoral and substantive grounds for objection, recited in our previous writings.
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We might acceptably describe the word “stain,” as a discoloration produced by a foreign matter having penetrated into a fabric, evidenced by an unattractive spot, or fabric blemish, not easily removed. This writing is concerned with the existential need to remove the serious threat, herein analogically portrayed as a “stain,” imposed upon the precious and vulnerable fabric of our Democratic Republic by the penetrating taint of Donald J. Trump, together with his extensive band of deluded acolytes. To further exploit the chosen analogy, we would observe that stain removal in instances where the stain is pervasive and of longstanding duration is empirically difficult.
The ominous danger to the endurance of our Democratic Republic, posed by the cult-like, attraction of Donald Trump, to our Nation’s prodigious inventory of inadequately educated and discontented populists, is palpable and has already imprinted its unattractive stain upon the fabric of our body politic. We have extensively written of Trump’s multifarious undemocratic, amoral and criminal acts, including the commission of acts of treason. Trump’s malicious campaign against “truth,” the Constitution and the Nation’s foundational of rule of law, his utter lack of moral or responsible compass, his treasonous disloyalty and his unconstitutional behavior, not to omit his public declaration of intention to be a dictator, until the present, had received no legal retribution. Indeed, his unpunished mafia-style political operations have earned him the celebrated title of “Teflon Donald.” Mainstream, traditional American citizens have uniformly expressed frustration with the apparent “pass” afforded him by the legal and judicial guardians of our precious democracy.
However, such Teflon coating recently was found to be somewhat ineffective. Trump, after being the recipient of the full motherlode of protections (which he has promised he would eliminate, as “dictator,” if elected) as fairly and uniformly provided to all criminally accused, was unanimously found “guilty without a reasonable doubt,” of thirty-four felony charges, following a properly conducted New York Criminal Court trial. Our sigh of relief and legal affirmation by such decision, was mitigated by Trump’s egocentrically delusional (or tactically based) claim that the trial was “rigged.” (See: our immediately preceding essay, “CHUTZPAH” # M. 74). It is also to be despairingly noted, that in response to such multi-count conviction, donations from his MAGA cult of misguided lemmings, were disturbingly enormous in amount, demonstrating to citizens dedicated to the support our vulnerable Republican Democracy, that the removal of this deep, widespread and ugly stain, will take especially energetic and proactive effort. The abhorrent stain of MAGA fascism, alarmingly, has already extended its noxious pollution to one of America’s two institutional political parties, to its House of Representatives and most incredibly, to its Highest Court.
Just as the removal of marring stains on fabric requires an effective cleansing agent and the expenditure of determination and concentrated effort, the ridding of this analogical fabric blemish, inclusive of its widespread, undemocratic spread, will require such significant effort and ardent, personal dedication. The shamelessly aggressive populist, anti-democratic tactics of the contextual enterprise seeking the disfiguration of the constitution and the atavistic discarding of the societal rule of law, calls for ardent application, with a dedicated and tireless hand, the persuasive cleansing agent of the defense of truth and civil morality. However, a response consisting merely of the practice of conveyed theoretical admonition would appear haplessly impotent to counter the growth of that politically toxic and metastasizing reprise of Nazi-ism. Michele Obama’s recommendation, “When they go low, we go high,” is commendable and a tribute to her intellectually wise and sophisticated persona. However, in our experientially, pragmatic view, in dealing with the subject, vocal, active and dangerous insurgents, we would suitably recommend, an effective amendment to such morally principled declaration, viz., “When they go low, we go low.” Totalitarian bullies pay scant attention to academic or philosophical admonition. Our efforts to cleanse the Nation of the danger of autocratic, tyrannical rule, must be affirmatively expressed in ready, vocal argument, and when relevant, legal redress; and inarguably, by the proper exercise of our vote. We cannot, as mere spectators, permit our historically unique form of humanistic polity and its assured personal liberties go the tragic way of the 1930’s Munich. The dynamics of choosing a leader by the mode of terrorism is systemically abhorrent to the normally socialized American citizen; as is the toxic defiling of the Supreme Court, House of Representatives and one of the two traditional political parties. The mainstream American citizen needs to wake up to the impending threat with an affirmative, Paul Revere- type exigent alarm. (ref.: M. 74 “LEFT AND REICH”).
In keeping with our Nation’s history of overcoming political tragedy, viz., Civil War, Great Depression, the Viet Nam War, McCarthyism and the like, we retain our systemic optimism that with regard to the present hazardous threat, our precious and vulnerable Democracy will endure; based upon the historically empirical, dedication of its traditional mainstream citizens. It is our further expectation that traces of the contextual stain will not be entirely obliterated from the fabric of our Nation, like that of the Civil War and Jim Crow; but that they will exist as faded, but enduring, instructional reminders.
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