Trumpeting Trump

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”   (1 Corinthians 13:1, KJV)

 

In the 1970s, pop artist Andy Warhol famously predicted that in the future, everyone would have their own “15 minutes of fame.” 30 years later, the Internet, social media, 24x7 cable news and so-called reality shows, combined to provide the catalyst and forum for that prediction to come true. As a result, many people of minimal talent and of little consequence to my learning and experience have been escalated into our national headlines. We had “Joe the plumber” commenting on national politics in 2008; a minor but hateful preacher in Florida gaining international attention by burning copies of the Qur’an; another preacher in Iowa recently advocating the killing of all homosexuals, while attracting presidential candidates to his rallies; and endless “political pundit” filling air time in spite of their dubious credentials. In fact, the only credential each of them shares is outrageousness – the willingness to say or do something so out of our social norms that their very audacity is deemed worthy of our notice. They engage us as the 21^st-century version of the circus freak show attraction.

 

Into this theater of the amateur hour comes Donald Trump, Republican candidate for President of the United States of America. Trump, who is well beyond his allotted 15 minutes, generates the most controversy and incomprehension of this election season. Originally dismissed as side-show entertainment, he now stands a real chance of winning the nomination. The mood of the voters, the election calendar of which states vote when, and the rule change to “proportional delegate awarding” all work in his favor. People (domestic and world-wide) have struggled to explain the Trump phenomenon. His willingness to say anything far beyond a normal politician’s disregard for truth, the absence of any substance in what pretends for policy positions, his  unwillingness to admit error in the face of corrective facts, and his tactic of vocalizing hate and disrespect against everyone who does not resemble 1950s-America, are all frightening for a leading candidate for President. Moderate-minded people ask, how does one explain Donald Trump?

 

Actually, explaining Trump is not that mysterious. Donald Trump is first and foremost about being Donald Trump. Doing what it takes to glorify Donald Trump. All else is secondary to that overriding goal. Always has been, always will be. So we should not kid ourselves that Trump is in this race to benefit you and me. Trump lists his occupation as a real estate developer, a builder of expensive playgrounds in which the rich can indulge. But that is hardly the true case if you look at where his corporate time is actually spent. Trump’s real occupation, and the source of his billions, are from being an exceptionally successful “brander” – building economic value in a name that people are willing to pay for. We have Trump towels, Trump golf courses, and Trump hotels so that we, the public, can vicariously share in the aura of his success and wealth by drying off with his towels, putting on his golf greens, and staying in his hotel rooms that are of no better quality than many other competitors. Donald Trump is no different than Martha Stewart, Tiffany’s, and George Foreman’s BBQ grill. It is the same hucksterism. It is not about the substance. It is just all about media attention, which has to be replenished constantly. Donald Trump, a trained master of media attention, is the highly successful Kardashian of politics.

 

Today, media attention most often simply requires being outrageous. And no one does outrageous better than Trump. To do outrageous successfully, there are three component parts required. First, find a topic that resonates well with a deeply frustrated but minority audience. This is your hook and beginning audience. Second, make a statement containing three components: speak the here-to-fore unheard angry words your audience wants to say; identify an early target to blame for their anger, an unequal scapegoat that is unable to adequately defend itself; propose a simple “solution” within one easily rememberable and repeatable sentence – truthfulness and practicality deemed irrelevant. Third, no matter the criticism of your statement, stick to your guns and do not back down an inch. In fact, repeat the message over and over again until it begins to sound both true and now doable – at which time your opponents will be forced to treat it as a serious statement that requires a response. It is a classic textbook way to attract attention and appear to have substance. It is a textbook that has been read extensively by many manipulators of public opinion, particularly in pre-WWII Germany. It is a textbook Donald Trump has read carefully and practiced for 30 years.

 

2016 is the perfect storm for the time of the outrageous. The electorate, from top to bottom and left to right, are incredibly angry. At world events; at shrinking economic opportunity and the loss of fairness; at either too much or too little social change; at the threat of violence from foreign enemies or neighborhood thugs; at the unwillingness or inability of elected leaders to solve problems instead of rewarding themselves. Enter a brash billionaire financially beholden to no one, unrestricted by the rules and restraints of others, and a master of media manipulation. These are the combustible ingredients set to kindle an all-consuming fire of outrage.

 

The resulting fire has sucked the oxygen out of this election. Sucked the oxygen out of the campaigns of the other candidates of both parties as they get swept up into the Trump vortex, forced to react to or emulate his tactics. Republican Party leadership is in anguish over the potential of a Trump nomination and the potential long-term negative impact for the Party. Yet in many respects they have only themselves to blame, having spent the last eight years incessantly declaring the imminent doomsday of America. Such rhetoric helped to create much of the fear, expectations, and frustrated anger that Trump is now exploiting so successfully.

 

In the 1950s, when the country was consumed by the Cold War and suspected Communists hiding in every corner, Joe McCarthy, a little-known junior senator from Wisconsin, came forth. For years he terrorized innocent citizens by his outrageous lies of traitorous Communists supposedly lurking in the Federal Government. His list of suspects was never revealed; he never proved his allegations. Bus as his accusations went unproven, it required him to constantly invent new and more outrageous accusations to keep the momentum (and his headlines) going. The beast of his own making required constant feeding. Until one outrage became one too many. He was finally called out by Edward R. Murrow, the most respected journalist of the day, along with Boston attorney Joseph Welch, who – in televised hearings defending the U.S. Army against McCarthy’s latest attacks – asked McCarthy, “Senator, have you no shame?”

 

It is easy to simply give voice to anger, and to insult others as being incompetent and “stupid,” to stoke passion and divide anxious people. But that is not true leadership, and leadership is what we expect from our president. Leadership is the ability to transform anger into positive action, and to bring differing perspectives and ambitions into cooperative movement. Can we really picture Donald Trump standing in the well of Mother Emanuel Church or addressing the parents at Sandy Hook after a shooting tragedy? Speaking for America to world leaders at the United Nations? Making national life-or-death decisions about using our military troops and weaponry? Welcoming new immigrants and citizens at the Statue of Liberty? Presenting a future vision and agenda for America in a State of the Union address?

 

In the long term, it is not about Donald J. Trump. It is about us. Over time, Americans have always moved away from our fears, angers and self-centeredness, and toward our better selves, our more noble aspirations, our moral obligations, our sense of a shared community.  Will America tire of the Donald Trump show and his simplistic insults over the next ten months? Is there a journalist today of Murrow’s standing, able to ask the great showman of the outrageous, “Donald, have you no shame?”

 

“The Americans will always do the right thing... after they've exhausted all the alternatives.”

(multiple attributions)

 

©   2016   Randy Bell               www.ThoughtsFromTheMountain.blogspot.com