by Joseph Levendusky
To reasonably sober Americans, the post-election drama playing out on our various screens is an inscrutable and heretofore unimaginable absurdity that marks a low point in American political history. As the relief and euphoria of the Biden/Harris victory gives way to the reality of governing in the face of irrational and intractable opposition, it appears that ridding our nation of Trumpism may be both a long-term project and a heavy lift.
Never before have a sitting President and his besotted votaries so brazenly and persistently questioned the result of an election that they have demonstrably lost. In the weeks that have passed since the election, many adults in positions of trust and responsibility—who presumably know better—have put forth numerous profoundly irresponsible assertions. Their public actions have been a master class in moral turpitude and political vandalism.
It is clear that millions of Americans are in thrall to a madman. The vast majority of Republicans maintain that the recent election was rigged despite clear and substantial evidence to the contrary. A shocking portion of Americans believe conspiracy theories involving QAnon and the Deep State. A number of faith leaders have been preaching that Trump was installed in the Presidency expressly by the power of the Almighty.
The rubbish that Hilary Clinton ran a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor and conjecture about the death of Vince Foster persist. Right wing believers continue to maintain that Barack Obama is not an American citizen and thus was an illegitimate President. Countless Americans believe that a disease that has killed more Americans than WWII is a political concoction. One hundred twenty-six members of Congress signed on to the preposterous Texas election challenge.
The Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “Fascism is the outcome of a collective incapacity to think.” At this time in the United States of America we are witnessing a widespread crisis of cognitive malfunction.
What makes this set of circumstances so dangerous is the unsettling resemblance of Trump era lies and fraudulence to the Big Lie that set Germany on the road to Nazism. In the aftermath of World War I, German military and political leaders tried to dodge blame for Germany’s defeat and diminished standing in the world.
To explain increasingly dire material circumstances facing average Germans, these leaders pointed to Jews, socialists and foreign influences as culprits. They fabricated a narrative of a glorious German nation “stabbed in the back” by subversive elements. The Nazis elaborated on this falsehood to justify eradicating groups they deemed inferior and threatening to native Germans.
Though there have been mass hysterias and shaky conspiracy theories throughout U.S. history—ranging from the Salem witch trials to the blacklists of the McCarthy era, the paranoia of the John Birch Society and the Satanic panic of the late twentieth century—it seems unthinkable that so many contemporary Americans could give credence to so much that is patently untrue. While it may be unreasonable to forecast evil on the scale of Nazi Germany, there can be no doubt of the storm clouds that have been gathering.
Our country is suffering a plague of mean and shoddy thinking that threatens to propel us toward fascism. This is the end product of decades of vitriolic right-wing propaganda that gained momentum with the first Presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan and was compounded by subsequent political neglect of broad swaths of American society whose lot has progressively worsened while a small segment of Americans has accrued unprecedented power and affluence.
Propaganda for profit has established itself as a growth industry. Media outlets Sinclair, One American Network and Newsmax now challenge Fox News in terms of viewership and the manufacture of misguided outrage. Fringe influencers such as Info Wars and Breitbart, conservative personalities such as Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh and Steve Bannon, and social media outliers like Parler, traffic in increasingly horrid lies. Bad actors of this ilk exploit human suggestibility, ingrained prejudices and tribal biases for financial gain.
Undoubtedly Mr. Trump comprehends that he will not occupy the White House on January 21. He will gracelessly and disruptively decamp to Mar-a-Lago where he will establish a Trumpanista regime in exile and bloviate further claims to being the legitimate President. He will direct digital mortar fire via Twitter at the nascent Biden Administration. He can be expected to cry “witch hunt” and attempt to avoid extradition to face charges in the State of New York.
Trump’s base, much of it deeply steeped in the mythology of a noble Lost Cause, will not easily desert him. Citizen Trump will continue to author tales designed to enflame their passions. That he may also incite them to increasing violence looms as an uncomfortable possibility.
Make no mistake, American democracy is facing its most profound crisis since the Civil War. We are suffering an unmitigated degradation of political, intellectual and moral values. But what can be done to reverse this course and avoid the worst of consequences?
First, there must be a robust, meticulous and relentless campaign of truth telling on all levels of American society. Vaclav Havel posited in his 1976 essay The Power of the Powerless that authoritarians gain and hold power by virtue of widespread acceptance of disinformation, sham and excusatory rationales for oppressive policies. Havel proposed “living in truth” as a countervailing political strategy in the face of authoritarian treachery.
Secondly, the Biden/Harris administration must govern well and post solid accomplishments. There would be no better way to tamp down the fires of Trumpism than making discernable progress toward improving the well-being of a majority of Americans. Biden and Harris will face strong headwinds, owing to a power drunk Republican leadership who will most probably see little political advantage in facilitating progress.
Next, we must address the increasing inequality that has undermined social stability. It is time to devise a new system of political economics that considers outcomes other than the bottom line. The stock market has been proven an unreliable measure of inclusive economic welfare. New metrics would include environmental sustainability, general health and well-being, and equal access to education and opportunity. The slide toward plutocracy must be reversed and political power redistributed in a more democratic fashion.
We must rededicate ourselves to healing the racial divide that sunders our country. Slavery and the genocide of Native Americans were founding hypocrisies that embedded deep moral flaws in our otherwise noble democratic experiment. America cannot be whole, fully functioning or true to its ideals until we can commit irrevocably to unity, equality of opportunity and universal expectations of justice. This will require abiding dedication. A disorder that has festered for better than four hundred years has assuredly grown deep roots and deep complications.
We must finally, after years of neglect and delay, sort out our immigration policies. Immigration, despite periodic outbursts of intolerance, has been a fundamental strength of our nation. The energies of those who set out to come here provide a powerful font of renewal. While the United States faces unique political challenges due to an exceptionally diverse population, discord over immigration and diversity sabotages the smooth functioning of our society and our economy.
It is clearly necessary to double down on education. The demands of citizenship in the 21stcentury require a deeper education than in previous generations. A widespread lack of historical knowledge and critical thinking skills has provided fertile ground for propaganda to take root. A functioning citizen must now be able to sift through the torrents of information—facts and falsehoods, solid arguments and self-serving screed—that bombard us each day.
We must expand access to higher education. We must also return to a more holistic view of education that values producing critical and self-aware citizens, rather than simply highly skilled workers and better earners. In recent years, educational leaders—not unlike others in American society—have been seduced by the siren song of money at the expense of deeper and more thoughtful outlooks.
How should we regard Americans who have been seduced by this pathological con man and his henchmen? While it is difficult—and rightly so—to respect their flirtation with unhinged antidemocratic politics, it is right for us to be concerned for their welfare, simply because they are human beings and fellow Americans. As a practical matter, addressing the real problems that they face will go a long way to stabilizing our volatile circumstances.
Should elected leaders who have supported Trump’s election fraud mendacity be punished? Should Speaker Pelosi refuse to seat the one hundred twenty-six Republicans who supported the seditious Texas lawsuit? These are thorny questions. While anti-democratic actions deserve to be called out and sanctioned, a restoration of social stability is the most pressing priority. For the first time since the Civil War, the Republic edges close to a catastrophic fracture.
Perhaps censure of the seditious Republicans would send an adequate message. But harsher measures should be taken only with caution and with full consideration of the near-term repercussions. When the current threat is behind us, this chapter in American history demands thorough examination. Measures should be enacted to better shore up our democracy. Perhaps a sort of Truth and Reconciliation process might prove helpful in censuring the blameworthy while promoting greater unity.
We are crossing turbulent waters in the American journey. One might hope that Donald J. Trump would soon tire of the havoc he has created and would thus fade into the obscurity he so richly deserves. But, as madmen rarely tire of their madness, it would be foolish to depend on it.
