Trump Wants A Ruthless America
"Believe me, I'll change things.
And again, we're going to be so respected. I don't want to use the word
'feared,'" he told the audience. But that is precisely what Trump wants:
to be feared. His bid for the White House, long
ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America. Behind his campaign
slogan "Make America great again!" is the vision of a country that no
longer cares about international treaties, ethnic minorities or established
standards of decency.
Trump wants to attack head-first
again. The 69-year-old embodies a new harshness and brutality, and both a
physical and emotional crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the
indecent, one that is now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of
white, conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President
Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the counter-revolution.
Former Obama campaign manager David
Axelrod wrote recently that Trump's success is
based on the same principle as the campaign victories of his former boss. In
fact, he added, he had explained this recipe for success to Obama himself when
he first ran for president: When a president leaves office after eight years,
voters tend to prefer a candidate who is as different as possible from the
incumbent, in terms of politics, character and habits.
By that logic, Obama the integrator,
who fought against discrimination against blacks and gays, would be followed by
a President Trump who stirs up hatred against minorities and claims that
"political correctness" is the greatest threat to the United States.
While Obama sought to explain complex problems, often sounding like an
intellectual in the process, studies have shown that Trump speaks at a
fourth-grade reading level. Problems, according to Trump, are "totally easy"
to solve. And while Obama appealed to the common "we" in his campaign
slogan "Yes, we can!" Trump's version reads "Yes, I can!"
-- the solution of a strong leader.
Currently, America is running the risk
of falling for a self-proclaimed leader with a low opinion of fundamental
democratic values. Shortly before the Iowa Caucuses on Monday, all national
polls showed Trump as the leading Republican candidate by a wide margin. He is
also polling at the top of the Republican field in almost every state in the
country. In Iowa itself, with its large religious population, the race could
end up being a close contest between Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a
Christian hardliner.
Desire for a Strong Man at the Top
Trump takes every opportunity in this
campaign to portray his country as a down-and-out weakling. According to his
strategy, when a nation's feeling of self-worth has hit rock bottom, it
experiences a growing desire to overcome the "status quo" -- and for
a strong man at the top.
Trump is a unique figure. He is so
wealthy that his campaign is almost entirely self-financed. Thanks to his
colorful life as a New York real estate mogul and star of the reality TV show
"The Apprentice," he enters the presidential race with a celebrity
factor like no other candidate before him.
But his most unique characteristic is
his lack of scruples. When speaking about his amiable rival Jeb Bush, he has
often said that Bush is such a "low-energy person" that no one can
even look at him anymore without seeking signs of his lack of energy. Trump has
repeatedly said that Marco Rubio, another Republican contender, "sweats a
lot," which, according to Trump, would be a little embarrassing for a
president who has to negotiate with "strong leaders like Vladimir Putin."
He recently began claiming that his strongest rival at the moment, Ted Cruz,
lacks the legal qualification to become president because he was born on
Canadian soil. And last year he tweeted: "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy
her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" All of this
profanity and unscrupulousness would have forced anyone else to resign. But for
his millions of supporters, they are further evidence of Trump's boldness and
strength.
"I could stand in the middle of
Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?,"
Trump said at a rally in Iowa a week ago Saturday. He mimicked shooting a
pistol with his finger and added: "It's like, incredible!"
Fascist Characteristics
New Yorker writer George Packer's book
"The Unwinding" describes the gradual economic and, more importantly,
moral decline of the United States. It is perhaps the most astute book about
the country's condition today. Sitting at Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery in
Manhattan's Greenwich Village, Packer says that Trump now exhibits several of
the characteristics of a fascist.
In the past, as a reality TV star,
Trump had to come across as somewhat likeable, says Packer. But now that he is
playing the fascist, he suddenly resembles one, with his grim face, his pursed
lips and the threatening and intimidating look in his eyes.
It's no accident that Trump expresses
great admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who seems to impress him
far more than politicians seeking to champion the values of democracy with their
painstaking and often vain search for compromises.
"He is a nicer person than I
am," Trump said of the Russian president. "In terms of leadership,
he's getting an A." The reason, according to Trump, is that Putin is
"making mincemeat out of our president."
Putin returned the compliment in
December, when he said: "He's a really brilliant and talented person,
without any doubt. He is the absolute front-runner in the presidential
race." Trump, who judges people purely by whether or not they praise him,
promptly shot back: "When people call you brilliant, it's always good,
especially when the person heads up Russia."
Inflaming Tensions
Packer says many Europeans are
currently looking at Trump's success and thinking: "Those Americans are
crazy!" But Trump isn't some strange US mutation, says Packer, who instead
sees him as being evocative of European right-wing populists, à la Marine Le
Pen in France and Viktor Orbán in Hungary.
While politicians like Le Pen and
Orbán inveigh against "Brussels," Trump rails against
"Washington" as the symbol of a degenerate political system
"that doesn't get things done anymore." Just like his European
counterparts, Trump is calling for isolation in the form of protective tariffs,
entry bans and border walls. He inflames tensions against ethnic minorities and
offers anxious citizens the authoritarian vision of a strongman who will solve
all problems on his own -- while ignoring democratic conventions. Trump is
presumably only the shrillest and most prominent embodiment of a trend that is
becoming pervasive throughout the Western world.
Packer sees the 2008 financial crisis,
which caused parts of the US economy to unravel and deprived millions of
Americans of their economic foundation, as the main reason many Americans are
receptive to a man like Trump. The economy has been growing again since then,
but in absurdly unfair ways, says Packer, as inequality becomes more and more
glaring. According to Packer, many Americans feel they have been left alone
with their concerns, and they feel disconnected and betrayed.
The current primary race underscores
how much this frustration has already changed the country. It has enabled
Bernie Sanders, an extreme leftist by American standards, to become a serious
threat to Hillary Clinton. And it is preparing the ground for Trump's campaign
against all the elites, even though Trump himself has spent his entire life as
a member of the country's economic elite.
Many Americans, especially whites and
those with relatively little education, are now more receptive than ever to
audacious promises and simplistic solutions. But they are also receptive to a
form of politics that blames immigrants and minorities for their own fate, and
for the race-baiting that has been part of every authoritarian movement to
date. Trump offers all of these things, and he offers them more skillfully,
professionally and self-confidently than all other candidates.
The Dark Side of Trump's Narcissism
During an appearance two weeks at a Toyota dealership
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a young woman in the crowd said she had two
questions for Trump. The first one was about the college financing system.
Trump's reply contained the word "college," at any rate. This was her
second question: "Can I take a selfie with you?" The owner of the
dealership felt that the question was inappropriate and quickly said that
perhaps she could do it later. But Trump was already saying "Of course! Of
course!" and waved the woman onto the stage.
His biographer talks about the dark sides of Trump's
self-absorption. "Trump lacks any self-irony, any form of critical
self-perception." The entire family is like that, he explains. When he
tried to joke with Trump's children about their father's penchant for gold and
glitter in his buildings, none of them understood what he was getting at.
"They don't notice when something is ridiculous," says D'Antonio.
"This is the most telling characteristic of the entire Trump clan: the
persistent denial of reflection."
But what worried him the most, says D'Antonio, is
Trump's belief that he is genetically superior to most people in the world. In
all of their conversations, he notes, Trump kept returning to the notion that
by virtue of his birth, he is simply better than other people in many areas --
from playing golf to being a businessman. "I'm a big believer in natural
ability," Trump said.
His son, Donald Trump Jr., shares his father's
conviction. He said he was a firm believer in the concept of breeding, in
"race-horse theory." Then he pointed at the ceiling with his finger,
in the direction of his father's office. "He's an incredibly accomplished
guy, my mother's incredibly accomplished, she's an Olympian, so I'd like to
believe genetically I'm predisposed to (be) better than average."
Apparently this sort of belief also helps Trump
portray himself to voters as a strong man, as the person who will save the
country.
A Core Element of Racism
In early January, the stadium at Winthrop University
in Rock Hill, South Carolina, was filled with 6,500 Trump supporters. Rose
Hamid, a Muslim woman, waited for the right moment to express her opposition to
Trump. Hamid and her friends chose a spot in the bleachers, directly behind the
lectern. They had planned to stand up when Trump said something hateful. When he
began railing against Syrian refugees, Hamid pulled out a yellow Star of David
with the word Muslim printed on it and stuck it to her T-shirt. She stood up
and folded her hands. Her Jewish friend also rose to her feet, and they both
stood there, in silent protest against the stigmatization of religions.
The crowd erupted into indignation within seconds.
Trump's fans stuck their fists in the air and drowned out Hamid, as if she were
a criminal, shouting "Trump! Trump!" Then Trump signaled to the
security guards to remove Hamid from the room. She didn't resist. Since the
incident, however, she has known what it feels like to be chased away by Trump
and his supporters.
A few days later Hamid, 56, is sitting in a row house
in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, talking about the January evening
when Trump had her escorted out. Hamid is a proud Muslim woman who wears a
headscarf, even while working as a flight attendant, and she has never been
criticized for it. She was raised Catholic and converted to Islam in her
mid-20s. A copy of the Ten Commandments sits on her bookshelf and a verse from
the Koran hangs on the wall. She believes in the diversity of religions. That
was what she wanted to say to Trump when she heard he was coming to her area.
At first Hamid, like many others, didn't take Trump
seriously. But this changed when Trump, after the attacks in Paris, proposed
the establishment of a database of all Muslims in the country. He later called
for a "complete shutdown of all Muslims entering the United States until
our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." It seems
to trouble neither Trump nor his supporters that the First Amendment to the US
Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of religion.
Racism has since become a core element of his
campaign, but it has only intensified in recent months. At first, Trump was
only talking about the need to stop illegal immigrants. Only when he realized
that this was what got him the most applause did he become more radical. In
June, he said that Mexico is "bringing drugs, crime and rapists" to
the United States, and that he would "build a great, great wall on our
southern border," and "I will have Mexico pay for that wall!" He
also announced that he would deport all 11 million illegal immigrants within
two years. For his fans, Trump's "great, great wall," which he
compares with the Great Wall of China, has become a symbol of a well-fortified
America.
An Odd Worldview
Trump the entrepreneur does business all around the
world. Ironically, however, as president he would limit any free trade not
conducted according to his own rules. In order to shrink the trade deficit with
China, he proposes imposing high punitive tariffs on Chinese exports to the US.
He promises to bring back all the American jobs that have been lost to Asia or
Mexico as a result of globalization. Voters are expected to trust that Trump
will be as effective a diplomatic negotiator as he was a business negotiator.
"I will be the greatest jobs president that God has ever created," Trump
boasted last summer.
His foreign policy essentially boils down to a bizarre
mix of isolationism and a simultaneous show of superiority through a military
build-up. "I'm the most militaristic person there is," Trump says.
When it comes to international politics, Trump prefers
to rely on his own personal experiences and impulses than on textbooks. For
example, he doesn't consider North Korea to be an American problem, but rather
one which China must solve. He offers a similar approach for addressing the war
in Syria, where he feels the problems should be dealt with locally and that
there is no need for intervention.
Trump nevertheless says he wants to "bomb the
hell out of" the Islamic State (IS), or as his newly won endorsee Sarah
Palin expressed on stage just over a week ago, he would send American
"warriors" to "kick ISIS's ass." To accomplish that, Trump
claims he wants to give US generals free hand, saying they already know what
needs to be done. What Trump hasn't revealed, unfortunately, is how alliances
are even supposed to be forged with Muslim countries against the Islamic State
by a United States that places Muslims under a state of general suspicions and
refuses to allow them to travel into the country as he has proposed doing.
Trump has announced he will take a hardline approach
on terrorists, but he also says he doesn't want to be interventionist. His gut
feeling is that Americans will reject interventions with uncertain outcomes.
During his campaign, he has often repeated the fact that he heavily criticized
the Iraq war in 2003. The way things look right now, the world is going to have
to brace for a US foreign policy based on gut feelings.
Is There any Stopping Trump?
The question now is whether such a political course,
and indeed a President Donald J. Trump, can even still be prevented. And who
could stop him? The possibilities include the Republicans themselves, a party
Trump seems to work with based on his mood or whim. And then, of course, there
are the Democrats, whose probable candidate, Hillary Clinton, Trump will likely
have to square off against in the main election. But neither side can be fully
trusted to defeat Trump.
Never before has the grand, time-honored Republican
Party been as helpless and hapless as it is right now. The party's leadership
had sought an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush or the younger Marco Rubio.
But Trump?
"We are in total chaos," says Peter Wehner,
a former speechwriter for George W. Bush. He says the Republicans are already
divided and that a Trump candidacy could spell the end of the Grand Old Party.
When Wehner talks about Trump, it sounds as if he's referring to the head of
some dictatorship. "Trump is erratic. He is emotionally unstable, has
authoritarian tendencies and a certain cruelty. He is a toxic figure, a
demagogue. Trump would cause a lot of damage to the Republican Party. If he won
the nomination it would be a hostile takeover. We must prevent it."
Some already view Trump as the founder of a new
political movement -- "Trumpism" -- that has little in common with
the traditional conservatism on the right.
The level of frustration among many Republican
officials was on display in mid-January during a speech given at an internal
meeting of party leaders in South Carolina by Holland Redfield, a member of the
Republican National Committee, who said the GOP was being "almost
terrorized" by Trump and that "there is a limit to loyalty."
The question being discussed the most right now within
the party is what the GOP's response should be if Trump wins the first
primaries. Should he be embraced in order to share in the success? Or should
the party take a more hostile approach in the hope that a more reliable
candidate may ultimately prevail?
Currently, the faction that views Trump as
representing the downfall of conservatism is dominating. Strategy papers are
being circulated within the party addressing how officials should counter
Trump's arguments. The National Review, a respected conservative political
magazine, even published a plea to prominent Republicans under the headline,
"Against Trump."
A Threat to World Peace
If the most powerful office in the world wasn't at
stake, all this wouldn't be nearly as dangerous. Germany has been too busy
dealing with the supposed threat posed by refugees in recent months to
appreciate what's really been going on across the Atlantic. Despite their
differences, the US and Germany share an unshakeable faith in democracy and
freedom. But nothing would be more harmful to the idea of the West and world
peace than if Donald Trump were to be elected president. Compared to that, the
America of George W. Bush would seem like a land of logic and reason in
retrospect.
Bush,
to his credit, never compared migrants to poisonous snakes -- something Trump
did recently at a rally in Pensacola, Florida. Later that night, Trump
addressed what has been one of his favorite topics lately: Europe's refugee
crisis. "Just talk to the folks over in Germany," he said.
"Europe is being destroyed."
When he puts on his reading glasses, the audience goes
quiet. "Just listen to this," he says, pulling a piece of paper from
his pocket. He printed out the lyrics to "The Snake," an old soul hit
from Al Wilson. The song is about a snake, half frozen from the cold, that asks
a woman to be let inside. The woman takes pity on the animal and holds it to
her bosom, upon which the snake bites and poisons her.
Trump reads the lyrics aloud passionately, as if he
were auditioning for a role. "Oh, shut up silly woman," he says,
imitating the snake: "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me
in." The crowd cheers. They're over the moon. Trump just stares back at
them. "We're gonna get bit."
0 comments:
Post a Comment