September 7, 2020
It is Labor Day in the United States and so we have a bonus
day to take a deep breath, do some reflection, and ready ourselves for the race
to the finish on November 3. A first observation is how odd and unlikely it is
that the contest for the Presidency is between two people in the same age group
I belong to: the people whose work is mostly done and who should spend their
remaining days filling in the gaps, tending to tasks and missions that were
ignored or unrecognized in the frantic business of making a career. It shouldn’t
be that way. The country is facing tremendous challenges and it is unrealistic
to expect that an advanced septuagenarian can lead the charge to right the
listing, if not sinking, ship.
The second observation is about the unusual character of this contest. It has a third dimension that the nation has not observed during my lifetime, which started with the waning days of the FDR presidency.
The third dimension is the cult aspect of the Trump following. Yes, Trump is the nominee of the Grand Old Party, but if he had to rely on Republicans in the upcoming election, he would certainly loose. Not only has the number of registered Republicans been dropping now for several years, but we are witnessing a steady stream of (prominent) Republicans distancing themselves from Trump and in many cases openly coming out in support of his opponent. It is no longer just the principled ‘Never Trumpers’ who declared their rejection of Trump as candidate even before the 2016 election. It is now a legion of principled Republicans from all walks of life (but notably not so much from GOP representatives in Congress). These people have been judging the President on the basis of his politics, his messaging (in tweets and public appearances), the company he keeps, and his character over the course of the first Trump term in office. And they have, belatedly and grudgingly concluded that they have been betting on the wrong horse. They now see, what should have been evident from the beginning, that Trump is not, and never was, a Republican. They now see clearly that Trump is a populist, with narcistic, authoritarian, and corrupt streaks that are common denominators in populists. Just think about Franco, Mussolini, Peron, Nasser, Marcos, Maduro and Bolsonaro. (It is notable that many populist leaders had the support of Christian churches or denominations. The Trump support from evangelicals is not an aberration.)
That none of this eroding support from Republican
conservatives (and, for that matter, Independents) is reflected in the national
polls, which consistently show an approximate 40% support for the President, is
only explainable as confirmation of the fact that with Trump we are no longer
dealing with a political movement, but with a cult. A cult consists of true
believers, who are not swayed or dissuaded by facts or rationale, but are
guided only by unquestionable faith in the cult leader. As any other cult, the
Trump cult attracts people from all walks of life, but mostly the disgruntled
and the beleaguered.
The core constituency of this cult is formed by descendants
of the European settlers and immigrants who, over the last four centuries, have
taken over the land of the ‘First Americans’; who have had a long history and
privilege of dictating the political scene in the United States, but are now
realizing that they are losing this privilege in a wave of immigration driven
demographic changes. These true believers adore their cult leader, because of
his disdain for other ethnicities and his suppression of immigration. These
true believers have grown up with the belief in American exceptionalism as a
dogma supporting America’s divine right to world supremacy, a supremacy that is
now being challenged by globalization and the emergence of new economic
powerhouses like China and the EU.
The November election may not give us a clear indication of
how strong and widespread this cult is. Because the cultish Trump vote will be
supplemented by those Americans who may hold their noses while doing so, but
still vote for Trump, because they loathe and fear the alternative more. These
voters have bought in to the belief that with a Trump defeat, America will be
doomed to converting from capitalism to socialism and that their personal
prosperity and security is at stake. We all know many of these people. They are
in our neighborhoods, our churches, our offices, and also in our families.
I will not argue with the cult members. They are not open to
any argument that challenges their blind faith in the cult leader. But these
other likely Trump voters I ask: Would you tolerate a person like Trump, in his
behavior, his personal conduct, his cronies, and his utterances, as the CEO of
your business, as the pastor of your church, as the grandfather of your
children? If your answer is ‘yes’, you belong to the cult and I want to
distance myself from you. If your answer is ‘no’, then, in good faith, how can
you even consider to hand over the leadership of your country (and the world for
that matter) to a person that you would not entrust with any authority in your
personal life?
I am a centrist myself. I believe in democracy, the
Constitution, and the strength and resiliency of our institutions and alliances.
I am an open book, politically speaking, after writing six years ago, well
before the emergence of Trump, my political testament in my book ‘NEITHER HERE
NOR THERE’. I have seen enough of socialism in my lifetime to know that it does
not deliver on its theoretical promises. I believe in democratic capitalism as
a tool to reduce the suffocating inequality that is at the core of so much of
the current unrest and discontent. But, if a had a vote as a permanent US
resident, I would not hesitate for a moment to vote for a Democrat, if necessary
to deny Trump a second term. America has, in our lifetime, nicely survived and
prospered under many Democratic Presidents, who have always been restrained by checks
and balances built into our constitutional political system and by almost
universal public aversion of left extremism. There is no reason to believe that
this time it will be different if voters put another Democrat in the White
House.
If you are not a cult member, how can you then, in good
faith, give a second chance to the man who so blatantly has exhibited dishonesty,
narcissism, ignorance, intellectual poverty, greed, pettiness, and racism
during his first term in office? Please don’t!
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