Trump! Trump!
Trump! That’s practically the
only story that is being discussed by the news analysts in the United States
these days. And it’s practically the
only story that is being discussed by my friends in Chicago. Everybody is in disbelief. How did this happen? This man who comes across as a narcissistic,
vulgar, offensive, racist, sexist shapeshifter, a man who shocks his audiences
by constantly putting on new faces for them and constantly modifying and
contradicting things he had previously said.
News
analysts are explaining the Trump election surprise by suggesting that the
fundamental problem was that the established Democratic and Republican power
structures had simply not taken into sufficient consideration the anger of
white working class men, who saw their jobs going overseas as a result of the
multinational trade agreements or else being taken over by machines and robots and
who felt that the principal beneficiaries of these economic changes were the
very wealthy. I share this analysis as
far as it goes. Trump has focused on the
issue of economic policy, although he has not come up with any specific
solutions.
But I
feel very strongly that the content of Trump’s message was not the only level
on which he seduced people to take up his cause. As people who have regularly read my column
know, I am very interested in the way people experience life situations. And the way his supporters experience Trump
tells us a lot not only about Trump himself, but also about his supporters.
To
some of us, the fact that Trump was constantly switching his positions on many
different issues and that he was constantly finding novel outrageous ways to
attack his opponents and other people was a really indicative sign of his lack
of emotional stability. Was this the
kind of person one would want to have as the person who could determine whether
or not the U.S. would use a nuclear bomb?
But what us skeptics did not understand was that what we found to be
concerning, a lot of other people found to be delightful. This second group of people liked Trump’s
vulgar, offensive, outrageous comments, his threats to put Hillary in jail and
to carry out law suits against different imagined enemies. This second group loved all the media
coverage that Trump got for nothing.
They loved the fact that he was always throwing us skeptics off balance
and making us angry with his comments.
They loved the fact that he was always adding so much tension, so much
friction to normally orderly campaign events.
To his supporters, Trump gave vulgarity, offensiveness and
outrageousness a good name.
And,
of course, the news media ate up Trump’s behavior. Every time Trump changed his position on
something or attacked somebody verbally, it became a newsworthy event. Trump didn’t have to spend a whole lot of
money on campaign advertising, because his outrageous behavior drew so much media
coverage. The media paid attention to
him the way an audience would have paid
attention to a clown, a magician, or a mud wrestler. He was simply mesmerizing.
But
it is one thing to pay a lot of attention to someone, and it is another thing
to vote for him. To vote for him is to
say you want to see his continued presence in your life. It is to say that you don’t want the stage
act to end for a while. The truth is
that many people in the United States, including the people in the news media,
got kicks out of his constantly shifting positions on most things as well as
his outrageous attitudes and behavior.
Trump jolted them out of the experiential vacuum in which they live, all
the mediated experience in which they were living. These people spend a lot of time being numb
spectators of consumer technological processes on their televisions, computers,
and smartphones. And all those workers
who had been displaced by technology and the movement of factory work overseas
had another layer of numbing vacuum in which to live: all the unemployment, all
the partially employing jobs and all the underemploying jobs. For numb people like this, what could be more
exciting than a presidential candidate who was constantly in people’s faces, a
person who acted assertively on his impulses.
To experience Trump is not the same as getting the organic stimulation
from a more traditional natural living environment. Such an environment would give a more
sustained source of stimulation that would pull them more completely and more
permanently out from their numbness. But
lacking this sustained organic stimulation, people in modern technological
society look for quick fixes: alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex and risk-taking in
general.
And
Trump falls into this category. He has
become a high-risk addiction for many Americans. And the more changeable he is, the more
outrageous he is, the more intense is the kick that he gives. The more he pulls Americans out of their
numbness and their jadedness. The more abrasive and unpredictable he is, the
more these people feel the shock, the kick.
Since
winning the election, Trump has been very conciliatory and has pulled back from
many of the threats he has made. He is
no longer going to try and lock up Hillary.
He is going to save parts of Obamacare.
And suddenly, Obama is a man who advises him and is a man with whom he
wants to continue to confer.
But
Trump is a shapeshifter. He is
constantly reinventing himself. Right
now he wants to pacify all the groups of people he has offended, although as
the demonstrators show, he is obviously not succeeding. Nevertheless, the people who voted for him,
believe in him, and believe in him no matter what. When asked about his offensive behavior or
some of his controversial positions, many people defend him by saying that he
will change. He will change all
right. He will change and change again
and change again, giving whatever presentation of himself is appropriate for a
particular situation. Such is the nature
of a shapeshifter. And this is what is
so worrisome. He can take some very
dangerous positions for the purpose of expediency. Like verbally attacking certain groups, so
that his followers can have their scapegoats.
And he can turn the hatred on and off as is needed. All for the purpose of solidifying his
strongman position by being a supposed savior.
And,
on one level, he is a “savior”, even if it is just for short periods of
time. He is a “savior” by shocking
people to life temporarily with his attacks and with his vulgarity, much the
way heroin is a “savior” that shocks drug addicts temporarily to life. So on a certain level, Trump is definitely like
an addiction for the people who voted for him.
He pulls them out of their experiential vacuum, their numb lives, with
his abrasive attitudes and behavior. He
gives them a stimulation that allows them to feel something strong in their
lives.
The
problem with Trump’s election is not just related to Trump himself. It relates to a good chunk of the American
population that connect with him. And
they will continue to be here after Trump’s term or terms in office. If they continue to exert the influence they
did in this election, we could have another disruptive person as president
after Trump is gone. Wouldn’t that be
something to look forward to?
(c) 2016 Laurence Mesirow
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