I was very interested in reading the two recent recc’d diaries (here) and (here). But when I think about my knowledge of numerous really bad regimes (where many people died) and my own personal experiences talking to people affected by these regimes, either directly or through passed-down accounts, it makes me think that such a day of reckoning will never, ever come for the die-hard Trump supporters. And let me clarify: I do NOT mean the casual voter who may or may not be persuadable, I mean the hard-core followers of Donald Trump and his ideology.
Let’s start by looking at history. There were so many horrendous and murderous regimes even during the twentieth century that many speculated that there was likely more death through war and mass extermination during that century than at any other time in human history. The world looks at nations like Germany, Russia, Japan etc. and wonders how could their people allow such unspeakable acts to happen in their names. But, as we know too well, circumstances like this often happen without the permission of the majority or arise in situations that the power which was given was abused and the checks of power in government and a free press are destroyed. But what interests me is: How do people see themselves in taking part of some disastrous regime? From what I’ve experienced, knowing a lot about Germany and Russia, for example. Most people never will admit their own role in the situation they helped create (and true enough — many people genuinely were against the regime in the first place, but had little choice..)
But for the most part, you will hardly ever find someone who will “face up” to being an active participant in an oppressive, war-like or murderous regime. You may experience someone’s crazy uncle or grandfather talking about how Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Mussolini etc. was “misunderstood” but usually their stance is:
- I was just a child then, my parent/grandparents had no choice
- Yes, I/we/them worked for the oppressive government, but we had no choice in the matter
- That period is greatly misunderstood
- That was so long ago, everything was in a total state of confusion etc.
- It wasn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be
There is a great German movie called The Nasty Girl/Das Schrecklicke Mädchen (1990) that talks about how a young woman in town discovers how her own townspeople actively participated in the Nazi regime. Quickly the town turns on her. It’s a lie! We don’t want to talk about it! What right do you have? She is threatened and becomes the town pariah for pointing out an inconvenient truth about THEM.
I’ve seen that too in my own life. Of course, I’ve never personally run into someone who proudly proclaims, “Yes, I was a proud member of the Nazi party” or “I proudly helped orchestrate the Stalinist purges.” [Sure, there are outliers. I was a fan of Swedish singer Zara Leander during my youth, who sang in German. Until I discovered her very close relationship with Hitler and could never listen to her again — She vehemently argued until her death that she was just a performer. But, no, that would not cut it]
It should be noted too, that what does often happen is that partisan groups often try to nostalgify the past to restore the name of said dictator/regime. Germany and the US have their far-right parties white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, groups in Russia and China earnestly celebrate the lives of Stalin and Mao respectively etc.
But it is a rare thing that people say, "Yes, I was a proud part of it. I worked toward it happening. I helped to orchestrate it. Recently, I was in the car with a Czech friend, a Hungarian friend and an American friend who has close ties to Mexico, so she was asking about the Soviet block situation. What I found striking about both my Czech friend and my Hungarian friend was that they described the situation as if it was 100% forced participation by the Soviets to take over their country. While I am quite sure no Czech/Hungarian/Pole/Bulgarian etc. was thrilled Soviets had taken over the autonomy of their country, my friends got a good bit irritated when I told my American friend that there were indeed Czechs and Hungarians who collaborated, profited from and benefitted from the system. I gave numerous examples but it was really a very hard sell — the first impulse was to strongly deny, it was not “us” it was “them!!!”
So how does this whole thing involve us as the United States? Well, there are several issues.
- The people who were sold on Trump did so mainly for two reasons 1) They have racial anger/resentment or 2) They are low-information voters who are easily swayed by propaganda. So for the people in group 1, there is little that can be done to awaken them as Trump satisfies a visceral need for them. It is not rational. Eliminate Trump and that nativist itch will still need to be scratched — thus the, “things were really complicated then” argument or 2) These same people can be easily swayed by the next wave of propaganda — the Democratic candidate is X, a terrorist attack, an exploited crime by one Muslim, undocumented immigrant or an African American, sexual abuse by one gay person. That is all it will take to move the narrative on — it was not Donald Trump at all, it was the “important” causes he fought for OR well, he wasn’t the best but better than the Dems who want to let murderous immigrants in every door/ let the gays buy cakes / do nothing about the terror attack we had etc.
- Remember that many of the people on the right oppose Trump because he has not gone FAR enough. The fact that he HASN’T built the wall, talks to Democrats at all, has not stopped gay marriage, has not bombed X, has not blocked every Muslim etc — is a reason to be disillusioned with him. So you could remove Trump and someone who is even more radical would fit the bill very nicely. Which leads me to….
- I can see people putting the lipstick on the pig with Mike Pence. With all of the references to Trump and his crimes, very little mention is made of Mike Pence. Even if Trump is kicked out of office for his crimes, I see little commentary so far about how Pence could be as deeply implicated (I personally think he is but I’m just not seeing it in the media). I often get the impression that Trump is being sold out as the fall guy should they need to go to Plan B, bring Pence, the “real conservative,” into the fold. Pence will be much more appealing to conservatives for many reasons. He is a more “natural fit” for the evangelical base. Like Dubya, he can be stage-managed. So if Pence is able to get through the Russia thing relatively unscathed, I can see a whole campaign about him being the real deal for the conservatives. And McCain, Flake, Morning Joke and all of these other people don’t necessarily complain about the egregious and hateful policies of Trump, just his incompetence. So I think if Russia were declared all good and the vile racist commentary and toxic presence of Trump were cleansed, I think the good ship M. Pence could set sail pretty smoothly. — A case in point. The famous conservative commentator and strategist Max Boot was my next-door neighbor at college. Now, to his great credit, he has always been a never-Trumper, and voted Hillary. But, from what I read from his writings now (and I haven’t spoken to him for like 28 years), he doesn’t object to all of the Trump POLICY points per se just one Trump’s own incompetence, etc. And I could have told you at age 19, if Russian conspiracy were ever brought into the mix, Max, given his own experiences with Russia, would immediately object to that. But a Pence presidency? I’m not so sure he’d be 100% against it, but I could be wrong.
- The American (voting) public has a very short memory. What was one of the reasons for the shellacking we took in the 2010 election? Well, yes, it was a mid-term election; yes, we didn’t go out to vote as we should — but at the heart, there was a huge backlash against Obamacare. So people brought into power the people who would take away their healthcare and now, eight years later, complain that Obamacare can be taken away. I’m young enough to remember when Marcos declared on this site that the GOP could be dead for a generation. In general, the uninformed public does not remember or punish and can be easily swayed by the next election cycle.
- Conservative/right-wing forces have propaganda tools Stalin and Hiter would have killed for. We have seen, just deploy a bot team as people are browsing at leisure time, not watching some official newsreel, and you are good to go. How simple is it to stir up a meme on Facebook, Twitter etc. or through bottom feeders like the Enquirer or Drudge. How easy is it to have fake news sources to prop up Fox News? “Liberal” sources like The Times who know enable as much as they do real reporting for click bait? And we have CONSERVATIVE Hollywood. I am now convinced that roughly 1/3 of Hollywood actors, producers etc. are really conservative. This piece by the Daily Beast talks about Roseanne Barr, once a “radical”, then Jill Stein follower who ended up embracing Trump and supporting the vilest of islamophobes like Pamela Geller. She will be getting a reboot of her show. The article points out that the networks are on the lookout for “white” shows to speak to Red State America which feels left out by the all of that Blackish stuff. I think ultimately the Roseanne reboot in March will be quite mild and Roseanne will be among a quite liberal cast. But I do find it interesting that efforts are being made to put more conservative white people back on the screen. Now we have a proposed reboot of Magnum PI. So, if you are keeping track, Cathy Griffin who made a bad joke about the president should be a pariah forever but Tom Selleck, NRA board member, whose organization enabled the murders of so many people, gets a show. I see. Then there is Patricia Heaton, anti-choice advocate and advocate of not letting Michael Schiavo make decisions for his own wife and Tim Allen (nothing more dangerous than a likable conservative) have all gotten top network spots recently. (All fine, people should choose what they watch, but the myth of “liberal” Hollywood is exactly that) In short: Conservatives have an entire panoply of tools they can use to create memes, change narratives etc. — and many of them are under the guise of leisure — “just chillin’ reading Facebook, watching my favorite show, clicking on a link from Aunt Sally, reading a mag at the beauty salon.
- We as a nation do not handle the notion of collective guilt at all. We do not set about to learn from our mistakes. Germany teaches National Socialism in school. People are told to reflect on what they as a people brought about. When we will as a nation collectively face up to the genocide of Native Americans? The 12th of never. We are only now scratching the surface of the evils of slavery in our nation or the persecution of LGBT people— but that has taken generations and still has vociferous push-back and often seems to be going backward.
So in answer to the question: What will Trump supporters do when they realize they have been had? I think the narrative will go like this, obvious from the mouth of a Trumper:
it was a complicated time. We weren’t thrilled with Donald Trump but Hillary Clinton was much worse because XXXXXX. He was the better choice at the time because Hillary (unsubstantiated bullshit). I personally didn’t like Trump but he represented my values. He was really just a bad apple who doesn’t really represent what we conservatives are. But we found a savior in Mike Pence. Yes, I’m not thrilled he pardoned Trump but we as a nation had to move on. And I don’t agree 100% with Rick Santorum as Pence’s running mate but he is a lot closer to my values than that commie Kamala Harris or that libtard Corey Booker (there’s something else about them I don’t like too that I can’t put my finger on...) And healthcare is a disaster, it is 2020 and Obamacare is collapsing. Trump was a mistake but he did really good stuff on immigration. FOX News explained that we are heading back to recover after the market crash of 2019 as all of Obam's failed policies came into effect. I think we are headed back to Reagan's shining city upon the hill. Trump was a bad start but he brought us or champion in Mike Pence. Such was prophecy in Fredius Flinstoneus 12:14. Only Pence/Santorum can protect us from further terrorist attacks like XXXXX, immigrants taking our jobs, PC running rampant, that gay lifestyle!
People rarely admit their own failures in calamitous regimes. They are too quickly distracted by false narratives and the next shiny object.