Heard about a study comparing the Liberal brain to the Conservative brain. Fear was a huge factor for the conservatives, whereas with liberals the part of the brain which fosters compassion was more dominant.
Conservatives have been fearful people, for a long time. Remember the anti communist Joe McCarthy and others, who exploited the fear that Russia was coming?! Well, Russia DID attack us, attacked our democracy and the conservatives would now, rather be Russians than Democrats!
Republicans have had the strategy of fear, lies, hate and division for years!
22
I agree that Trump's appeal to fear has been effective in solidifying his cult, but why aren't the Democrats countering this message forcefully, daily, impactfully? Instead of uttering an occasional "The President is appealing to Americans' fears," they should stating things along the lines of "The President is a manipulative liar who exploits you fears vulnerabilities for his personal aggrandizement," "He's selling you a false image of America that has nothing to do with reality – don't buy it!" Shout!
14
We have reason to fear......the person who sits in the highest elected office is very in-American.
6
We all know this about trump. We come here, daily, read it, commiserate and comment. This just feeds the beast.
No more. I refuse to allow myself to be inundated with fear, intimidation, or to be cowed by this supremely sick, depraved, monster or the equally sickening mob that slaverously follows him.
The weak link in trump's fake gold armor is his absolute inability to survive criticism. We should laugh at him, call him out for what he is - a fool and coward. Attention is his oxygen. It's past time we deprive him of it.
Drop the curtain on this obscenely gross show of ignorance, narcissism and false bravado and watch the "star" shrink down to his true size - that of a "tiny, tiny, tiny little man".
He will flail, rage, squeal and whine - and drop like a popped balloon. Then it's back to the trash from whence he came.
24
Great and insightful column and it's best lines are that "Fear is easily activated. It's cheap."
Trump himself is nothing but a thug and a cheap one at that and his days as POTUS are numbered. Keep on writing Charles. Keep on writing.
13
Why is our president allowed to continue these adulation rallies? There should be no "campaigning"; he is already president, a position designed to serve the good of the entire country. These tireless self-promotion events at which he incites the hatred of one party toward the other is, at best, a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. Let the emperor with no clothes pay for his own rallies, and hold them on his own time.
23
I am getting so tired of all of this, this deliberate manufacturing of fear, division, siege, attack and prepared response.
The adoration of stadiums full of people, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths, infused with the frenzied adrenaline of unfounded fear, outrage, self-righteousness, and ridiculous fake news like "Obama inventing Festivus to eliminate Christmas".
The false 'Christian leaders' fawning over an undisciplined, unprincipled, lying bully while stuffing their pockets with money and power, and no one holding any of them accountable.
The wink-wink preparation for a violent civil war uprising if democracy does prevail in November and our country is indeed saved by millennials and minorities.
I am getting so tired of all of this, this disgust and apprehension in my own stomach that we won't be able to escape from this nightmare, that the web of lies has already entrapped us, that no matter how wrong it is, no matter how many votes are cast, 'they' are not about to go, willingly and peacefully.
That in our innocence and idealism, we do not realize how irrevocably lost we already are.
7
Do you fear Trump?
2
The only way to fight against Trump's fear mongering is to vote in November. It doesn't matter if you are a Republican who is disillusioned with him or if you're a Democrat or Independent, you need to vote. The people who sat out the last election because they didn't like either candidate needs to vote. Trump won the presidency in part due to his base and in large part because of the people who didn't vote. This country really may not be able to survive another mistake. It's going to get much worse if Democrats or Independents don't win a lot of the races. This is not the time to put party above the country.
7
Our country survived the "Red Scare" fear in the 1950's, which had been fueled by then Senator Joseph McCarthy. Countless Americans were traumatized, victimized and careers smashed. I had to sign a ridiculous loyalty oath to teach in a public school district in the 1960's. Even today our country has an outsized fear of communisn. The current fear level in our country will take a generation or two to heal, if we're lucky. My thoughts are not original, of course.
https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/mccarthyism-fit-the-mood-of-cold-...
2
There are Trump supporters/voters and there are Trump rally attendees - they are not the same. There are Trump rally attendees and there are Trump rally attendees depicted in the news - and they are not the same.
The disdain displayed here for Trump supportets/voters and fellow citizens who do not have the benefit of decent education, health care, opportunities for employment and travel, and other societal advantages - as do most here - disturbs me, as a liberal. They may consider themselves representatives of the democratic political party. But from my point of view, they should not represent themselves as "liberals". It's a matter of humanism.
1
When the people at Trump's rallies start to click their heels together and raise their arm in salute we are in very big trouble.
7
This FEAR is creeping across the country. I cannot believe citizens are buy into this manipulation. Actually, the real fear is how Trump is destroying this country and how citizens will lose their their rights. Putin does not allow his citizens to carry guns but none of the trumpers admit it. If they knew how Russians really lived, they would know true fear.
7
@EJW
Do you really think Trump supporters admire or have allegiance to Russia? Isn't this an extension of the Russian Collusion narrative that they consider a hoax? By the way, the restrictions on firearms in Europe is hardly unique to Russia, Switzerland being the big exception because of their civilian military... which we might want to look into.
Right on! Fear brings nothing but hate in the end.
Yet, why do we continue to let fear drive our lives when it comes to defense? Why do we let our conscience be suppressed to justify killing others for our own survival?
Our love for military and acceptance of wars are driven by . . . yes, fear.
In the long term, mankind is moving towards a moral revolution by controlling this fear.
5
@BLOG joekimgroup.com
Thanks.
But we're killing people in countries we never heard of, much less, fear. I think we'd rather remain blissfully ignorant of our worldwide aggression, preferring to delude ourselves that we are a respected beacon of all things good for the rest of the world. It fits in with our 'bring us your tired and poor huddled masses...'. But at some level, many of Americans may suspect that our world dominance supports their comfortable way of life.
3
Spot on--really appreciate how you nail the 'angle' of the moment--and highlighting its infiltration into a state of permanent condition. This piece reinforces our own resistance, staking its claim that the landscape is as much psychological as it is political. Thank you.
3
Willful, a dupe, or just plain stupid, America has a dictator for president. How Congress and the country responds to it will determine America's future. Trump might not yet have the power of Hitler, but that's not from want of him of trying. Hitler only reached his despicable ends because people allowed it. If anyone truly thinks that the Founders of this nation and the Constitution would allow for a dictator (or a king), they are wholly incapable of grasping the fundamentals of this great American experiment. It's long been known that the flaw with democracy is the freedom which it affords people. It cannot any longer be a mystery that Trump would use that freedom to remove ours if he could; one color at a time, one class at a time.
Don't give the man sympathy for being sick. Deal with the issue at it stands. For your sympathy will also be abused by this blowhard wannabe.
5
There IS an element of truth in Trump's accusations- we all need to understand that. But the Hard part is that Congress has tried to address immigration reform. So the BIGGER LIE is that instead of this administration's hysteria over the issue, solutions do exist that BOTH parties wanted to address (amazing, isn't it?). But of course certain stinkers (i.e.- the fringe extremists) refused to support it. Even "W" called for an amnesty program. Only by going HARD against these House and Senate members will we make progress in these areas. Put their names, faces, and their voting records up on TV screens across America. Embarrass them, expose any corruption they are involved in, what rich donors, especially out of state, have financed their campaigns. When people accuse Washington of not getting things done, show them who and why.
And if we can't have campaign finance reform (remember Mccain-Feingold?), how can you expect the democratic system to work? Also, presidents have been rigging the Supreme Court- instead of a neutral body, they are more partisan than ever. If that's the case, give them a six year term in office- that's all they deserve. The system, like an old car, needs a tune-up. "Originalism" is a joke. Did Jefferson and Adams have a smart phone? Nuclear weapons? Fear got us into two world wars. Climate change is going to get us into a 3rd. THE CARNIVAL BARKER IN CHIEF is good for a spirited rally, but he lost the election and those people are cheering for the loser.
2
Only snowflakes are afraid of Trump. There is nothing for any US citizen to fear from ANY of Trump's policies. But illegals SHOULD fear them.
@Patrick McCord typical conservative with the name calling, Liberals are not snowflakes. To use the term “illegal “ is to dehumanize, a people who have for centuries helped American farmers harvest their crops, etc.! It is a lie, that we have anything to fear from undocumented immigrants. The real threat is a president who does not uphold his oath to protect and defend our Constitution and our Judicial system!
5
@Patrick McCord - Not afraid, just disgusted with his lies, corruption, and incompetence.
6
Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and is mentally ill. Everything that he does is a characteristic of his narcissism. He cannot change as this is who he is. He is incapable of empathy or guilt or being an adult. He will do anything to protect himself. As nurse in locked psych ward in the 60’s I knew quite a few. They were very dangerous because they were charismatic and unpredictable. Trump would gladly destroy this country to benefit himself or to protect himself. I wish this weren’t true. It is terrifying to me that the president is mentally ill. It is my worst nightmare.
15
Interesting that most of Mr. Blow's columns play the fear card also. The sky is falling every week.
3
@Didi - I get your point, but the fact is, his daily lies, corruption, and incompetence are damaging our country. His romance with Putin is endangering our country. Plenty to be concerned about!
4
Its astonishing, the effectiveness of this message of fear.
I fear I’ve lost my younger brother: he believes he NEEDS guns to be safe, he believes immigrants are stealing his jobs, he believes that trump is doing a great job and has turned over the “New World Order” (whatever that is). When asked to express his fear, he claims he’s not afraid at all. “Why do you need guns, then?”, I ask, and he responds with “Its my right, and YOU can’t take them away, just try.”
I’ve lost him. And I mourn this loss every day.
I am so curious and concerned by how very effective fear has been used to cleave a great schism in this country.
I’m so so sad.
143
@Lisa sorry for your loss, we lost our oldest daughter . A smart, college educated woman, daughter of Cuban refugees. She voted for Donald, even though I argued with her not to. My heart aches for her and others who have been led astray by the Liar-in-Chief.
13
@Lisa
He is probably saddened to have lost YOU, in his eyes. The psychology and politics behind gun ownership is complicated and probably have less to do with his FEAR than do your own views have of Donald Trump.
2
Appeals to fear have been used many times in recent American history. Joseph McCarthy said we should fear the Communists within America. Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson said we fear Red China to justify the Vietnam War. Nixon and Reagan told us to fear crime on the streets. Fear as a political appeal is not new, but after a while some people get desensitized--they realize they are being used as suckers.
6
@David Levner
Yes, the fear of the KREMLIN is the gift that keeps on giving....
1
Every time I see clips from one of Trump's rallies, I am reminded of that famous clip of Mussolini on the balcony overlooking an adoring crowd in the piazza below. A smug gesture and an arrogant acknowledgement of an ego-driven personality. Of course, Mussolini ended up hanging upside-down being pelted by rotten tomatoes. Trump will probably not end up exactly the same way, but, if he were aware of history, he might try and tone down the rhetoric somewhat.
Just sayin' . . .
9
@Taranto
I wouldn't doubt that the editors selecting those "clips" had those same 'dictators of the past' comparisons in mind. I'm not a fan of Trump; I just can't stand propaganda, period.
1
Classic observations of demagoguery is what M.Blow offers us; given the current situation, it would be impossible to decline to accept this prima facie evidence of the beginning of the unraveling of the American experiment in whatever. If one consults Wikipedia on "demagogue" and reads through the entire, rather short article, one finds that it mirrors exactly the actions of the President. This finger-pointing in the accompanying photograph seems to perhaps conceal a smirk--that is, he knows full well what he is doing, and part of his motivation is the scam and sham of his "success". Many reasonable people condemn these events; many politicians do so as well; however a view of themselves in this mirror would reveal striking likenesses. Fun is too broad a term, too subjective to refer to what he now elicits, a response to negative narcissism, which his positive narcissism is able to project upon the populace. Their uneasiness about themselves is somewhat like "nervosite"--without the pleasurable sensation. That's displacement. That's hysteria. Like all the rest before him, he now fervently believes his own propaganda. "Utquam suffliminandus erat." "Always drags."
2
@Disinterested Party
Interesting. A lot of inference though. I'm reluctant to psychoanalyze an entire group; especially if you're not a member. Being outside a group is an asset for its analysis - but not for its psychoanalysis. In any case, this group is NOT the same as all Trump voters (as is commonly depicted here). It's not even representative of them.
1
@carl bumba
Hi, Carl, Unless one is a complete recluse, one cannot but be affected by the constant propaganda barrage of what might be called "Trump". Objectivity is somewhat difficult to achieve, its ends similar to evidence in capital cases in which it must be event-specific. The psyches of demagogues are pretty much laid bare; there is no real hazard in engaging it (them) for the purpose of analysis, armchair or professional, the latter of which I do not claim to be.I maintain that the difference between the effects of the barrage on the class of all voters and that of all Trump voters is negligible. It is, in fact, the effect of the demagogue in action.
The magical mixture of ﹰTrump opponents: fear and a sense of superiority.
3
@carl bumba thanks for the laugh!
2
Not only does he spew and instill fear BUT he also he makes doom and gloom a normal part of his everyday rants and raves! He knows what he does insights fear and ultimately, he may insight a riot or extensive violence by his minions. He is a very dangerous demagogue that needs to be reigned in and then we can impeach the bum!
People!, do not buy into this nightmare and the scenarios that go along with it.
3
"Trump is playing the people who support him and they revel in the delight of being played." Thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies. It's pathological. Roller coasters, horror films. It's also star-struck and celebrity worship.
With this in mind I would like to refer all who delight in being servant to their irrational fears to contact a designer-fear company: the specific twists and turns and targets can be customized depending on your preferences and idiosyncrasies for personal terror. You don't have to wait for Trump to conjure up a fear for you to join, follow, thumb up. Individuals and groups welcome.
The upside is it's all of your own choosing and within your control, rather than informed by ignorance, laziness, propaganda with a tipping point that you will have absolutely no control over and will likely be swept up in and not to your benefit. c.f. Ceaușescu, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler for results of where this has led.
3
Democracy's nemesis has a name: Commander of Fear.
He will lie about his bread and butter: "better, cheaper healthcare" and "tax cut for the middle class". Rather than examine the evidence with skeptical eye, the Trump base, lazily in my opinion, defaults to agree with their champion.
Is it blind loyalty? No, it's just EASIER TO LIKE .. the guy willing to blame the bad people, the guy who sees correctness as the reason nothing gets done, and the guy who is always battling "them" FOR YOU.
Half of our population HAS BEEN RAISED on the collective "siege mentality" - of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and even 'moderate' Hugh Hewitt. One shallow, but clear-cut perspective ("They" will bring you down) IS ALREADY IMBUED and Trump exploits it.
To cement loyalty, Trump maintains all media conduits via the NON-STOP nature of his show; and power is perceived because the world reacts to his latest bluster.
However, the main ingrediant in a Trump base IS MORE "siege mentality". Those MULTI-DAY doses (tweets & on-camera word salads) define THIS MOMENT'S dividing line. When you can't reject any of the ludicrousness just uttered, you've crossed over, AGAIN, to Trump's side where you are mocked and exhausted.
"Siege mentalities" brought together at rallies find comfort in the enthusiastic cheering that Trump solicits, no, demands. Funneled down the Trump chute and the GOP chute, there are no views to Democracy.
2
President Shepard had a good line in "The American President" back in 95, speaking of his opponent: "And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections."
6
@Jay Cook
There is much merit in this fictionalized representation of reality as here referred to. However, employing "yuppie quants" to tweak the voting machines in pivotal states to register votes for the opponent of your candidate for your candidate is another.
Yeah - we get all that. Now, please, help us fight back. Hindsight is helpful only if you can use it to help us move forward. How do we move forward?
3
@A B Bernard
We vote. (Too bad we can't really vote early and vote often...)
White Suburban Boomers feeling the superficiality of their lifetime of suburban "values" of control, conformity, and consumerism are turning their late-life depression into resentment, and their man has given them their targets.
2
@C'est la Blagueu
Those sound like classic Hillary supporters, to me. Didn't you mean, "their woman has given them their targets"?
1
A culture that revels in junk---food, media, etc---will eventually produce junk people. Behold the crassness and vulgarity of 24/7 noisy TV, propaganda, reality TV gladiators, aggressive advertisement , consumerism-on-steroids, idolatry of money, narrow-minded worship of technology, verbal violence, bullying, gun violence, and other symptoms of a dystopian society that have brought us to this point. America, where have you gone?
6
It's truly astounding how the author and readers here fail to recognize that FEAR is also a commonly deployed device of the left, in fact, it is used FAR more. Trump rally participants represent perhaps 5% of all Trump voters (and an extreme fringe that the media gladly over-represents). The fraction of all voters opposing Trump that are influenced by the media to fear him is probably 10-20 fold this amount! Nearly every Trump-related article in this paper, for example, invokes something to be feared - it's plain obvious to those who don't despise him (like this Bernie supporter). If there was a scary prediction bating average for Trump opponents it would not be 500, that's for sure! The doomsday predictions by the media during the near-hysterical period that followed Trump's election seem just silly now. (The "fear of Trump" could probably now be considered for inclusion in the next edition of the manual for psychological disorders - seriously.) People are so blinded by their hatred for Trump that they don't recognize how manipulated they are by their own irrational fears.
3
What is astounding is your claim to be a Bernie supporter and saying the left has deployed the tactic of fear. Bernie and the left are darn near synonymous. And if you were a Bernie supporter you would not herald anything about Trump, his presidency or his administration as anything but an unmitigated disaster. Nor would you deride the "left" as you have. Bernie has called Trump “the worst president in the history of the United States.” He regularly condemns his attacks on immigrants, regulations, healthcare, civility, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, democracy, minorities, the middle class. He rails against Trump's economic policies, tax cuts for the 1%, his elitism, swamp stocking, incompetence and his disdain for the rule of law. I'm not a Bernie supporter and its is apparent from your unabashed support for a person who is as unBernie as they come, you aren't either.
4
@carl bumba I believe you to be incorrect on your final sentence and assumption.
How many of those of the left, those blinded by their hatred for Trump, that are, in your words, don't realize they are manipulated by those irrational fears, attend the Trump hate fests, how many wear attire that is designed to stoke hate, and bigotry. How many of the liberal left persons threaten journalists.
Yes, those Democrats, the "cursed liberals", the lefties and just plain Trump haters do have fear, fear for the nation, not fear of a third rate lunatic despot that has the ability to hoodwink and con a significant segment of the population.
We fear the damage Trump can cause this country, political and physical, through his dog whistling and gaslighting as those supporters, blinded by the light reflecting from the shiny baubles he provides, may be willing to act at his behest.
That is the fear many have. Not of the man, but his actions, the man who is so desperate for acceptance, for adoration. will initiate to insure his legacy-a legacy of hate and bigotry.
3
@wsw-actnow
Now this needs a reply.
You are correct, in that I forgot to use quotes when referring to "the left". This group is about as left or liberal as is Hillary "progressive". Bernie IS synonomous with the left. He was my rep for seven years - and I campaigned for him here in 2016. The "left" I referred to is the pseudo-left of the democratic establishment. Historically, this establishment had held back progressive reform far more than the right ever did or could. If Bernie was allowed to win the primary (by open primaries, no superdelegate trickery, fair reporting, etc.) he would have trounced Trump. Trump's persona may be horrible, his policies bad, but his NET positive effect as a slayer of a political establishment that protects an unfair status quo (and globalized capitalism) is hard to refute. If Hillary was elected we wouldn't be discussing Democratic Socialism right now. And Derschowitz is probably right about the corruptness of our intellegence and enforcement agencies, DOJ and mainstream media (which, these days, defends the establishment.)
1
The reason that Trump so quickly plays the fear card is because he knows first hand that it works - behind all that bluster and bloviation, he himself is terrified of everything he warns that you should be afraid of. All you have to do is watch him to see it. He is, in my mind, The Great Projector. He projects literally everything about himself on others. If you want to know what he's thinking and feeling, just listen to him. If he's guilty of something, he accuses others of the same thing. If he's afraid of something, he'll tell you that you're supposed to be afraid of it. If he desperately wants to believe something, he'll do everything he can to convince you that it's true. He's so transparent, it's pathetic. He unwittingly lays out every single character flaw he has for all to see. He doesn't operate at all from intellect - it's all spur of the moment emotional knee-jerk responses. And we, the voters in the US, handed him access to world's largest nuclear arsenal. Now there's something to be afraid of.
3
Perhaps we take a look back in time, a time when another despot used fear, fear of "those not like us", fear of certain peoples. And that despot was successful in stoking the fires of hate among his adoring supporters through lies, falsehoods and fear.
An interesting quote comes to mind: "His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."."
This quote fits our very own despot to a "T". The continuous feeding his supporters with fear, fear of minorities, fear of "liberals", all Democrats and those who would dare oppose Trump.
The quote is not recent. It was not spoken by a United States politician. It was spoken by one who also had to ability to mobilize his supporters. I'll not use the name the quote is attributed to in order for those readers to digest the content of the quote, and its meaning today.
Through a simple Google search, so simple Trump could do it and not get a biased answer, will reveal the attribution.
You, the reader be the judge about the application of the quote to today's sordid, sad and toxic political environment.
2
Trump can't command his own fear aka insecurity.
Trump is afraid of Putin.
Trump is afraid of firing anyone to their face.
Trump is afraid of fighting except by tweeting and speaking.
Trump is afraid of the journalists on Fox and Friends, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
Trump is afraid of not playing golf a third of the time.
2
This goes back to the hate messaging in the social media during the 2016 campaign. Turn up the hate was Bannon's quip when their supporters seemed to lose momentum. Fear is based on loss of status because the Ds were going to use their ability to bribe their supporters with wasteful gov't support. This racist libertarianism is of course a Trojan horse for giant stupid tax cuts to the already wealthy.
3
Some fear is grounded in reality and is a logical response to objective evidence.
I fear Trumpism.
7
@DMC
An objective interpretation of the empirical evidence so far would NOT support a fear of Trumpism. Things can sure change. But at this point the many fearful predictions about Trump's presidency are looking more and more to be subjective rather than objective.
1
Sadly all too true. While Trump is far from a student of history, he has naturally come to a sound principle of manipulation of certain segments of society. "...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.” Hermann Goering.
4
Since 911 and America’s ongoing random gun violence, fear is a big undercurrent in American life that cuts through all socioeconomic areas. The GOP, Fox News, right wing radio and evangelicals successfully tapped into this primal area long ago. Then came Trump. His rise is a manifestation of white people freaking out. The others are coming to take your job, your neighborhood, your country. FDR’s famous quote, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” is more appropriate than ever.
6
@Lawyers, Guns And Money, since 9/11 so many innocent Sikhs have been singled out, killed, attacked just because they wear a turban.
@Lawyers, Guns And Money
Yes, good quote. But isn't there a vast amount of fear concerning Trump that is still unfounded?
Take a look at the cover of this week's "New Yorker." It shows bloodhounds closing in on the worst, most corrupt and cowardly occupant ever to occupy the Oval Office. For as with all cowards and violence-inciters, he'll soon be little more than a memory, albeit a sickening one.
11
Fear is the greatest motivator. Many inept managers in the workplace use it in place of logic, rationality and organization, things many of them are incapable of. Donald Trump is afraid of being exposed for what he is, a lying coward. What makes him doubly dangerous to this country is his ability to magnify and project his own fearful inadequacy to his believers. A fearful populace is capable of terrible things, especially if it believes the false propaganda of an unscrupulous man such as our misbegotten President.
6
Fascinating column.
We think of FDR, Churchill and others as great leaders partly because they inspired people to never embrace fear.
Trump showed fear when he used phony heel spurs to avoid the draft. He showed fear when he had under,infant pay off women to keep some of his scandals mum. Trump showed fear when he claimed our first African American President couldn’t really be a product of American soil. He showed fear when he refused to disown racists, neoNazis and KKK hordes. He showed fear when he could ‘t back down from his rhetoric and divisiveness and honor one of our longest serving Senators and a genuine war hero.
Trump shows fear every time he tries to win with insults and bullying rather than calm, factual reasoning. He shows fear of treating our allies as equals—because he doesn’t know if they will recognize him as an equal.
Trump is afraid that without henchmen like Cohen still doing back room dirty work for him, he will be betrayed: literally more of his filth brought into the light.
Trump is afraid that another Republican, a distinguished Marine and by-the-book prosecutor and investigator named Mueller might bring him down.
Trump is afraid he may not have a place in history.
He need not fear. History will remember him: the most corrupt President in American history who tried to create another civil war based on cultural divides in our citizenry.
9
Fear may be the motivator, and hate the instigator, but selfishness is the common cause. It is not a coincidence that those who feel afraid of the GOP's designated boogeymen think that their tribe will get the spoils.
3
Thank you Mr. Blow,for yet another great piece of writing.I am perhaps naive.I do believe the majority of voters in this country,are opposed to this imposter.All need to vote this November,and help get all to the polls.We all believe in our country,he will not last.
4
Fear is the preferred tool of autocrats and Trump is a wannabe dictator. Evidently, he has used fear in his business dealings for years so he knows no other way, to appeal to someones better angel through persuasion is not in the cards for him since you need intellectual capacity of which he has none. I'm still amazed that this man is still at 43% in the polls, if he were the PM of Canada, he might have a 5% approval rating and that's being generous. The education system in the good old USA has failed miserably.
3
Election candidates offering hope beats candiate selling fear.
Humans are more hopefully than fearful!
2
Mr. Blow, you are spot on in every regard, most particularly the thought that Trump is using, and abusing, those who think he is wonderful, and it is indeed related to the fear of that which others cannot control...people want a savior, a "white knight". My concern has always been that Trump himself does not experience fear. Most of us are aware of the consequences of not doing the right thing, of breaking the law, of hurting someone. Trump seems to believe he is above consequences, immune to having to pay a price; he makes everyone else pay the price. He seems to have learned how to avoid unpleasantness as conveniently as being able to avoid paying taxes, but at the root of his megalomania is a distinct lack of fear, and that I think is what makes him so disturbingly dangerous.
4
Typical sociopathic behavior. All action, no consequence.
1
And the republicans in congress twiddle their thumbs and do nothing.
4
The most ardent Trump/GOP supporter I know is a fear junkie. He is a white, well educated, intelligent, and somewhat wealthy man that lives in a safe neighborhood, yet carries a gun on a daily basis because he is "worried" that he will someday be attacked. He is attracted to conspiracies, and spends time and effort preparing for how he will live off the grid someday when society collapses. Listening to Trump riles him up, as does watching Fox "news". He is not particularly prejudiced, but the feeling that there is a threat "out there" excites him and gives him purpose. Though he is extremely analytical about his work, he completely turns that off when it comes to Trump, and no logical argument seems to sway him.
How do we reach people like this? How do we convince them they are dragging us all down the path to fascism? Or how do we convince the 30% (?) of Trump voters who are not such ardent supporters to get out there and vote for a Democrat?
3
I think a lot of has to do with the fact that, deep down, the people like the man you describe are enjoying this. Hard to fathom, I know, but I have seen it in action - I had an uncle who was a conspiracy guy from the get-go and he enjoyed nothing more than indulging his passion - he even went so far as to build and stock a bomb shelter in his back yard. Who he was protecting himself against varied - some days it was the government, some days it was an alien invasion - but he was gleefully sure 'somebody' was going to get him. He relished every shovelful of dirt building that thing. It became clear as he got older that he was also quite mentally ill but he held down a job, had a family, owned a home, and "functioned" in society until very near the end of his life. They are out there, and there are many more of them than we think.
2
@Be Of Service
If he read the opinion section of this newspaper on a regular basis he would carry two guns and commute to work in a tank.
Donald Trump instills fear into all his workers as he requires them to sign non-disclosure agreements. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/trump-nondisclosure-agree...
3
From the reports I'm reading, it looks to me like he is feeling increasingly cornered. I fear that that makes him increasingly dangerous. It accounts for his increasingly flaming public tweets and utterances. I fear that he sees weaponizing his followers' fears and hatred as his most potent way of lashing out. And he won't hesitate to use any weapon within his reach to hang on to power.
The GOP is worse than useless in defending the country against this. Democrats of courage and thinking, sane citizens need to recognize that we are facing a White House occupant this dangerous--and a complicit GOP--and hit back hard and effectively.
2
"Trump’s magical mixture is to make being afraid feel like fun."
This is spot-on because Trump follows the P.T. Barnum playbook where everything is "the best," and "the biggest," whose administration is a three-ring circus with "death-defying acrobatics" at every turn to the continual amusement of his (base) audience. Trump's circus is in town and its a sell-out show!
3
The current wave of fear and ignorance started long ago. Ronald Reagan's anti-government, anti- education platform is the seedbed for the weeds that are blooming now. Trump is a catalyst not a cause. Beware of the slow incremental erosion of rights and responsibilities, not just the scary clown of the moment.
2
Time to reread ( or read if you have not ) THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP. This book was published 10 months into this presidency by 27 experts in the field of mental health . Despite the Goldwater Rule these professionals felt so strongly about the effect this madman would have on the Future of our democracy that they published their 27 theories . The consistent diagnosis was malignant narcissism, sociopathy and almost all of their predictions regarding electing a President with this (and more similar) disorders have come to pass.
Dr Lee and her fellow professionals received very little air time and few articles written about their concerns mostly because it has been deemed unethical since the Goldwater rule was instated for psychiatrists to voice their opinions. These professionals felt that Donald Trump was a clear and present danger and it was their patriotic duty to warn the public of the potential fall out of making this man the most powerful public figure in the world. Most of their predictions have come to pass.
Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes! Time to invite Dr Brandy X Lee back and give her and the other experts the forum they deserve.
11
What bears examination is the difference between the fears that Trump and his allies stoke and the dangers that they ignore, such as , above all, climate change. Two of Mr. Blow's observations are particularly helpful in this regard. First is the idea of making fear feel like fun. Second is Trump's positioning himself "as the greatest defense" against the fears he encourages.
Fears can be fun only if addressing them doesn't seem to require much, if any, effort on one's own part. Fears can be "fun" as long as one can blame people of other races, ethnicities, sexual orientation or gender identity, immigrants, foreign competition, or clueless bureaucrats. If one has to look at the longer term prospects, not to mention social costs, of one's behavior, lifestyle, line of work, or business and consider what changes in one's own conduct or circumstances might be in order, that's not so much fun; best to ignore it; best to stick with the fears someone else will fix.
7
Spot on, Mr. Blow - fear is the driving factor in Trump world. It worked for McCarthy, for awhile, and has worked, so far, for Trump. But time will chip away at that veneer, I hope, as people begin to realize that it is the only thing Trump has to hide behind. He has no particular skill to govern, no class, and no right to be in the position he obtained... somehow. As the saying goes, Trump is all hat, no cattle.
8
Blow is right on, but fails to point out this president is scared to death himself. History has shown that this draft dodger is actually a bully and every psychologist will tell you the bully at heart is a coward. He has never fired an employee face to face. It's always by twitter or through some one else. case pinpoint is the current "firing" of his white house attorney. No one knows fear better than this weak individual we have in the white house. He's petrified as the Mueller team is closing in upon him.
249
We are witness to the plunder
Our country torn asunder
Distracted by the madness of a clown
Now we face our darkest hour
The vandals have the power
And everything we’ve built
They’re tearing down
11
I fear for this country every day that he stays in office.
12
Trump`s life is not fun at all . That is because he is full of fears and not only about germs . He is afraid of those that are intellectually superior to him and then he brags about his good brain , his many words and the good colleges he went to . He is afraid of those that have more money than him and then exaggerates his wealth . He is afraid of what History will say about him and claims to be the best President ever . This man is not evil genius . He may be evil but certainly not a genius . His deep sense of inferiority and inadequacy are the source of his hate . That hate makes him connect with those that are afraid of the future and unhappy with their own lives . But that doesn`t make him a genius . That happens with many demagogues thru History that are frequently themselves damaged goods . He is a clear case of a severe personality disorder This is the crux of the problem . He is not well . If he was a surgeon you would not allow him to operate on you . If he was a pilot you would not fly in his airplane . If he was a mob boss he would be in hot water with other bosses . We should not allow him to continue as our President . The Constitution gives us the tools . We do have the 25th Amendment and the process of impeachment . Let us stop burying our heads in the sand .
16
@Bernardo Izaguirre MD Every time anyone considers Trump's "plan," I shake my head. You are so right. Evil, yes. Genius, no. It's true that he is instilling fear, but not by design. He doesn't have the intellect. Crazy is as crazy does. That's all.
1
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for always calling things what they are. And Trump is a racist bigot who exploits those fears in his base. You refer to his "populist" message. Trump is not a populist. He is a pretend populist...he does not care about the ordinary people. He only pretends to care about them for his own gain. If he really cred about "ordinary people" he would fight for universal healthcare, not separate children from their parents, raise the minimum wage, keep social security, provide care and income to our Veterans, Medicare and Medicaid safe, and improve our schools and infrastructure. Instead, he is lining his pockets and the pockets of his loyalist cronies by providing huge tax cuts to the top 1% of the population. I wish Democratic candidates would do more in the way of pointing out how Trump does NOT care about ordinary people. In fact, Trump and his cronies are the "corrupt elite" that populists often complain about.
5
Indeed the 'Commander of Fear' and in addition a destroyer of people, truth and democracy. Especially this week after John McCain's death and after the Obama's presidency I am struck by the fact that Donald Trump has never mentioned the word gratitude or even hinted at it. I guess that is only one of many virtues that he lacks. A sad figure.
5
@Annette Demeyer you are right, he has never used the word gratitude. I doubt he knows it.
1
So if, as FDR opined, "we have nothing to fear, but fear itself," what's the best remedy against one who shamelessly traffics in fear as if it's the plotline on a reality TV show? Have we become so conditioned that the lines between reality and fiction are so blurry that half the population thinks this is all a joke? It will only be when that they, themselves realize that they are the punchline for the "joke" that they might start to get a clue. Then there will be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Of course, that will be too little, too late. "We told you so," could be a reply, but right now they are too engaged with their bread and circuses, to read the handwriting on the wall.
4
It worked. He scares me. I am scared for our democracy and the freedoms we have always known that made America great. Maybe Putin will fire him.
6
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”-YODA
8
Trump’s brand of fear mongering is an unfortunate fad. When the fever finally breaks, we’ll be left with enduring American values intact, albeit with the need to repair the damage. Too bad this fad isn’t as harmless as the hoopla hoop.
1
If you think this article is close to the truth, then read KILLING DEMOCRACY . It's a short book on Amazon and one of the sections is about the use of fear. The whole book is really a description of Trump's destruction of democracy.
6
Or look for it in your local bookstore, should there still be one in your town. I'm sure they'd be happy to order it for you if they don't have it in stock.
Fear and Hate - now the trademark of the Republican Party. No policies, no principles, no new ideas at all.
Time to put the GOP out to pasture. VOTE THEM OUT.
8
Trump's tweet this morning stating that Lester Holt's interview with him was doctored (providing no evidence, of course) suggests a clinical level of paranoia.
If we had a real Congress, they would be asserting the 25th amendment right now. It is more clear than ever that Trump is deeply mentally ill and unfit to serve.
9
It is time that we start calling evangelicals by another name. An evangelical adheres to the teachings and spirit of Christ as laid out in the bible. I see nothing Christian in these so called evangelicals and their adoration of trump, just a golden calf.
11
Trump’s magical mixture is to take racial preference out of school admissions. That's the point, Charles!
1
It is so disheartening. We use to have presidents who were leaders of the world. Now we have a president who can only lead a small portion of the US population.
2
In the movie "A Bronx Tale" Lillo Brancato asks Chaz Palminteri, "Is it better to be loved or feared?" Palminteri responds with a paraphrase from Machiavelli, "It's nice to be both but it's very difficult. But if I had my choice, I'd rather be feared. Fear lasts longer than love."
And, you may remember, in the movie, Palminteri plays, yes, you got it: a mob boss.
9
Hope is a natural characteristic of Americans. Always has been. Fear as a tool to manipulate the people will only work for so long. Being fearful all the time is exhausting and cannot be maintained for the long haul.
90
Until now. This is no longer the America of history. It is now the America of hate.
1
@Valerie Wells but I fear (no pun intended) that hate can be sustained for the long haul. He's great at whipping up hate, too. Sigh...
Valerie, I want to share your optimistic view and wish I could live to see it happen but my years are few.
This post sadly reminds me of one of FDR's most enduring quotes from his first inaugural speech: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Today's "leaders" have no grasp of how powerful that sentence was----and could still be today----if only we had honest and truly patriotic leaders.
11
A president who is nothing more than an unleashed id is a dangerous thing.
11
You are so right, appealing to fear, which is a much more primitive emotion, is so much easier than appealing to altruism which requires putting other's needs before one's own. Republicans know this and have been using this tactic for years. Perhaps finally there is fear on the Democratic side as they see our country's democratic values under attack.
8
Trump doen't have much going for himself, and he knows it. His ignorance of history and world affairs, his black and white view of the world as winners and losers, and most of all, that all problems can be approached and solved like a real estate deal are all woefully inadequate solutions to face the serious challenges of life in the 21st century. So, what does he do like other loud-mouthed demagogues? He stokes fear and stirs the pot to keep up the momentum of his weak-spined presidency and to mask his great inadequacies and simplistic view of the world. An idiotic solution, but a powerful one that distracts and rallies his base.
215
@Birdygirl Spot on girl.
Is one allowed, in this forum, to politely suggest that Charles Blow put a sock in it? Doesn't he have anything else to write about? Does he really believe that screeching about Trump to his Amen corner in the echo chamber of MSM is going to nudge the electoral needle by even a single vote? Don't even the Times readers deserve just a little change in he menu? Or is boiled bile all that Blow is capable of mustering?
3
Sadly one of the elements that helps drive Trump's use of fear is the inability of those who see through his lies to convey it in constructive ways. The president deceives, and the response is anger on both sides, an uncooperative dimension that keeps the truth hidden and the argument going. Trumps casts doubts against those who oppose him, and those in opposition play into his hands by reacting negatively and with outrage, in their own way fueling communal rage and anger. The press pussy-foots around words like "lie", while enjoying the extra ratings from the uncertainty of the times, ratcheting up anger with criticisms that have proven unproductive.
To defuse fear we must educate and elucidate the truth in ways that are not condescending and filled with outrage.
3
Ssssssssssssh. Don't say nuttin'. They might get mad. What the heck are we dealing with here. This president is inciting people to be prepared for a civil war, and I should just shut up about it? Nah.
18
Trump is the epitome of the *MeFirst* movement that has overtaken this country. It began in the late 90's with the deterioration of civility in everyday interpersonal relationships and has resulted in this current narcissistic culture that feeds on fear, anxiety, and hatred. Trump is the personification of this and surfs the wave of anxiety that he feeds every day by Tweeting. He understands better than most- he is the master of it.
5
We all know that this Fake President is averse to reading, but does he possibly keep a copy of Mein Kampf on his bedside table in the White House. Just to scan, of course, and pick up a few useful pointers here and there, including on manipulation of the masses.
4
Not unless there's a Classics Illustrated version. Remember, this is a guy who's daily security briefing had to be trimmed to a bullet-pointed single page, and there is concern that that too is TLDR.
Anyway we've long had our very own, homegrown fatheads to learn from.
6
Fear is the political currency of the right. Get a gun because you are afraid of people who don't look like you. Be afraid of people stealing your job -- it isn't your fault that you are unskilled and lazy! Fear the government because they are out to get you! Fear the liberal media and its lies! Be afraid...be very afraid!
17
Michael Cohen might want to stay off 5th Avenue.
21
While Donald Trump is certainly malevolent enough , I’m not sure if he is intelligent enough to consciously steal pages from the play books of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler, and Mussolini . But whether he knows it or not that is exactly what he has done . Which means he’s not even an original neofascist . What I see before me and the American people is just another narcissistic thug .
It’s time for us to wake up .
14
@RD Bannon and Miller are certainly smart enough.
4
Only an ignorant, uninformed person would believe anything that Donald Trump says and does. The deplorables in this country, have found their hero in Trump. The bigots and haters think they have won the day.
When you kick a dog several times, it’ll turn on you and bite you. Watch out Mr. Trump, you’ve kicked once too often. There are far more of us than there of of your ilk. Tread lightly. We are going to bite you back.
10
Exploiting fear is a well known fascist tactic.Most successful dictators gain power and hold it by saving their nation from targeted enemies of the state. Hitler promised to rid Germany of undesirables like Jews,Gypsies,gays and the disabled. Promises made. Promises kept. Following the dictators handbook Trump is simply targeting different undesirables as defined by him. Different era. Same ugly and dangerous tactic.
11
What do you expect from a guy who was mentored by Roy Cohn, lawyer for Joe McCarthy and the House Committee?
9
He uses fear because he lacks the intellect to use reason. What a pathetic "leader."
20
Years from now we will look back with shame that we followed our first black president with such a hateful man. Our children and grandchildren will ask us to explain how we let this happen. We will find ourselves explaining that we were afraid which will likely ring hollow to those trying to understand how we let this happen.
A combination of demographic changes, nearly two decades of war, economic inequality, the 2008 recession, the offshoring of jobs, the high cost of education and housing and medical care all built into a perfect storm. Instead of offering a solution to these very real fears, Trump exploited them like the good little wanna be dictator that he is. He didn't create the storm but he most definitely understands that it's much easier to be divisive than it is to offer real solutions. Like Hitler whom he admires he gives us enemies so we have someone to blame.
Our next few elections matter like none before. We need leaders who are willing to do the hard work and are willing to compromise to rebuild our country. Someone like FDR who recognized that fear would be our undoing. He had a vision for our country and was willing to take risks to make it happen.
We most certainly cannot afford 4 more years of the Trump experience. This fighting and hate isn't healthy for any nation.
17
Trump is playing the fear/race card. it's all he has left
will the media continue to play along and roll over
and play dead?
oh yeah, he constantly lies. DUH
5
I'm a 5' 5" 54 year old fit female executive who could take that moron in a bar fight. Like countless others, I do not fear our Corrupt Commander.
I was raised to confront cowards, not cower to them. I was taught not to respect liars, but instead hold them accountable. I was taught kindness and decency and honor and a whole host of other positive life lessons that #45 never learned.
Trump is the textbook coward. If he thinks you're stronger than he is, like Putin, he subserviently rolls over and shows his neck like a dog. Unfortunately, no one in the GOP has the stuffing to stand up to him.
24
Trump is the commander of white resentment. He is also a racist. He is a populist for whites only. The KKK is whites only also, no one would claim the organization is a "populist" movement.
In 2016, Clinton got 88% of the Black vote. Trump got 8%. Clinton got 65% of the Hispanic vote. Trump got 29%. Clinton got 65% of the Asian vote. Trump got 29%. Trump got 58% of the white vote and Clinton got 37%, that's a popularity that is based on race.
8
Don't forget Trump's biggest cheerleader, or is it business partner, Fox News.
Fox News - whose main staple is encouraging it's viewers to be afraid and fear non-white people - is an equal player in Trump's con. It's a deliberate collaboration.
Remember, in 1932, the German newsreel subsidiary of Fox News Channel’s corporate ancestor, Fox Films, intervened in national elections in Germany. The candidate Fox supported was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Fox made propaganda films for Goebbels.
The basic facts are available in German historian Hans Mommsen’s authoritative study entitled The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy,
Anyone who thinks it can't happen here, is ignoring history, and what is being said and done by Trump and Fox.
16
@D. DeMarco Is anyone as scared as I am that the future of our country may be directed by Fox News?
Well put, Mr. Blow. Trump is using the fascist playbook to power. He lies and instills fear. He really needs to go.
10
A good understanding of what Trumps tactics are can be found if you read Noam Chomsky’s book published in 1988 titled “Manufacturing Consent“ . It describes clearly how propaganda can destroy a nation when its corporate media gets into the minds of citizens who then willingly destroy themselves. Trumps tweets and rallies bring Chomsky’s book to life in a more advanced media world.
8
I have come to believe, admittedly reductively, that in life we come from a point of view of abundance (there's enough to go around; no need to be threatened) or scarcity (there's not enough to go around, so there's every reason to be threatened). The 10-cent psychologist in me believes these points of view are bred in us from birth, are nurtured in the home, and stay with us through much of our lives. I know little about his childhood and home life except for the bits and pieces I've gleaned from reading and listening, but it seems to me that someone who endeavors to instill this much fear and mistrust (and hatred) in his followers was raised with a resounding conviction of scarcity. The lack he feels, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, week-to-week, year in and year out, is now ours with which to live, resist, and combat. He is no white knight. He is our darkest, most vindictive and destructive avatar; our bleakest nightmare, poisoning our waking and sleeping hours with the bile, bigotry, and invective that has festered and been nurtured in him throughout his life and that inspires his followers, who believe that everything is being taken from them -- or will be soon -- to awaken, arise, affirm him and follow his example.
7
Rabid Trump supporters are people whose lives are so boring or depressing that they're jumping at the chance to take part in an exciting fight against The Evil Empire. It's like being part of a violent TV show or movie -- only it's "real."
"I used to be a nobody, but now I'm a solider in the war again the Elite -- my life is exciting and purposeful now!"
9
Trump has certainly made me afraid- for our Republic.
9
The right has spent decades promoting a culture of fear and hate in their base. Limbaugh, Fox, Drudge, and all the rest of the organized propagandists, have been promoting racism, sexism, religious bigotry, anything to keep the masses frightened and angry. Trump didn’t create the atmosphere of blind, ignorant fear and hate, he just used it for his own venal ends.
12
It has long been known that the way to control the masses is through fear and ignorance. Trump, who appears to have no moral compass, is more than willing to incite the uneducated (he has stated that he loves those people -- after all, they got him elected). And one has only to watch any of his rallies to acknowledge how adept he is at stirring up antagonism and anger, and yes, violent behavior. I would bet that most gun owners who are opposed to any gun ownership guidelines or control are solidly in his camp. My one hope is that those among us that want to return to a solid government that is CONstructive vs. DEstructive will flock to the polls and be able to overcome the obstacles of voter suppression and gerrymandering.
And to Mr. Blow...keep it up! Don't relent. You may be preaching to the choir, but you just may be able to inspire those who have sat on the couches to make the effort to get to the polls in November.
226
Trump and his supporters are like the teenage boys who were eager to join the rebel army and teach "them Yankees" a lesson they wouldn't forget.
But after a year or two of marching with blisters in worn-out shoes, eating lousy food, suffering from disease, and dying on blood-soaked battlefields, they began to realize how foolish they had been.
Many deserted. Others were captured and languished in foul military prisons. Some stayed and barely subsisted till the war ended and a merciful victor sent them back to their farms with the horses or mules that had endured.
Trump rallies are safe havens for bullies, bigots, and cowards. Like Trump himself, a pathetic draft dodger, they are safe in their ignorant fantasy world of hate and ludicrous conspiracy theories. Reality has never been a place where they want to spend much time.
14
Trump is no joke. Though I think to myself daily, “is he a fictional character”? Surely he is not a real life human. It seems that this fanatic that was somehow elected president cannot be real. His words and actions are so bizarre, I have trouble believing that he still remains as president in the United States.
I’m 66 years old and have seen many politicians make fools of themselves, yet all of what I have seen pales in comparison to Trump’s daily egotistical behavior. I regularly must remind myself that this entire Trumpian mess is indeed real, and not some type of dystopian fiction, warning us of a dreadful future.
10
"Fear is the mother of violence" -- Peter Gabriel, circa 1975
7
All that Trump wants you to fear is diversion from what you should fear: creeping ignorance.
6
Mr Blow, please stop the hate speech . As American honors the life of Senator John McCain, our nation needs to heal rather than hate.
3
Trump uses fear in a failing effort to disguise his own terror of becoming irrelevant.
4
"Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, fear."
And there you have it, in all of its idiocy, cruelty and mimicry of despots past and present - the guiding principle of the Trump administration. Donald Trump believes real power is fear.
THAT'S scary.
13
Oh, I have a lot of fear, all right: fear of Trump, his henchmen, and the ignorant, irresponsible voters who follow him.
If most of us come through the next two years in approximately one piece, I will be pleasantly surprised; but with Trump stirring up trouble whenever he can (and practically inciting a civil war in his talk to the evangelicals), there are no guarantees.
4
Trump’s Claim: Collusion is not illegal.
The law: Yes it is -18 U.S.C. 201(b)(2)(B).
Punishment: up to 15 years in prison; ban from public office.
Bribes=impeachable form of collusion. https://trumpbribe.com
5
Fear. Uncertainty. doubt. (FUD) In my early days as an ad salesmen, the courses I took on business development (selling, and moving people to what we were selling) extolled this as the silver bullet. Not so much shine on this theory these days!! VOTE!!!
2
Dear Mr. Blow, you got that "White Knight" mantle that Trump proudly assumes, partially right. Trump's actual role is that of the "White Knight of the KKK." He's just a proud son carrying on the work of his father. Now the title Trump really aspires to is that of "The Grand Wizard." It's a nice segue way into his "Witch Hunt" narrative. Who else could vanquish those pesky witches but a Grand Wizard:) Keep up the fight Brother!
4
That Dishonest Don plays to the weak minded is a given. That is the stock in trade of all con men.
What The Donald has exposed is just how weak minded America is.
Ironic, those who trumpet patriotism and American exceptionalism are so afraid of brown skinned people that they must cage their children.
If only Canada had a shorter winter!
3
Yes Mr. Blow, everything you write here today is true. I have one question for you and that question is : WHY IS HE DOING THIS? There are usually two competing answers posited: 1) he is a creep; or 2) he is a conspirator with Russia in its campaign to attack the West. I submit that both answers are correct and completely compatible, consistent responses to the inquiry.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
8
I saw a group of folks in red caps printed with "Make Orwell Fiction Again".
5
@Rachel Hoffman Unfortunately his followers would not understand what this refers to
2
@theresa You are right. I think it was more about being able to rise with the sun amid the current darkness.
Irony is lost on the Fearmongerer in Chief. His policies are all about violence. Who, again, is separating families and incarcerating children? His rhetoric is laced with violence. He incites his followers to harm others. His presidency is an assault on all of us.
4
The killing of an innocent college girl in Iowa came at a great time to show potential harm from illegals who by the way, are not substantiating either Medicare or social security by their paltry donations to the system. The socialists democrats in this country can complain all they want about President Trump but he delivers results and that is what matters in the end.
2
I think trump lives in fear everyday...he is a weak, petty little man who had money and was therefore able to peddle his fear far out into the world. If he was a poor man he would be sitting in his home watching Fox news and lamenting about the current state of our country and telling all his friends to hang on to their guns and women...cuz here come the Muslims and Mexicans. We have friends who have everything they need and then some...and they live in fear everyday of this happening. Facts have no place in their home so there is no sense having any kind of civil discourse with them.
Fear is not new to the world stage; I just never thought I would be alive to see it today in its current form.
4
I believe in the message and goodness of Jesus Christ. But, with the continued support of this man (DJT), I believe more and more that the institutions of Christianity are a farce. Supporting him is supporting lying, racism, womanizing, adultery, sin, promoting violence, bad mouthing, white supremacy, bullying, spousal cheating, and I'm sure I have left alot out. I never dreamed I would be so ashamed of our country and what it represents to the world. Between this and the horrendous reports of the Catholic Church, I think I will find my connection with God and Jesus through Sunday morning nature walks. Churches as institutions who support this man have nothing to offer me.
3
Fear was the tactic of George W. Bush, too, although not quite as obvious. His minions cried warnings about the "mushroom cloud"; his Neocon buddies that populated his Cabinet warned us of "the next Pearl Harbor" in the PNAC document."Project for the New American Century". Is this the new Republican tactic of leadership? Oh, no, there was Joseph McCarthy, too.
5
Trump is deluding himself about the market. The wealthy got their tax cut from the useful idiot; they don't need him anymore and all he does is inject a troubled uncertainty into the markets anyway. Also, it mystifies me as to whom he addressed his comment. His supporters, for the most part, have no skin in the game; they own no stocks and have seen nothing of the "largest tax cut in history" reflected in their paychecks, so does he expect them to man the barricades and keep the precious Dow from falling? On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of poor, hoodwinked whites fought and died to protect the holdings of a small plantation owning class, and maybe the survivors managed to pass on those self-destructive genes. It sometimes seems like it.
2
Fear is the mother of all demigods.
1
Several people have commented that evangelicals fear the secular world. This is a truly odd situation because trusting in God means living free from irrational fears. I am not here to impugn evangelical Christians, but I have no clue how they could have wedded themselves to this pathetic man. The church collectively will regret it.
3
Again, a great op-ed.
Fear happens when your child gets murdered, Charles. Or when mom or dad lose their jobs and can't provide the necessities. And when you can't go out after dark to get a carton of milk because you might get shot. Or when you send your child off to school, wondering if you'll ever see him/her again, in our Dem controlled big cities. So instead of ginning it up, make a suggestion that might bring people together, instead of ramping up the fear mongering, and teaching your son that he shouldn't befriend white kids without suspicion. And bragging about it on your platform. People who disagree with you may, just possibly, not be haters, although you and the acolytes don't see it that way.
2
@FDR guy As a New Yorker for the past 50 years, I feel quite safe--though I'm uneasy about the prospect of retiring back to South Carolina, where even my sister now owns a gun. Here in NY, we can even say "Merry Christmas" anytime we want, which according to Trump seems to be a serious problem in the red states.
The prez would make a great televangelist. He would say: I present to you, Satan. He would say: I know Satan, and I know how to defeat him. I sit in a throne next to God. He would say, Here is one of my disciples, Wilbur Ross, with critical information on how to order "Trump Saves the Planet" CDs and books. He would end by saying, "Only I, and I alone can save you".
2
Yes, Trump is horrible and the howling hordes that constitute a large percentage of the country lap it all up like slop in their trough as daddy Trump wraps his little hands around them and makes them feel safe. However, the "other side" has spent its time praising and fawning over a man who talked about bombing people in other countries every chance he got. Trump is not some kind of anomaly. This country loves being coddled with violence to deal with their "fears."
Dear Charles,
Trump has so many genuine flaws in both his character and job performance, so why do you feel the need to lie?
You wrote, "He kicked off his campaign by saying of Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
He DIDN’T say that about Mexican IMMIGRANTS, he said it about people crossing the border ILLEGALLY. There is a massive difference, and if you can prove that among those who illegally cross our border there are no criminals, drug smugglers, rapists or good people, please do.
I certainly don’t agree with Trump’s cruel stereotyping, but Afghanistan IS a terrorist haven, literally. MS13 members ARE hacking kids to death. There IS an AIDS crisis in Haiti. And a large swath of Islam’s adherents, it’s most vocal adherents, openly admit their hatred for America.
You’re right about one thing, though. Trump supporters are anxious, scared and hateful, just like Hillary supporters, and most of your readers.
We’re anxious about paying our bills, we’re scared of losing our jobs, and we’re hateful because the mainstream media relentlessly promotes stories that pit races, genders and religions against one another. They (and you) turn every discrepancy between races into a racial discrepancy.
Trump managed to win the presidency because the alternative was even worse, and you’re a part of that alternative.
2
@Gary Taustine What scares me are people who voted for Trump because they saw him as the lesser of two evils. People like Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, who in an interview with NPR's Rachel Martin yesterday said this: "I don't know in what moral universe anybody could argue that Hillary Clinton is more moral than Donald Trump."
Yet like most autocrats who use fear to control, he is also a coward. Just check out his behavior with Omarosa. In spite of his signature word on "The Apprentice," he was too pusillanimous to admit on the phone (re: the tapes) that he knew about the firing.
3
Very nicely put, Mr. Blow. I had thought that the main attraction for buying Trump was simply the great pleasure of rubbing liberals' faces in sheer unhearing ignorance. The thrill fear generates is certainly just as powerful a motivation. It all feels so pre-pubescent.
2
I fear Democrats want to take my money and give it to people who don’t want to work. Vote R.
1
He's perpetrating an abusive relationship on a nationwide scale. This is how abusers keep their victims under control: fear. And it's not just statements like "I'll make your life awful if you leave" but an insidious, gradual erosion of the victim's independence so that they fear being without their abuser.
This country needs to, collectively, kick him out and toss all his garbage into a metaphorical cardboard box on the corner.
2
A bully’s most prize weapon is fear, isn’t it?
2
Trump is a malignant demagogue who exploits the fears, anger, and prejudices of his supporters with lies and scapegoats. He offers superficial slogans and simplistic policies in the tradition of the Fascistic despots
of the 1930s. The Republican Right has used him to pack the courts with conservatives, ram through their tax scam for the rich, and deregulate!
He is contemptible and totally unPresidential.
An embarrassment to the expected standards of conduct for his office!
2
Mr. Blow, I am rarely disappointed in your opinion pieces, which are usually astute and thought provoking, and anticipated that this one would be the same in light of Ron DeSantis racists statements yesterday implying that his African American opponent was a monkey.
Instead this article seems to be a perfunctory retread.
It seems as if you wrote it ahead of time for some reason. It is hard to believe that you would far go
Analyzing the racial dog whistles by DeSantis, which he obviously believes will lead him to victory just as Trump’s blatant, and sustained racism has brought him political success. To delve in all levels of this rich material was expected.
I look forward to your next article. Hopefully it will be current and up to your usual high standard.
1
Trump uses fear as a four letter word.
2
Charles Blow is the Rush Limbaugh of The NYT -- a very bright, articulate man who uses his gift to divide rather than unite. These guys are no longer talking heads, but screaming heads, constantly turning up the volume and dialing down the real dialogue. Their appeal is directly proportional to their ability to divide people and play on our most basic fears. I expect that of talk radio, not a journalistic icon like The Times.
Not a chance, Charles Blow, that feeling fear feels like fun today! Nothing about Donald Trump is magical. Our 45th president is only the carney barker of a reality television show America is sick unto death of. Trump is -- never having donned the uniform of any service to the United States -- master and commander of his demented ship of fools and loyalists, heading for the rocks, the reefs, the whirlpools of his own destruction, as he doles out bread and circuses to his ignorant followers, and insane tweets against his enemies.
1
Sadly, Mr. Blow has never been right. Although he keeps on trying.
2
Oh gosh, I forgot to be afraid.
Hopefully in the next 70 days there will be plenty of TV ads and Fox coverage to remind me to be really, realky scared. Mexicans climbing unbuilt walls. MS-13 in my garage. Gays buying wedding cakes. Trans people using toilets. Black people actually being black. Liberals voting. All near me. The Horror ...
What if I were to forget to be scared in November? I might vote. Based on reason and science and my American sense of equality and fair play. Not on Fear!!! Then what?
Funny, now I don't feel scared. Actually I feel energized. Wow! Feels good! Think I'll vote. You too!
#NovemberIsComing
2
He's not eloquent, informed, contemplative or the least bit concerned about anything or anyone other than the faux tanned, self-absorbed image he fawns over day after day. Why bother Charles - like our huckster-in-chief boasted long ago, he could shoot someone and it wouldn't make any difference to the sycophants, lemmings and legions of pathetic followers who would be tossed aside if they couldn't continue to provide fuel and fire for the Imbecile's flames of lies, hate and vitriolic Twitter rants, the musings and drivel of a pathetic despot. Enough for my daily rant, just get out the message to all- vote, vote , vote, the one action that can make a difference and will also hopefully remove the scurrilous toadies hiding under the cloak of the GOP.
2
Some self-reflection would be in order. Mr. Blow has been a purveyor of fear regarding Trump and Republicans for years.
1
Donald has done a terrible job. The USA should fire him to save credibility
3
Fear makes people stupid. Fear clouds the mind, leads to bad judgement. Fear skews priorities and creates tunnel vision.
That is why the GOP has been using it long before Trump arrived on the scene. Fear (and anger) make people stupid - and sets them up to be conned.
The GOP is the party of fear. Make people afraid, promise you can protect them, and you can lead them around by the nose. Lather, rinse, repeat.
3
Your fearless posts give me hope Mr Blow. Thank you!
1
Charles, Trump is crazy.
You are a good man, a thoughtful man. A fine journalist.
Trump is crazy.
You think, speak, and write in whole clear sentences.
Trump sounds like a troubled child. Because Trump is crazy.
Of all his crimes one that really bothers me is how he's stolen so many countless hours of our time reading and writing about a madman. Yes, it's serious. I know that.
But I can't wait for this all to be over so that we can have you back. Charles Blow, applying his talent to good use. Not to Crazy.
Get out and vote !!! We need to do like the Australians and *require* everyone to vote, no exceptions. These horrible people will then be swept out of office and marginalized.
You are playing the same game Charles. Read your own columns objectively if you can. Instilling race based fear is your stock in trade. You just happen to be on the other side of Trump.
1
The Trump "administration" and its Congressional collaborators prove my initial comments on the "Department of Homeland Security" correct. An earlier rogue administration, whose figurehead was the scion of a decent family fronting for a bunch of warmongers, used 9/11 as an excuse to further a police state. They took the Nazified term "homeland" (Heimat) to create a colossus of bureaucracy that never functioned properly except yo promote fear and intimidation in a way presaged by a Graham Greene title, "Ministry of Fear."
1
Trump is the most fearful of all! He fears rejection and not being loved, looking and sounding stupid, laughed at, losing, and not being in control of just about everything. And for those who believe Trump is showing signs of dementia, which he surely fears the most, he’s still clever enough to stoke fear in the minds of his vulnerable base.
I am amazed every day that an authoritarian fascist can be called a populist.
4
trump is the proverbial wife beater punching the united states in the face and telling it how ugly it is, punching it in the gut and telling it how weak it is...and when trump's united states cower in fear he tells them he alone can defend it
2
It’s always the coward, hiding at the back of the mob, inciting those in front to take the first swing.
2
This is for Mr. Blow and all the NYT writers.
Please stop writing at least half of your articles about trump's latest blatherings or tweets.
Spend some time writing about what the Democrats offer for the future.
It simply cannot be "we are not trump."
So far I haven't seen much in the way of alternatives,specific policies or programs. How about a catchy bum[er sticker slogan.
By the way, "Democratic Socialism" (whatever that means) may sound great in some big cities but it sure won't in the most of the USA.
1
Lurking beneath the narcissistic president is the great fear that people will find out he is nothing but a big ball of insecurity. Once democrats realize this they will go to town on this weak little man. Trump will lose everything when the light of day shines on his criminality.
3
You're right. Trump is terrible; a "Commander of Fear," an egotistical and impulsive brat, a narcissistic brute who is completely incompetent and unqualified to the president. OK, I'll even agree with you that he's The Worst Person in the History of the World.
Now then.. can you please stop writing the exact same redundant column every week, and move on to new material? Thought experiment: what would you write about were anyone else president? Start there and give us something new and insightful with the next column. Please don't waste more of your words on this joke of a man. Thanks.
Trump possesses no presidential qualities whatsoever. Divisive, vindictive, petulant, undiplomatic, narcissistic, incurious, imperial and bigoted. Too much time spent admiring authoritarians, studying their methods — no wonder power through "fear" appeals to him.
Sadistic, small man.
History won't be kind to him, his mis-administration or his parasitic family.
2
The fear Trump invokes in me is the fear of our democracy being torn down, the fear of racism on the rise, the fear of our rights being taken away if Trump is not stopped by the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place. This is the fear every one of us should be concerned about.
2
Isn't it interesting that Trump supporter fear everything they hear about the 'other' others, but not about others whites?
Whites kill, but they only talk about the black and brown people who have killed.
They talk about 'Mexicans' who bring drugs into the country but fail to note the drug makers are the ones who have turned into drug addicts many of their own.
They talk about the 'others' who are taking jobs away from the 'Americans', but the jobs are ones that most whites wouldn't work to save their lives.
I heard one white guy who said if the Mexicans did take these jobs, then 'they', (whites) could force the farmers to pay a decent wage.
I could imagine that might be true, but farmers are business people and so the prices of these items would go up so high, that only the rich would/could pay for the purchase.
It seems that throughout our republic, whites have always had to be cuddled and somehow everything everybody was doing, it was at the expense of the very precious white guy.
Now, the effects of that cuddling are now being shown to be the fallacy that it was.
Whites have to compete with others on a different level, a level that is mostly fair, and many whites can't handle it because now they really have to compete with others.
If one has been reared to think a certain way since birth and that belief has been passed on thru generations, when the myth is exposed, it can be a tough pill to swallow.
Charles Blow, I wish the subject of your opinion piece today was worthy of your virtosity with words. I agree with everything you said.
Trump seems to have an intuitive understanding of how to wrap a lasso around the panic and confusion he sows, with false promises and lies.
Trump plays the Victim, he Projects Blame (and stirs up fear), and he becomes the Merciless Bully. I used to think of this as the Triad of Trumpism.
Now I am seeing that it is the Triad of Fear.
1
I thought Trump himself revealed to what degree his narcissism exists, and clearly believes the world revolves around Trump:
“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
It makes it very clear that headlines drive this man, and on the flip-side, simply ignoring his kindergarten bully tactics, tweets and late-night toilet tirades will do the most to marginalize him, and potentially, making it uncomfortable enough to resign. Publishing his nonsense tweets and rallies is the best way to prop him up and feed that insatiable ego. Publishing news and information is done through the Press Secretary; tweets are NOT an official source of anything but opinion and comment.
Fear by the All Clear 2012
We all survived Maya. I'm...
Guessing we'll go on living.
Will you believe me this time?
High time for forgiving
Fear mustn't control you.
Fear can be so potent, so persuasive.
Fear cannot console you
Fear, allowed, insistantly invasive.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of the known
Fear of the future.
Fear of the past
Fear of Life.
Fear of death.
Fear of fear.
Fear of being last.
Fear is a funny thing
Forces you to do most anything.
Betray your neighbours, lie to your friends
Makes you bow to naked kings.
Fear feeds all the hate you know,
Just as pride is the taproot of sin.
Be careful of the seeds you sow.
That's the harvest you'll gather in.
2
Fear, Mr. Blow, is a bipartisan tactic funded by the military-industrial-political complex to keep us in a perpetual state of anxiety. Why do you think the Democrats went along with the Republicans to give Trump and the military an ADDITIONAL $80 billions dollars? It was more than the entire military budget of Russia. Watch Rachael Maddow on MSNBC and her hysterical rantings about Russian "attacks" if you really want to see hyperbole and over the top fear mongering. I've seen once level-headed liberals running around screaming "The Russians are coming!, the Russians are coming!" This whole country has lost it's mind.
2
Mad Men pushed fear of waxy yellow build up and BO to sell their products in the 1950's, back when America was great, for some. So fear is back and directed at those the 50's weren't Great for.
1
Trump is a symptom of an economic system that thrives on ignorance and division. Hate is not the answer, it is the fall out. Power is terrified of an educated electorate that is capable of thinking critically about its circumstances, its leaders, and how to affect meaningful change, so power generates fear.
Feed, house, educate, provide healthcare, create meaningful work and the hate will evaporate. We have the resources and the technology: all we need is the compassion to empathize with each other's struggles.
This will take a new kind of leader, one we haven't seen in a while, one who is able to withstand the media and be willing to bridge the divide, not exploit it. I wonder what that would look like?
Let's start with the man, himself, a frightened, insecure individual who since he was young never measured up to those around him. He was a mediocre student, a frequently failed businessman, an absent parent, and a soulless, intellectual mouse (apologies to mice everywhere). His narcissism necessitated a different narrative - a HUGE network of lies that built himself up by tearing others down - that made others responsible for every slight or failure in his life, real or imagined. That there is no truth to this doesn't matter. It is a fiction designed to keep his personal insecurities at bay - his ultimate fear that he is unworthy.
This is the narrative he honed and shaped and sold to a portion of Americans who are also fearful and insecure. In the end, though, just as in the beginning, it is all about Trump - all about keeping his fear at bay and giving him the illusion of being someone of worth. And he is doing it all by turning our country, our democracy, our ideals into rubble.
After all, who could be greater than the man who destroyed the United States?
4
A dormant volcano erupts and destroys everything in its way to the deepest valley or the sea. At first it is an explosion that is followed by total destruction with the lava killing everything good in its way with no human power to derail it.
Deep seeded hate, seething in a semi-quiet way is unleashed in 2016 and becomes the springboard to reveal a festering 240 year cancer that becomes an epidemic among the prejudiced minority.
The gatekeepers, the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, succumb to the hate mongers with $$$ to keep the 2 of them quiet.
The 3 most powerful officers of the USA are complicit in fulfilling the hate mongers, the 0.1% and the breech of the most important foundation of our Country. Brick by brick the foundation of 1776 crumbles and the abyss is capturing the lemmings who believe #45.
Stay tuned for nuclear war, a needed diversion of our feared leader.
Science fiction in real life.
All trump voters deserve this, the others don't.
2
Anthem lovers cowering in fear of “others” and change. Sing it with me now — “and the home of the brave. Play ball.”
I’m exhausted by this fear-based reality presidency show. Like djt’s other reality shows, it’s losing ratings and viewers. I think we’re done here.
The contrast of Senator McCain’s life story with his incredible heroism at the Hanoi Hilton and the fear-mongering president’s tall tales reminds me of who our country’s leaders can be and should be.
2
My fear is that if Trump is proven to have conspired with Russian interference in our election, to have laundered Russian rubles, and to have obstructed justice, he will not go quietly like Nixon. Instead he will rally his minions to violence. Perhaps this is why the Republican party has gone spineless and quiet.
2
Blow is right: Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that his politics are founded on the fear he inspires in his followers. But we also need to interpret Trump's latest bout of fear-mongering through the distorting lens of his immense ego. When he tells Evangelicals that there will be blood in the streets if the GOP loses the midterms, he really means that he and his family will be exposed to an onslaught Democratic investigations. And he's right about that. His mistake is that he's confused "violence" with "justice."
1
I fear that there are not enough people with integrity left in government or the private sector to stop this president and his cronies from completely unraveling our dear democracy. This is not the country I grew up in. With all its flaws - and there were many - we were always striving for a better tomorrow for all. We were on a trajectory towards a just and beneficent society, adapting to inevitable environmental and philosophical changes. We had leaders trying to guide us in the march of time - allay our fears and comfort us. We were a country of hope for ourselves and the world. Fueled by fear we become our own worst enemy. So - will people of integrity please show yourselves! What are you waiting for? You’re already late. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.....” takes on new meaning so well articulated by Mr. Blow.
3
Trump and the fear he has sown emerges from a long history of false narratives. This is just the tip and I hope the tipping point in the rise of this view of our development as a nation. At the heart of this narrative lies the myth of the link between freedom, democracy and capitalism. It is largely a male narrative in which individualism, competition, power over, and the lack of empathy is held up as ideal. Then socialism becomes a dirty word, the value on the good of the whole is considered weak, even despised. What counts is a zero sum game where one side wins with honor and the other is defeated and shamed. Trump is the inevitable pinnacle of this trajectory. Everything is hierarchical, especially the ranking of ethnic groups and gender orientations. Some may think this is outmoded. There is one example that stands out for me. I see the narrative of John McCain as an important example of this distorted view. John McCain is held as some kind of flawed hero. In all the articles celebrating his life, not one in the MSM mentioned his role in promoting atrocious wars, thousands of deaths, thousands of displacements, the despair of whole societies that he enthusiastically championed. It is these kinds of narratives that are distortions, or even just plain false, that huge swaths of the American population still clings to. And Trump fires up the fear that the loss of these false narratives engenders.
3
The origins of this fear are real childhood experiences of pain, lack, and insufficiency, that have been denied and defended against. To defeat a Narcissist, supported by a narcissistic, paranoid base, we have to understand this.
Narcissistically disturbed people are very fearful, usually bordering on paranoid. They are afraid of exposure, afraid of their own lack. They typically feel people are 'out to get' them. This is because they actually WERE persecuted or neglected in early childhood -- and they form their world view around this template. In the absence of unconditional love to drink in, they develop a sham self built on lust for power, grievance and anger.
Narcissists have no functional "self" like most people have. They NEED scapegoats on whom they can off-load negative self-states and disturbing emotions. Scapegoats (Hillary/Mexicans/Dems) help "explain" the rage, frustration, and bad feelings which are a Narcissist's natural internal state. They are angry people in search of a target.
The base and the GOP leadership are, increasingly, narcissistic and paranoid. They want to run an entire country based on the irrational fears of their current leaders. Alt right news sources are like a candy store for paranoid people.
Paranoid, angry people are "made" by harsh/authoritarian or indifferent/neglectful parents who are only capable of conditional love. The narcissist is an empty vessel. Their anger stands in for a moral code, a self, a soul.
2
The fear peddlar cannot govern by any other means because he is so inept and personally flawed. Oh come let us adore him! No thanks when it's an infinite waste of time to listen to his bile. His base lack all discernment after buying into the selfish and xenophobic narrative.
As for these rallies, individuals would be better served volunteering on community projects where they can make a positive difference to where they live and work. Listening to Trump will not improve their communities since does not he have the largesse to give them any money for improvements. Still waiting for that massive infrastructure plan, where is It?
2
What a trajectory. We've gone from Roosevelt and " We have nothing to fear but fear itself" to this garbage.
Please help get out the vote everyone, do what you can! While there is a limit to what those of us abroad can do, we are donating and will be making calls from here in London.
2
When the public cheers his derision of McCain, that is just sad.
1
So according to djt, the master of instilling fear and doubt, if Democrats win in November, they "will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently," Than next up, the cleanup crew explaining what he really meant.
I have a message for this weak and frighten adolescent:
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, hope and unbeatable determination.
November 6,2018 has got to be one of the most important dates circled on our calenders. Please, now is the time for each an everyone to cast their vote and send him off to the farthest end of our universe.
Please Vote
2
Trump is a variation on the quote attributed to Caligula, "Let them hate, so long as they also fear."
2
Just like the movie "Jaws", the fear that Trump spews is phony baloney.
Keep your eyes on the prize: a Congress that will perform the Constitutional duty of oversight of the Executive Branch.
Just GO VOTE on November 6, 2018.
3
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” -Yoda
1
Mr. Blow spends his waking days telling everyone how afraid we need to be because of.... Trump.
I didn't (and would never) vote for the guy, but I see fear being used by liberals everyday.
2
Does Trump pitch fear, and offer himself as the only solution? Of course he does. That's just populism 101. Of far greater concern is his persistent and accelerating attacks on the media. His efforts to undermine media credibility are characteristically transparent and simpleminded. They are also working.
As we lurch from day to day in an ongoing cascade of Trumpian lies, mendacity and incompetence and are numbed by the onslaught, cataclysm draws nearer. Fox News draws a massive audience. Trump has 54 million Twitter followers. 90% of Republican voters support him. Mueller's investigation has already produced some shocking results, but his final report is likely to be extremely damaging to Trump. Knowing this, Trump presses on with an unprecedented assault on the fabric of truth. How are 40 million brainwashed Republican Trump fans going to react when Trump is faced with accountability and screams "fake news" and "witch hunt"? Imagine the L.A. riots, only nationwide. Hyperbole? Just wait.
3
Only someone who's full of fear thinks they need an AR-15 for home security or carries a pistol while they run errands. I carried weapons in Afghanistan—where people actually were trying to kill me—but I refuse to carry them in America, because what would that say about America? It would say (and says) that fear, Trumped-up by the NRA, Fox News, et. al has usurped freedom. The GOP base’s irrational fear of tyranny has made them tyrants.
2
I fear Republicans will not find the political courage to remove Trump from the office he sullies further with each passing day.
1
Fear is the excuse. Hate is the product.
How many of Trump's supporters go to sleep at night terrified about Mexican rapists, or MS-13, or the horror of a black family somewhere benefiting from ObamaCare? I'd wager very few.
But when they wake up in the morning they are ready hate, or at least scapegoat. Even if after a good night's sleep.
They just need a little push, a sellable excuse.
2
And just what was Reagan’s “welfare queens “ and George H. W. Bush’s “ Willie Horton”? They were the same dog whistles of racist fear of the other that Donald Trump is using. And Republicans have been getting elected by such fearmongering for decades. What makes Trump’s use of fear unusual is that it’s an extension of the massive narcissism that dominates his personality. It’s all about me, “ Big Brother” Trump, and you should be afraid if I’m not there to protect you from the Democratic demons. So be loyal, even be violent, if you want me to provide more conservative judges who will get rid of Roe v. Wade while I my swamp mates steal you blind and turn our democracy into an autocracy and rid fear from the land!
2
"He constantly whips up panic about the Salvadoran-American gang MS-13. In May, in a meeting at the White House, a California sheriff lamented that she couldn’t notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if a known MS-13 member was jailed for a minor crime."
While Trump's use of this gang as representative of all Hispanics is disingenuous, it's also a mistake to take the bait by defending a group like MS-13 just because it came out of Trump's mouth.
This type of knee jerk, self defeating reaction by Democrats is one of the main reasons why Trump has been able to capture just enough of the more moderate and or independent voters that allowed him to win the election in 2016.
As long as he's able to put us in a box with tactics like that, we have little chance of swinging those voters back to us. Defending violent gangs in any way is morally wrong and politically stupid.
Our left wing base has us running so scared that we've come to the point where we're afraid to criticize a violent Hispanic gang just because they are "Hispanic".
I hope the Trump family senses fear when they go back to NY and for the ones still living there, why not give them a sense of what fear really is.
No violence.
Just a Hello, with a smirk.
1
HE is supersized Nixon, without the charm or intellect.
Seriously.
Trump is a master manipulator and trickster extraordinare. His use of fear triggers our reptilian brain into a fight, flight or freeze response. The antidote to these primal responses is to tap into the more evolved parts of our brain. If we respond to everything he says or does we lose. Choose your battles. Help others. Take a break from the news. Vote this man, his clones and his enablers out of office. And breathe.
1
We do not fear Trump's power, we fear his impotence.
Many great recipes call for vinegar - usually just a teaspoon or less. Trump is all vinegar and his recipe for the country is sickening and needs to be changed. Although the stable of Republican candidates was pathetically weak I'm still mystified as to how this bitter and spiteful man convinced enough people in the right states to pull off this win. He is a 24 hour a day nightmare. I am maintaining my faith the electorate will find it's collective common sense and our nation will be rid of this awful man. He is despicable.
Ya, this is exactly what the Founding Fathers envisioned for our new nation. One based on a foundation of fear, ruled by self-serving bullies, and the degradation of anything that does not abide by their warped sense of democracy.
This an aberration, headed by an ignorant, uncaring creature with an enabling following traveling a decidedly low road. So very sad.
1
Trump uses fear and hate to establish himself as the Savior. I Alone will Fix It for you. It's also the lazy way.
There is the lazy man who just has to go to rallies to feed his black hole ego and spout the words he knows will work. And there is the adoring crowd looking up upon the lazy man, themselves lazy saying Yes Fix It For Us! We will go home and wait for you to bring us money and jobs. We don't need new job training, better schools for our children or better roads, we just need to watch TV in our Lazyboys and Trump will deliver to us - just like pizza.
That this scenario is fantasy may be in the back of their minds but the desire to sit at home and wait for Trump to deliver the presents down the chimney is overwhelming.
Much like their savior, too many Americans are overweight, undereducated and not willing to do the work necessary to fix their problems. It's too much hard work to do it the correct way.
Much easier to sit down and be told someone else will do it for you. And our Liar-In-Chief has promised delivery.
Trump is a master in instilling fear and drawing on existing fear for his own advancement, but he also uses and infuses hate, which may or may not stem from fear. The hate of the racist is laced with fear, but it also has a life of its own apart from fear - steeped in feelings of superiority and disgust for those thought to be lessor. Trump has an astounding ability to use the worst instincts in all of us, and this has served him well. Instead of appealing to our better selves, he draws out and legitimizes our worst, and unfortunately we seem to like that.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
To be fair, the GOP has kept certain segments of our population in a perpetual state of fear since 9/11.
Remember the color-coded Terror Alerts, which consistently blazed orange or red, peaked during the 2004 election, and stopped being a thing as soon as Dubya won?
The woman in red who told McCain she didn’t trust Obama because he was “an Arab”?
The warnings that Obama “palled around with terrorists,” was confiscating guns and wanted to set up Death Panels as part of the ACA?
All Trump had to do was turn the paranoia up to eleven and present himself as a superhero. He’s as unlikely a hero as any small-time crook, but we’re talking about his fans, who readily believe Hillary Clinton is running a child sex slave ring out of a pizzeria. People undone by 17 years of relentless fear-mongering from the Right.
1
The three elements of propaganda:
1. Fear - Make people afraid of something or someone
2. Anger - Turn their fear into anger: "Lock her up", "Build the Wall"
3. Blame - Tell your supporters who to blame. Hillary, MS13, the "deep state", even Jeff Sessions?
Trump studied the masters - Experts from the Russian Revolution, who modernized propaganda nearly 100 years ago, and from Russia's modern day disciples, Putin and the KGB.
1
"Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, fear.”
Donald Trump
Not exactly something new. See the 1991 quote from author Amy Tan
"You see what power is – holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them."
-Amy Tan, from her book The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)
She is correct.
2
This is a wonderful essay, Mr. Blow! I can't help but think of all the dictators who have used the same timeworn tool to provoke otherwise rational people to ignore truth. Now that's real fear!
The ads on Faux News tell you ALL you need to know about fear and anxiety among the deplorable snowflakes:
Buy gold
Reverse mortgage
Home canning
Tactical sunglasses
Clear, small hearing aids
Credit monitoring
Home security system
Virtual private network WiFi anonymity
Discrete dental work to avoid social anxiety
And on and on and on...
Truly the ads expose them for who they are: anxious fearful shallow childish snowflakes.
1
Democrats have been instilling fear in minority voters for the last 50 years.
Nothing new here.
1
Were it not for our Fear-monger in Chief's false projections, we couldn't possibly have our MAGA fake and cheat it too.
Most people enjoy a scary monster movie but when it’s over they go back to their real lives. For Trump supporters the scary movie is their real life and they fail to realize that the real “monster” is the one they’re counting on to protect them.
2
Make America Brave Again! -Either that or just delete the last word from the National Anthem.
Last week Trump told Fox News, “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
Let's find out.
2
Mr. Blow isa great thinker and writer, I applaud everything he contributes.
No one has found a way to stamp out the roots of barbarism in our species. All the suffering from hate based acts in history and still millions are delighted to see others suffer again and again and again. The little tin god syndrome. "I", the special person, am the center of existence. Anyone who disagrees with my wishes, who has skin I do not like, who I say is an enemy, that lives life in a way I personally dislike, who does not praise me as a magnificent human; does not deserve any happiness, and in fact should suffer egregiously because they dare oppose any of my thoughts, wishes, or actions."----------------------------------------------------------------
“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
1
Obama’s belief that “real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence” only works if the other side thinks you are capable of violence, and willing to use it. Sounds like fear to me.
Everyone just vote against Trump that’s the our greatest revenge.
2
He "commands" nothing.
Especially respect from those of us who can process thoughts that aren't provided by fox "news".
1
Charles, no wonder Trump could only run with a Republican ticket in 2016. We on the left would've given him no ground to start his campaign with the most divisive language like, "Mexicans are.." like you mentioned here.
Actually if fear could be used as a weapon then the Republican party was always welcoming all the candidates with fear mongering messages for a long time. Trump took full advantage of the ready made audience that the Republicans have nurtured for a long time.
He came up with some of the most outlandish claims that any other Americans had ever come up with. Calling Obama's presidency illegal, Trump started spreading a rumor that our first Black president was not born in America but in his father's native land Kenya.
Almost all the Republicans jumped on the same hoax spread by Trump that "if Obama was not born here, he could not be president of this country."
What nobody told Trump on his ugly face., "So what ?"
With his White Kansas born American mother, Obama had as much claim to the throne as John McCain who was born on Panamanian waters as per his birth certificate issued by a hospital in Panama. But none of that was a concern for the honchos who filled up the higher echelons of G.O.P.
"The Commander OF Fear"as you addressed him in your piece, Trump is spreading one fear after another squashing all the civility that this country grew up with. DeSantis of Florida went one step further by insinuating that his Black opponent for Governor, is a "Monkey".
1
Mr. Blow,
Thank you for your beautiful and insightful column. You have absolutely nailed it with this one.
(You asked what we thought--that's what I think!)
God bless!
Meg
1
"Nothing to fear but fear itself". There it is, Trump stoking the fear that Roosevelt warned against.
16
'Twas ever thus. Today's Republican party has only two products, and it markets them masterfully. It sells fear to the lower classes and greed to the upper class. That's the method it uses to get the lower classes to vote against their own interests and (surely by coincidence only) to assist in further enriching the upper class, the 1%.
31
I have yet to see a single example where hatred was not rooted in some sort of fear, whether that fear is rational or not. If someone has the power and the podium to instill fear, the level of ignorance in that person's audience will exponentially amplify the vitriol accordingly. Case in point: MAGA events....
10
Having worked under several supervisors over the years, I found that all of them "exaggerated" their departments accomplishments in reports to their superiors.
A friend of mine who was a former supervisor (not mine) summed up how the game was played:
"A lie is as good as the truth as long as people believe it."
8
Some say that the opposite of love is not hate but fear. Thank you for this column. When Trump came to Great Falls,Montana to campaign for his candidate, the rival campaign did a food drive to try to counteract all the negativity come to town.
Trump comes to my town, Billings, next week . If I went to his rally out of curiosity, would I see people I know caught up in Trump fever? I make phone calls and knock on doors for candidates and like to think that Trump fever is specific to Trump. My hope is that we can get a legislature that will move our country forward in a positive way.
Fear can be for something real or it can be an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. The former is how I feel about what Trump is doing to our country-scared. The latter is the fear that Trump is spurring on in people.
11
Hate is a great and powerful emotion, sustained by fear. It's just the ticket to get out the vote.
We all vote emotionally and voting Against anything gets us up early. We love to mainline hate because our reptile brain makes us feel alive, powerful, free, invincible, and righteous.
That's how the Republicans win.
They gin up hate combined with fear (which makes the hate justifiable as revenge) to insure turnout and cloud judgment. It's the perfect recipe for uneducated emotional thinkers as they normally feel powerless and policies that favor them are neither trusted nor understood.
Democrats and Progressives need to make Hate a bedrock principal - because it works so well.
It got the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, the Presidency, control of the Supreme Court, and most of the State Houses.
Time to think different and fight fire with fire or lose the future while feeling morally superior. That's the choice.
Democrats can hate just as well as Republicans. Just as one can justifiably be intolerant of intolerance, so one should righteously hate against hate.
Hating Trump and all that he stands for is good - does not the good eternally oppose and hate evil? Back it up with progressive policies for the People and you win.
You just have to keep emotion - not policy - primary. Policy, no matter how wonderful, puts people to sleep, but emotion turns out the vote for the win.
119
You absolutely nailed it: when they (The Right) go low, we (The Left) go even lower; Progressives need to bring their metaphorical Big Guns to the proverbial knife fight with Conservatives...
@Fourteen
So Democrats become the party of the anti-fa? Because Republicans have become the party of white supremacists? This sounds like the recipe for a civil war.
If love, truth and decency can't overcome hate, lies and intolerance then it's all over. There's no future worthwhile for humans to live and fight for.
1
@Fourteen
Very twisted logic. Following their path of hate, you may as well shoot yourself in the foot.
2
This absolutely nails it.
8
Fear mongering, pettiness, viciousness are exactly why Trump's base loves him. They see it as "honesty" and cruelty = strength. The bully and his followers are holding the rest of the playground captive, reveling in the newfound attention and power for as long as they can get it - they've been ignored, and rightly so, for years.
11
@T. Goodridge I must disagree, as to the propriety or value of ignoring Trump's "base". We ostensibly educated, compassionate ones like to stereotype the Trump supporter as a beer-swilling uneducated NASCAR fan living in a double-wide. (Is our stereotyping of such "deplorables" any less morally indefensible than racism, misogyny, etc?)
Fact is, his "base" includes millions of well-educated suburban women, small business owners, and professionals of all stripes. The Dems largely ignored Trump's base in 2016 and from what I see, are making slow if any progress in broadening Democratic appeal. Our arrogance and smug superiority, combined with a booming economy, could very well entrench the status quo in November.
1
@rich I have absolutely nothing against beer swillers, NASCAR fans, or people who live in doublewides, and I am well aware that intelligent people are part of Trump's base - a few of them are (still) my friends. So to be more specific, "the bully and his followers," meant the racists and white supremacists that have crawled out from under their rocks and are reveling in the limelight as Trump is.
The non-racists in Trump's base, however, are guilty by association, or are enablers, but no worries, the economy is good so that makes everything okay. Sad.
Of course Trump plays on the fears of his base. But they are the last people who should feel afraid.
Trump supporters are white, Christian, mostly male. They will never be targeted for their skin color or religion. And yet this "president" tells them that they are somehow the "victims". What Trump is doing is no less than setting up the circumstances that will unleash ethnic cleansing in this country.
As whites, particularly white males, make no progress under his presidency, they will not blame Trump, of course. Instead, he will point to brown-skinned Americans as the people his base should really punish. Trump has never taken responsibility for his own failings, and neither does his base. They cannot accept that they might not have good jobs or good educational opportunities because of their own lack of effort. Instead, they want to think that these opportunities were "taken" from them by their browner skinned neighbors.
Trump will stoke this hatred for as long as he is in office. And with each passing day, citizens in this country who are of Hispanic, African American, Middle Eastern or Asian ancestry will be the targets of Trump's base. And his base is just salivating at the chance for this type of blood letting.
Commander of Fear? Everyone is missing what is the greatest threat to our people, when they talk about the imagined "fears" of Trump's rabid base. His base will never be victims. But they will be perpetrators of violence against their neighbors. Get ready.
268
@Kyle Reese "Trump supporters are white, Christian, mostly male. They will never be targeted for their skin color or religion."
I would re-color your phrase ever so slightly. Yes, most of his supporters are White and Christian. His rallies seem to be family friendly and family populated events. To me. his rallies appear to be 50/50 male/female.
I think more A/A and Hispanics support Trump, than could be judged at his rallies. I suspect in some minority households, there may not be an atmosphere of "agree to disagree".
He's having a rally tonight. I'll be watching, will you?
@Kyle Reese
Excellent point. And this hatred of the "other," the browner skinned neighbor, is by association also directed at progressives, because of liberal support for a multi-ethnic or multicultural society. Whereas this group that Trump incites prefers a monolithic and monocultural (read that: all white) society. Fear is power, as Trump states, and he capitalizes on that.
This falls right into line with an America with a changing demographic that prefers an autocratic version of government, and, in a twisted way, sees that as democracy. Those who think this way are ripe for the same kind of fervor that accompanied the rise of other historical dictators who, not incidentally, promoted and stoked violence.
These are dangerous times.
2
@Kyle Reese.
How terribly sad that I agree with you. Those Trumpers who are armed, and I'm guessing that it's most of them, will eventually grow tired of all of Trump's rhetoric while their situations remain unchanged. When all the talk and bluster don't bring them better jobs with better wages, they'll be looking for someone or some groups to blame. With Trump encouraging them, the more violence-prone will take to the streets to "take back America," never understanding how they've been manipulated by the ultimate con man.
1
I like Charles Blow, but enough already. This is year-old news. We know how Trump operates, and those who are aghast by it have taken their positions, as have those who love it or are otherwise indifferent. The only thing that matters now is winning. A litany of Trump's offenses won't get us there.
4
Mr. Blow, you are right. He feeds his followers fear and him as the only solution to these fears. They willing go along with the fear, the lies that back their fears and Fox News that perpetuates them.
But he has also installed fear, but a different kind of fear, in those of us who are not Trump supporters. This is the fear of what he has done to this country, its media, institutions , to our world standing, to the Preidency and our unity as a nation.
There isn’t a day that goes by when I read about one of his falsehoods, or tweets or what his incompetent Cabinet members are doing to our country that I am not fearful. Fearful that once we finally rid ourselves of Trump and the people around him, that we may not be able to get back to some semblance of normalcy in our institutions, our media and culture. I am fearful that when backed into a corner by the Mueller investigation and hopefully a Democratic House of what Trump and some of his ardent followers will do.
I just hope that our democracy can withstand the damage he has done and will continue to do. If it can’t we all have a lot to fear.
150
@Linda Beebe Well said and, as you note, the long-term damage is beyond worrisome. Especially with the conspiracy among the one-party rule - one that is unified in rigging (yes, I use this because the clown that yells the most about all being rigged against him has actively rigged his way through life) the courts across the various levels with the justice system to assure a long-term directional bias.
Wouldn't it be nice if, and it will never happen, when the depths of his involvement and cooperation over decades with mob-like oligarchs, mostly Russian, or with Russian connections are fully revealed. My dream further goes on to a blue-wave in November, democrats grow a spine and launch multiple congressional investigations that reveal both the depths of the Trump's financial shenanigans (I really want to see his tax returns) along with data that further expose how rigged the election was toward Trump.
Right before I wake up, revocation of virtually all official actions of Trump's illegal administration (e.g., judgeships, environmental roll-backs, etc.).
I know, it's a dream...
1
The exercise of fear by the Republican Party began shortly after 9-11, no doubt the brainchild of Dick Cheney and adopted by President Bush. Trump has just taken it to a completely new, effective and dangerous level.
But I'm now going to get a bit esoteric. In George Herbert's classic novel "Dune", Paul Atreides, who is destined for greatness and tragedy, is tested with something called the gom jabbar to make sure he is 'human'. To make it through this test, and avoid instant death, he recites in his head the 'Litany Against Fear', an incantation designed to calm the body and focus the mind.
Part of the litany calls fear 'the mind killer' and 'the little death that brings total obliteration'. Facing fear and letting it pass over and through you will turn it into nothing; it becomes powerless.
Perhaps we need a societal Litany Against Fear now.
4
Dear Charles,
As I await a new sunrise,
“They’re trying to take away our culture. They’re trying to take away our history.” I don't remember this quote specifically, but, I'm pretty sure it is taken out of context. Just like the very next sentence.
"At the height of outrage over his family separation policy and the locking of children in cages,..." The pictures of caged children were from the Obama administration.
MS-13 members aren't animals? Really? I'll compromise and go with barbarians. Will you meet me halfway? Barbarians.
Oh, look. Another book about Trump. With all of these books, most people will need another Kindle or another book shelf. Riddle me this, Charles. What is the average number of days, an anti-Trump book author stays on TV, after the book's release? I'll go with 5 days. Just a wag. Omarosa's book really dragged down that average.
Looking forward to the globally climate changed days of November. Until then,
Cio, Mike
Excellent commentary, but maybe President Donald Trump has now cried "wolf" too often, a lot too often. The fear message can become counterproductive if employed too often - just ask the boy who cried wold. For several years climate scientists have warned of the dire consequences that would result if we continued to flood the atmosphere with carbon, but who listened, weren't those scientists crying "wolf" ? Hah ! Now that Americans have had ample chances to observe, living together with latinos and muslims, that nothing is different other than it's more peaceful than being at war with them. We aren't that stupid; after a while we get to realize which fears we need to tend to, and which we need to ignore. As a Democrat I beg "please Mr. Trump, give us more unfounded fears ."
4
The only comfort I have through all of is, is that it will end badly for Trump himself.
It is unthinkable that Trump is actually leading the country into a civil war, and congress does nothing.
10
FOX News makes a lot of money scaring people into watching. Trump takes his news from Fox. Embarrassing. I had a professor that told me to never vote out of fear. Very true!
7
The elephant in the room is Trump’s great fear of the truth coming out with Robert Mueller as the midwife. Trump can call it a witch hunt but it’s a truth hunt, and as water on the Wicked Witch of the West reduced her to nothingness, so, too, will the truth of Trump’s treason with Russia reduce him to the rabble rubble that he is.
Fear is the tool of the weak, and Trump’s feckless behavior will be found out, fear-mongers though he might.
Mueller is sniffing all the tracks, and they all lead to Trump and Putin. Fear and loathing in Donald Trump will be his downfall.
8
Let me quote a fellow combat veteran and a true American patriot: “We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe,” and “We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/us/politics/mccain-funeral-trump.html...
11
Lets help Trump supporters look at this from the opposite perspective: What you don't have to fear. It has been pounded into us what all the bad things are that are out there to get us. Don't be afraid, though, that a white guy will shoot up a video game session. Or a white guy will shoot up a concert in Las Vegas. Or a kid will take his father's gun to school and shoot his classmates. You are overreacting to that stuff if you are afraid. Don't be afraid of all those suburban people overdosing on drugs. They aren't the big problem in America. Don't be afraid of huge budget deficits. It's all hysteria. Don't be afraid of all those wildfires and massive heatwaves. Just an off year weather wise. Don't be afraid to get a job picking lettuce or cleaning hotel rooms. Those are honorable professions. Don't be afraid of for profit colleges whose promises to turn your life around seem just a bit far fetched. Don't be afraid to borrow lots of money from lenders that promise you it will be easy to pay it back. I could go on and on. All you have to recognize is once we get rid of all the people and things that you should be afraid of, your life will be one big party. You will be able to lock up your guns, put loads of money into your savings accounts, enjoy cheap coal powered energy with the cleanest air ever, the temperature will fall, wildfires and hurricanes will end, and you will be able to get back to grabbing your secretary's behind as she walks by your desk.
8
Trumps evangelical Christian base is grounded in fear and threat which is meted out constantly at their churches and gatherings. It is part of their cult and their culture. They are used to it, respond to it, follow it and rely on it. It is their emotional crutch.
The evangelicals create a false fear and then offer salvation .... at a price. Trump has seen this and has harnessed it. Trumps next step should be to create a mega church to unify the evangelicals.
4
As always, Charles Blow, you write the best! And this is one of my favorites!
5
Fear of an enemy, or the other, is the dictator’s most effective tool in his arsenal. It is more effective than violence. From Iran to the USA, if you need to control a group of people, give them an enemy to fear and they will unite around you.
It’s effective use here by Trump, and his propaganda arm of the media, Fox News, speaks to how poorly our education system is doing. A solid education is the only way to counter this type of manipulation.
6
Does Donald Trump use lying to instill fear in his core group of supporters?
Or, does Donald Trump use fear to make his lies more believable to his core?
It makes no difference whether the lying or the fear is the stronger motivation, if the Trump tactics energize the angry core to come to the polls in November in greater numbers.
It also should make no difference to Democrats, Independents and the few remaining responsible Republicans, if we are motivated to vote in November more by a fear of what terrible things the man in the White House will do or by our disgust with his relentless narcissism.
4
“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
With Trump as our president, we couldn't be more poor.
Trump predicated his campaign on fear. How appropriate, since many of us are now more afraid than we have ever been.
When the market, the economy, and jobs crash due to Trump's feckless policies, people will be cracked over the head with the truth. And the truth stands the test of time.
Can we properly predict this disaster and work to avert it, without having to endure the horror of actually experiencing it?
We won't have long to wait.
November 6.
By the way, if any Trump supporters react with violence when Trump and his GOP cronies lose, they will be dealt with effectively by law enforcement. Enough is enough.
126
@Blue Moon I hope so, but I suspect most law enforcement are Trump supporters. And most military too.
2
@Blue Moon
"....they will be dealt with effectively by law enforcement. "
Don't count on it !
There are Trumpies within our law-enforcement as well as our military.
2
Trump exploits the ignorance of the people of this country like no other has. He plays to fears to hold onto to his base. As far as the GOP supporting him, Trump has an approval rating among Republicans of over 80%. while the GOP's approval ratings is somewhere between 10-15%. This is why the GOP is hanging onto Trumps's coattails. They also love tax cuts for themselves, and their donors and their anti-immigration rhetoric keeps them solidified and in power.
9
No one feared Obama. That is why we have Trump. Obama lives in a dream would. Trump is a pragmatist. I just hope America remembers the Obama years and doesn’t make the same mistake.
@Pilot
Pragmatism is doing what works best, and what has worked best for Trump has been his embrace of White Supremacy, lying about everything, the practice of sexual perversion and assault, money laundering schemes, confidence games and the operation of an organized crime family engaging in a conspiracy with an international murderer and former KGB head to undermine Western Democracy and our very Republic.
Thanks for bringing these facts into relief for your readers.
1
@Pilot I remember and miss “no drama Obama”, who was a decent person and leader, despite the GOP’s un-American response to his presidency...
1
"Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." -- Jesus Christ
"We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated." -- Donald Trump
What do we fear? Being last, when we thought we were first. Or we thought we ought to be first. And that all the rest of you ought to be last.
-- Evangelicals and other fearful white Trump supporters
4
Rather than inspire unity, Trump inspires “fight or flight.”
Fear. Or Rage.
Either one gets him attention.
7
My fear is that if the Putin-puppet is impeached and convicted, we'll end up with 10 years of Pence. I'd rather take our chances defeating the puppet in 2020 at the poll booth.
4
@David A.
Nah. Pence would never ever get elected President. Don't be spreading false fears :). Don't be like Trump.
As a member of the cohort poised to die out soon, I only fear one thing: Donald J. Trump.
Using fear as a cudgel may be politically effective for now but it clearly does not do anything much to help us get out of our bunkers and do something positive for our nation or one another.
We are a prairie dog colony tunneling deeper into our burrows as our Prairie-Dog-In-Chief continues his stuttering staccato alarms.
Trembling in our redoubts seals us off from each other and from meaningful cooperation to solve any problems.
My country is not the dystopian novel 1984 as we cower before Big Brother. My country is the country of Rockwell and Atherton's painting The Kansas City Spirit created just two years after Orwell's seminal work. In that painting, a burly man, blueprints in hand, stares into the sunrise of a new day as he rolls up his sleeves to begin reconstruction after devastating floods hit his city.
"Lock her up!" "Build the wall!" "No collusion!"
All perfect for bumper stickers and perfectly useless in getting us anywhere. Get up, get out, meet your neighbors and dust off your coveralls. There's work to be done, America. Leave tweeting to the birds.
5
Just a couple things: " according to one person who attended the meeting and another person who was briefed about it by a different person who was there.” As an anti-Trumpster, I want to believe what that second-hand source said. But that's the sort of journalistic attribution the Trump base seizes on to attack the media. It's probably mostly true but the further anything gets from the horses's mouth is prone to distortion.
To me, the troublesome issue with Trump supporters is that conflation of economic distress with scapegoating--blaming minorities, women and immigrants with the vast economic disparity that afflicts this country now. The Trump administration and the Republican Congress have done nothing to alleviate that economic insecurity. Appealing to fear and intolerance keeps what this echelon of fat cats HAVEN'T done out of a certain uneducated attention.
With a true confronting of disparities in economics, healthcare, and education, another generation of Americans will be far less apt to fall under the spell of another phony populist president.
1
With apologies to NM, all we have to fear is Trump himself.
And the know-nothing cronies in his cabinet.
And the fellow traveling politicians who shrug at his depredations.
And the right wing media that perpetuate his lies.
And the right-wing media parroting wackadoos who support him unthinkingly.
And the guns so many of them have.
A lot more to fear than fear itself.
3
Please keep in mind the Trump believes in nothing. He has no cognitive principles upon which to develop beliefs. His single motive and goal is self-aggrandizement, in celebrity and material profit, as he perceives it.
At the end of the day, in the vacuum of his mind, he makes this stuff up and tosses it to his base like a paper towels to hurricane victims or moldy meat to a starving dog.
This situation is too ugly for words and the prescription for remedy is daunting. Courage mitigates fear. Humility informs courage. Let’s work for a peaceful victory of thoughtful political leadership.
5
Many racists harbor a philosophy holding that Blacks and immigrants played no part in the development of Western Civilization and that allowing a majority that is not White will destroy western (White) culture. This Bannonist approach allows more educated Whites to cling to their racist attitudes. The less educated simply continue to believe that Whites are somehow intellectually superior, a difficult concept for anyone who has paid any attention to the current and last President. Not all racism is based on fear. Talk to a racist and you will soon learn that the hatred runs much deeper, even to the absurd. Some Whites are even physically disgusted if forced to touch a Black. The repulsion is not because of fear, but stems from a lifetime of having racial hatred instilled by family, school, church and friends. I have no solutions for this greatest of all American, and international, dilemmas. Times Editorial writers have no answers. I foolishly believed that the work of MLK and others fifty plus years ago resulted in a seismic change. It barely caused a ripple. As you stated once on, a recent television show, it is impossible to have a rational conversation with someone who is an open and avowed racist. We are not going to convince racists to change by talking to them or educating them. Forcing them to integrate might work, but isn't going to happen. All we can do is vote. Every person, Black or White, who is appalled by what is happening in America must VOTE.
5
"Fear is the chief activator of all my character defects. Fear of not getting what I feel I deserve or fear of losing what I already have. "
Sure, some of Trump's white followers are afraid of losing their white majority status...Trump knows it so well and is exploiting that fear.
I fear a president who is so self-absorbed and
attention seeking he cannot abide due respect given a national hero. Instead of gratitude, he shows contempt
2
Trump is more like the Pied Piper than the Music Man.
1
Thank you for once again expressing so eloquently what I’m thinking!
1
Fear and exaggeration are the ammunition of demagogs and Trump is the consummate demagog. You would think that Americans would learn from history, which is replete with
stories about fear mongers such as Trump who led their countries into disaster. The 1930s comes to mind.
1
Unfortunately the 35 - 40% of the country who buy into Trump's fear - that white people and white culture are under attack - are the real power behind Trump and the GOP. This is why we must vote in November, so the 60 - 65% of Americans who disapprove of Trump can, well, make our country great again.
5
A lie is actually the BEST foundation for fear. Because when the lie is debunked, it raises the fear that 'they' are lying to you.
Nonstop debunking of lies only convinces a certain segment of the population that the lies must be 'true.'
Thus, the best strategy to maintain the reign of fear is constant, unremitting lies. The more obvious the better.
2
They, the Trump base, love their "bully-in-chief" spouting off fear and threats all the time. It gives their egos a nice little massage.
It makes them feel "loved" by an America that they think has betrayed them.
It is a co-dependent relationship in which both parties get some or a lot of what they want: the base gets to slam the media and elites in a scathing manner, and it can bash the black president and woman higher office holder and seeker, respectively, and Trump gets his ego massaged and a secure 30% if the electorate.
It is all done with the slogan of "drain-the-swamp," which itself is fake, a misnomer. His use of that term is actually a permission slip to behave naughtily under the auspices of some phony cleansing claim. It means, really, "beat up the other side as much as possible and enjoy it in the process."
It's the centrists, the independents, the Obama-to-Trump switchers, and the so-called Republican moderates who gave Trump the two-vote-per-precinct deficit in Michigan, and the immense betrayal of the other rust belt states that caused this, with the notion "he will shake things up" and govern with fear.
2
Once again Mr. Blow has written an absolutely brilliant analysis of America’s demagogue. What I particularly dislike about American foreign policy is that it has done everything that it possibly could to alienate the Muslim world, which constitutes one quarter of humanity. Last year the American military dropped 26,000 bombs on seven Muslim countries, and then Washington accuses Muslims of being terrorists. Québec, where I live, has a large Muslim population and Arabic is our third language. Muslims, just like everyone else, want to live in peace. Trump stirs up hatred against them and many evangelicals support him. They obviously have not read the same Bible that I have.
3
Nothing is new under the sun:
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. Niccolo Machiavelli
1
All we have to fear is Trump, the GOP, all their supporters themselves.
Trump's antics at rallies, meetings, tweeting and other formats do not rate as dramatic theater. His "performances" are more of the bad B-movie type. He would be perfect for a role like James Arness's in "The Thing." He could use his natural talent of running around like a man on fire, screaming at the top of his lungs to flesh out the role.
Exaggerated and irrational fear leads people to use aggressive, hostile rhetoric. This in turns scares the people such rhetoric is aimed at, who then counter that rhetoric with rhetoric of their own, which is likewise hostile. The cycle is hard to break, but it's always been with us. ... (I think there's also a danger in the liberal Same-ing of humanity (the inverse of Othering), and I don't think the greatest good is always diversity, inclusion, toleration. But that's another topic.)
Trump is president right now largely thanks to fear, yes -- though perhaps this isn't illuminating. Unreasonable fear can infect a society and have unbelievably devastating consequences; and that's the direction the anti-diversity wing of the Republican Party, which has basically taken over the party, has been going in for decades. When conspiracy theories become pervasive and anti-scientific thinking is mainstreamed in one of our political parties, you know the country is in a bad way.
In Malamud's great novel, "The Fixer," the effects of irrational fear are depicted marvelously. "The Black Hundreds, may they sink into their graves, have aroused against you the most ignorant and brutal of the masses. They are deathly afraid of Jews and at the same time frighten them to death." ... As usual, this is also about mass ignorance, as the ignorant are easily misled. If we're to have government by the people, whatever that means exactly, then as Robert Lowe put it, "we must educate our masters."
I do not doubt fears elicited by demagogues seem real to some. The false narratives used are effective on those who have no faith in democratic and American values and likely think those they are told to hate have no faith in these values either. Thus, their fear is real to them. The sick irony is Republicans in Congress and the President are corruptiing the rule of law, Justice, fairness, and the spirit and words of the Constitution so no one will enjoy the rights and freedoms for which people have fought and died, for which so many suffered and sacrificed. There are erasing the American cause, as if to provide justification to their fearful base. They are cowardly and they are wrong. Demagogues are always wrong.
And to some extent, I suspect Trump doesn’t even know what he’s doing. After all this time, there are still no obvious signs of humility and empathy. He’s not aware what empathy truly is, and how it feels ,cognitively and emotionally , to walk in another’s shoes. He may wish it were otherwise, but he is too preoccupied with satisfying his narcissistic needs . He inadvertently reveals himself day in and day out. Many do this, but his stuff is toxic and nasty, out of his control.
In a related way, Florida’s Desantis’ “ monkey up “ comments today, seems to have been a form of Freudian slip, inadvertently revealing what he really thinks. Some researchers may be perusing his past speeches/comments for similar patterns
Charles is right to talk about Trump using his “magical mixture” to “make fear fun,” although the term “dark arts” might be more apt.
Our “short- fingered vulgarian” may not possess a magician’s “sleight-of-hand” but he does possess a nasty “sleight-of -tongue” which he has successfully employed to stoke fear and worst of all to convince his supporters that the legitimate dangers we do face and should justifiably fear -i.e. climate change, the pollution of our air, land and water, depletion of natural resources, destruction of our wilderness areas, inability to access affordable healthcare when we need it, domestic gun violence, Russian meddling in our elections, voter suppression, and unaffordable higher education are nothing but “fake news” drummed up by scientists, the liberal media and the Democratic Party.
However, Trump’s greatest “magic feat” so far is when he calls his assistants in the GOP Congress up to the stage and with their help, proceeds “to saw America in half” - day after day.
President Pariah is expert at ratcheting up fear and anger at his rallies. If we oppose him we must use our white-hot anger and disgust at him and his policies to change the political landscape . Fear is our number one enemy right now because it engenders helplessness, and there are millions of us who can change the political landscape. We can do it and we must. Our Republic is teetering on the precipice.
Ah, the heady experience of being angry in a crowd, for a cause.
Trump gives his supporters this opportunity, in spades. And yep, it is exhilarating.
It's is not only fear that Trump relentlessly peddles.
Victimhood and prosecution are tools he used all his life.
In the 1970's, he was a "victim" of Feds prosecution forcing him to stop housing discrimination against African-Americans.
In the 1980's, He was a "victim" of banks daring to foreclose on him after he refused to pay his debts.
In the 1990's, He was a "victim" of over-taxation and was forced to declare five bankruptcies and close all his casinos.
Since he was "elected" , he is a victim of a witch hunt by DOJ, FBI, MSM, and "Deep State" conspiring to get him.
Hardly a day go without him whining about unfair treatment of some sort.
He is the most aggrieved man in the world!
1
It is my experience that people who enjoy spreading lies and misinformation enjoy being afraid and seem to get a breathless high from it. Trump and his birther lie is a good example and the people who went for it did not really believe it. They could be observed delighting in the mischief they were indulging in. Crowds gathered to watch lynchings of innocent men accused of crimes they did not commit is another example. My heart breaks and my temper flares but what we need is a collective roar that behavior will not be tolerated or believed and call it out for what it is. Evil. And be need to stop enabling them with their habit. No more excuses.
1
The only thing we have to fear is Trump himself. Amd frankly, I am very afraid.
The one thing at which our president truly excels. Bread and circuses.
“The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable.” Yep, Trump is wrong about just about everything but he is right on target with that statement regarding Democrats. It is a never-ending crusade by the Democratic press to bash Trump daily. He is a mistake, no doubt. But the daily hating is just begetting more hate. Mr. Blow can write what he chooses. The press is free. They were free to give Trump extensive coverage in the campaign and the press is free to bash him daily. He makes good copy. But the press is on the honor system. The press polices itself. Stop stoking the hate and dividing us. It is not a coincidence that the more the press has become politically divided, so too has our country. You wouldn't know it from reading the papers or watching Fox news, but 70% of Americans are moderates and have common values.
The old saying that men go crazy in groups and come to their sanity one by one has proven true in the past. Will the same rule apply when the followers of the current occupant of the WH see him come to his political, legal, and psychological end?
As for fear, the pandering by the Republican leaders regarding the threat of election violence is stoking the real possibility of unprecedented civil unrest by minds disturbed to the "shooting" point by these so-called leaders on the right. Such threats must be met with strong censorship and public scolding NOW!
IF we look at the US as a body. We can draw an analogy by calling Trump a cancer that has metastasized. This particular cancer is a serious disease that threatens to overcome us.
Murdoch and his cast of evil, cancerous cells have managed to encourage the spread but have suddenly found a resistance, like chemo, that appears to be growing in strength and numbers.
I am a cancer survivor and know that if it is caught early enough survival chances are greatly enhanced. Let's pray that we have caught it in time. Vote folks as if your life depends on it.
1
And you, sirrah, are the Commander of Fear-Mongering. Both fear and fear-mongering are tragic.
Let's find more peaceful ways to work with one another.
1
“Well, I think there’s a certain truth to that. I think there’s a certain truth to that. Real power is through respect. Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, fear.”
The pervasive fear here sought is achieved through the performative subversion of our collective psyche through the constant "gas-lighting" that is the calling card of Don Trump.
No one would behave in this way, unless they had a lot of bad things in their life to hide. This is no role model for my grand children.
5
Growing up in the 60's my naive and childish view of politics had me believe that the Democrats were timid and frightened and the Republicans were strong and bold when facing our enemies (the Communists). I eventually realized that I had it entirely backwards, the Republicans were the party that was afraid of the world, afraid of new ideas, afraid of "others". It was then and is now the Democratic party that strives for fearlessness and open-mindedness (fearless when it comes to different ideas).
The GOP's fears focused their politics then and their fears are used against them, to corral and manipulate them now. The Republicans are without a doubt a simple, fearful, and petty party.
9
Why don't these same people fear the cost of healthcare, rapidly rising national debt for nothing, destruction of our environment, safety net for those in need and any kind of civility? Why dont they fear the loss of dignity and thoughtful policy making that is bi-partisan? There are so many challenges that could cause fear and backlash. It is petty and cruel to think that the issues that are being used to make policy and garner votes are the truly top priority issues for our country and the world. People who are thinking that trump is going to save them and make all the Others go away are hugely mistaken. This is only the beginning of the types of migrations that are going to take place. There will be no wall to keep others out if there is no leadership, food, water and other basic needs met. If this administration continues to push policies of division and restricting others it will create more animosity and change in the future. racists, bigots, republicans, and all who use fear to win will loose eventually. My hope is that these ideologies loose sooner and we can make improvements in our country. End this terrible TV show by voting. Please vote!
4
It's more than just fear--it's the cycle of grievance, fear, and blame. Fear is used to identify a target for blame: it's illegals, "fake" news, liberal colleges, and every minority that is to blame for your failures. It's certainly easier to blame someone else for your anxieties rather than take ownership of them.
Trump couldn't propagate this cycle of grievance, fear, and blame without the help of his useful propaganda device, Fox News. No doubt Fox has been softening up a large fraction of America long before Trump arrived on the scene. Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and Bill O'Reilly were simply the predecessors who continue their legacy with Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. Remember Two Minutes Hate? It's real and runs 24/7 on Fox News. And it is even hugely profitable, too.
Yes, Trump is pumping out fear like a drug kingpin, but Fox News is the network of pushers that 40% of America goes to for it's daily hit.
8
Charles , Perhaps he'll institute a new department called The ministry of fear" , straight out of a B grade movie , very fitting . His pronunciations are many and have become commonplace ; no we should not feel fear but disgust at all his obvious cheapshots . If he gets impeached the markets will crash ,,,,sooner since he and his merry band have been fleecing us from day one and are way over inflated ; wall street and et ali have been busy doing the same thing ( and then some)that caused the market to crash in 2008 . Yes be afraid , very afraid because we'll have to pay the piper .
You have to admit though, that much of Mr. Trump's fearmongering is based on projection. Mr. Trump projects onto those he wants to malign, the very same violence he's prone to. For example, where he says that if the Democrats gain control of Congress, they will "overturn everything that we've done and they’ll do it quickly and violently,” very appropriately describes what he and his partners in Congress have done thus far.
Mr. Trump ascribes to others the malign cruelty that he, himself, exhibited in separating immigrant children from their parents and locking them up; he accuses others of committing the very sins of which he is guilty.
One of Mr. Trump's best examples has to be "Drain the swamp", where he promised to drain the swamp by ridding Washington D.C. of all the corruption and cronies. Instead Mr. Trump just polluted the swamp, and there is a fair chance that some of his closest associates, if not the man himself, might go to jail, or even spend the rest of their natural lives there.
As another example, Mr. Trump projects onto others the same intellectual vacuity and feebleness that he clearly demonstrates. C.f. Maxine Waters. More, and more examples of his projection show up each day.
Perhaps the biggest component of the fear Mr. Trump exploits is the fear among many white people that when they are in the minority, they will be treated the same as some white people treated non-whites before.
2
We can only hope that Donald Trump reads this column and clearly understands that someone has truly understood him. He has been exposed as a fear and hate mongering manipulator many times over. There is nothing about him which inspires trust and much that inspires fear. This man can no longer be allowed to hide or to be hidden behind enigmatic words of force. It is imperative that he be confronted and stopped now and this must be the work of many. It is no longer just the job of strong journalists.
4
Trump lies are simple and powerful. Democratic leadership appears unable to come up with simple, powerful truths. Democratic leadership is tongue tied because it is beholden to a tiny wealthy elite that also controls the Republican Party. While Trump leads a populist uprising, Democratic leadership is struggling to quell a populist uprising within its own ranks. The Democratic Party suppressed the Sanders uprising only to lose to Trump. Will this time be different?
1
I don't see Trump supporters as afraid but rather as disgusted and resentful. Immigration policy (really lack of any sensible one for 50-plus years) was his signature issue not because everyone between the coasts is a raging xenophobe but because of the perceived threat open borders presented to many citizens' hard-won economic security. Any policy that seemed to favor the rights and interests of non-citizens over citizens: that is where the core anger resides and that is what Trump has had the cunning to exploit.
1
When anyone other than a Trump supporter uses fear -- of climate change, for example -- they are derided as alarmists.
2
Mr. Blow's column is right on target. It's important to know where Trump's power comes from and why he is so effective- as the cliche goes, giving the devil his due. It's important because to identify the sources of his power is a step towards undoing it. The bully pulpit attaches a megaphone to the occupant of the white house and we have been fortunate until now that so many of our presidents have stood on the side of hope over fear and unity over division. At this moment, through some perverse misalignment of forces- call it the canniness of history- Trump's demagogic powers have been unleashed with few restraints on their impact. May November end this nightmare and may the United States repair whatever flaws in its institutions that allowed this destructive power to take root.
68
In his daily newsletter today, David Leonhardt addressed the question of electoral motivation, or the lack of it. He wrote, "Voting is time-consuming and inconvenient, and many Americans think their vote doesn’t matter."
This is particularly true of the young whose futures are the most at-stake in any election. Well, their votes (and hardly only the young) certainly don't matter if they fail to bother getting to the polls.
In this regard the principle applies equally to President Trump's preference for war heroes who don't get caught. A precondition for enemy capture is to sign up in the first place, bone spurs notwithstanding.
Fear is nothing new in politics. LBJ's "daisy" commercial. Reagan's "Bear in the woods" ad. All of George W. Bush's administration post-9/11. I mean even Hillary Clinton's campaign eventually devolved into something fear driven. "Vote for me because Donald Trump is dangerous." That effort backfired though because Clinton effectively affirmed Trump's campaign message. "The world is a scary place."
On a neurological level, fear can be very sticky. One bad car accident and the driver might fear vehicles forever. There's a latent anxiety about traffic that triggers something in the individual. The fear is real. Trump is simply bringing it to the surface by expounding the horrors of traffic deaths. He's not but that would save more lives than anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Here's the thing though: Not everyone is afraid of traffic. Even after an accident, most people will consider automobiles generally safe. You sit around and watch people get into cars everyday without getting into an accident. Cars must be relatively safe. In the same way a child learns how the basement isn't scary, the fear wears off.
As it turns out, fear doesn't wear off as quickly for conservatives. Fearful people tend to be more conservative. As a result, Trump can keep pushing that fear button until the cows come home and extremely fearful people will respond. They'll respond even when the supposed threat is fictitious. The fear is sticky. That's Trump's secret and he's exploiting it at every opportunity.
4
A truly brilliant analysis on many levels, which is, of course, not entirely original. FDR taught us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Using transitivity in logic and the title of your OP-ED, we can update FDR's aphorism:
The only thing we have to fear is Trump unbound.
3
I wonder if you could focus on the importance of reaching the 40+% of the population who didn't vote in the last election? Might it be worthwhile to encourage your readers to try to do what they can to support Michelle Obama's initiative, whenweallvote.org, to get out the vote.
Charles, I agree with you that Trump's keen to stoking fear. But I just assume we, as a nation, focus on encouraging voter participation.
4
Republicans have been peddling the politics of fear and resentment for a very long time from Nixon's southern strategy. Regains's welfare queens in Cadillacs and on to the extreme fears brought to the surface by Trump. Pandering to fears obviously wins elections as is evident that Republicans control all 3 branches of government (yes I mean the Supreme Court too). One of the things that did Hillary in was her inability to offer hope to all. Expounding endlessly on policy does not win elections. Emotional appeals mean more to most people. That's why she lost to President Obama and lost what should have been a walk in the park election to Trump. As he would say "sad".
Of course we must not forget she did win the popular vote as did Al Gore. Both should have been the winners. Now that is truly sad given what has happened to this country under Republican rule.
2
You're right, Mr. Blow. Trump has created a lot of fear in us Americans, 60% of whom fear what will happen if he remains president and the GOP does not lose control of Congress in the mid-terms. Hopefully that fear will send all of us to the polls. Vote, people, like you've never voted before!
12
"His rallies are a hybrid of concert revelry and combat prep." Together, those factors create a mob, and mobs are easily led because they are no thought and all action. All it would take is for one member of the mob to go violent against a perceived, possibly Trump-driven threat in the room for the whole assembly to erupt.
103
@DL, our neighbor 2 houses away, insists on listening to Trump rallies broadcast on cable TV, on his loud speakers! We keep that side of our windows closed..or play louder music inside our homes, heehee.
1
@DL - in re your closing sentence - cf. today's news of the California man threatening to shoot Boston Globe journalists. Trump will have blood on his hands; anyone with a pulse can see that inciting violence as he regularly does will only end tragically. Too many of his followers are mentally unstable (if they weren't, they wouldn't support a degenerate like Trump in the first place).
It's already happened. A guy was arrested in California within the last couple of days for making repeated phone calls to the Boston Globe threatening to kill Globe employees because they are "enemies of the people". And he had guns, one newly purchased. Trump is flinging raw, red meat at his base and some of them are sinking in their teeth.
This is like eating stale toast. No taste. Nothing inspiring. People will be open to change.
I am not sure populism deserves to be equated with the cult of Trump. What did they call fascism in Italy and Germany at first? It's more like that.
He must know at this point that he either completes the coup and succeeds with destroying the country or he will be ruined financially and/or legally after he leaves the presidency. Although sooner would be better. Just saying, he is going to get really desperate. He'll disrupt the country tremendously and there will be no avoiding it because the GOP are complicit.
4
Remember Star Wars? Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the dark side of The Force. We need Jedi.
3
I’m losing hope. Right now I think the Republicans will hold on to Congress. Then on November 7 he would fire Session, Rosenstein and Mueller and start Pardoning. The Republicans will say soothing words and do nothing. It’s November 4 2018 a day after the election Donald Trump has been easily re elected and America is finished!
2
Dictators and authoritarians throughout history stayed in power and controlled the masses by keeping them poor, uneducated, in debt and fearful. This is the formula the oligarchs instituted over 40 years ago and their plan to retain power is working perfectly to suit their needs. They finance the republican party to enact laws to further their stronghold, and created Fox news to spread their propaganda. They also funded all the efforts for gerrymandering and voter suppression laws that keep democrats from voting. Our democracy is nearly gone - vote in November as if your life depends on it.
171
@Anon IT DOES!!
Our country has gone from the sentiment of "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself," to "If we don't watch out, there's going to be a taco shop on every corner."
4
There will be much that history will state of Trump's
presidency. None it will be positive. The worst may
be that Trump had plowed the groundwork for a second
Civil War. He is succeeding in his insatiable desire
for attention and approval by tearing the nation
apart. He is staining the office that he was elected to with his vitriol & lies. Words have power and the words that come
from the mouth of Trump originate in his dark heart.
Our nation has its share of less than stellar presidents.
We have been also been favored by some very good
presidents who can be considered exceptional leaders. These presidents have made miscalculations or been limited by their shortsightedness at times. Yet with each of those presidents there were some very good ideas and programs. Their leadership made us a nation that aspired to be
an example of how a representative democracy with
a diverse population can live up to its ideals and principles.
Their record shows how the positive overshadowed the negative.This is not the situation we find our country in at this time. Our nation now has in office one who has no redeeming qualities and lacks the basic moral compass to conduct himself with honor and dignity. The office of president goes beyond the individual that occupies it. It is more than one person it is about one nation .
6
Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Now there's Donald Trump we have to fear as well.
If a Trump speechwriter happens to see this: "We have everything to fear, but fear itself." Feel free to use it.
There's a wealth of information as to this president promoting crisis and being abusive. Certainly it's exhausting. I don't believe he possesses wisdom. It's the repetition in dividing the nation/exploiting his followers to suit his needs.
The statements he made on election violence are self-serving, unsettling and outright dangerous. Especially given the way he courts "group think." And believes so many things that are just not true!
It's the current lack of checks and balances in Congress that bring on "fear." It's having a white house and GOP not interested in election security. Merely tossing paper towels to people in need has been a suitable image he's made of himself and his presidency.
4
Mr. Blow's brilliant perception that POTUS is "...playing the people who support him, and they revel in the delight of being played." certainly rings a bell.
I have come to the conclusion that the unshakable Trumpian "Base" embraces his constant stream of lies in the hope that, through the power of belief, the lies will become, or prove to be, reality.
Believing is relieving. In an uncertain world, inundated by a torrent of conflicting information, the certainty of delusion is comforting. The lies, for both the president and his base, are a kind of mass hypnosis, a sort of drug to which most of the Republican Party has become addicted.
6
We were warned.
In 2004 Al Gore wrote “Why ... are we so much more vulnerable to the politics of fear? The ...new element in America’s national conversation is the prominence and intensity of constant fear. Moreover, ... we seem to be having unusual difficulty in distinguishing between illusory threats and legitimate ones.”
He goes on to explain, “People who watch television news routinely have the impression that the cities where they live are far more dangerous than they really are. ... Even when statistics measuring specific crimes actually show steady decreases, the measured fear of those same crimes goes up as television portrayal of those crimes goes up.”
Gore continues, “And the portrayal of crime often increases because consultants for television station owners have advised their clients that viewership increases when violent crime leads newscasts... Television’s ability to evoke the fear response is especially significant because Americans spend so much of their lives watching TV.” (And now we have a 24/7 news cycle!)
Gore quoted Historian David Bennett “The most persistent fear in American life has been fear of outsiders. People need to displace and project their anxieties, their concerns about their own lives and the lives of people they care about, onto some other,” he said. Often they are susceptible to politicians who tell them that “the wrong kinds of people are responsible for threatening them or their loved ones.”
Trump.
4
Right now, my greatest fear is what Trump is doing to our country, the world, and our future.
2
Thank you Mr. Blow for an insightful but depressing article on how the GOP uses fear and ignorance and not actual accomplishments as their appeal.
Want to be more depressed? They win elections with it.
1
Mr. Blow, your column aptly describes the the-then presidential GOP nominee's campaign slogan, although a bit differently now that he is the president. It's called "Make America Afraid Again". He couldn't say that in 2016 but that was his message. Unfortunately for the country today, fear didn't strike out.
Obviously, what Mr. Blow is describing is a demagogue, and that is certainly what Trump is. Playing the fear card works beautifully for most politicians; Trump is especially a genius at it.
1
VOTE IN NOVEMBER. Convince your friends and family to not stay home like they did in Novembe 2016. To save our country from Trump and the spineless congress and senate, we must vote.
There are more of us thinking people than Trump supporters who have lost there common sense.
3
So far, the sky hasn't fallen. Yet, Trump keeps going to the same well and drags the bottom pulling up whatever he can latch on to. It went from frightening to farce in 19 months. Now he is warning the believe-anything Evangelical contingent that, if elected, Democrats will violently rip away all he has accomplished.
Exactly what has he accomplished? As best as I can tell, as the self-professed King of Debt, all he has accomplished is exploding the federal deficit and debt. And for that we should be afraid?
1
Trumps message is, as written in an old joke about a telegram "Be afraid - details to follow".
Details will never follow as Trump has an attention span that will not allow any follow ups at all, let alone "details to follow".
But that does not matter, as the message is already out there and the attention span of his followers matches his own.
It's the Twitter generation, no need for attention spans as the next message is already around the corner.
So Trump feeds the world a never ending stream of messages that never have any follow ups and are a scare each of their own.
This is what the Twitter bubble is all about and this is what makes Twitter so addictive to some people.
The only real reason, and this is why I do not believe that being afraid of Trump is funny or wrong, why Trump is different from you average Alex Jones nut, is that he has the power to act on his fears.
If the paranoia he lives in constantly gets to strong for him, he has the means to let his emotions explode and that usually, for a US president, means going to war and killing millions of real people like we have seen in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places.
If Trump's paranoia gets the better of him, we will see real people die and that will happen soon as he is already a bumbling hysteric only a short few moments away from explosion.
When George W. Bush was in that state, an entire region in the Middle East got destabilized.
So "Be afraid - details to follow"...
Isn’t it ironic that the criticism of the fear instilled by Trump and his cohorts is itself based on a projected fear of what Trump has and may do?
As a progressive liberal, I’m aware that fear is a very powerful driver of behavior, both good and bad. I hope that my fear is a warning sign that something is very wrong and we need to address it rationally. The Trump fear factor leads to irrational and dangerous mob mentality. That’s the difference.
''We have nothing to fear but fear itself.''
I am not afraid of a civil war, which Trump implies, but I am frightened by the thought that Trump's supporters will instill in their children the same mindless adoration they believe. ''If it is good enough for daddy, it is good enough for me.''
That is Trump's legacy; A terrifying possibility.
1
Mrs. Clinton would have made a very decent President.
She would have worked hard to improve things for women and minorities and tamp down the heavy disadvantages experienced by millions of people on the fringes of our society, which is to say, Trump’s people.
She would have been no miracle worker. The problems presented by Russia, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, the opioid crisis and the national debt would still be with us, with no easy solutions in sight.
But we would have had a rational person at the helm, instead of a looney tune who Twitters tirelessly every day to foment chaos and division throughout the world; and the country would be in a state of relative calm, instead of being in the midst of a flat-out crisis, with no end in sight.
I see no signs of recognition at all in Trump’s people and Congressional Republicans of the tragedy they have foisted on this formerly very strong country.
Or of the catastrophic mistake they made in making an ogre of Mrs, Clinton and a savior of Mr. Trump.
Fox News is presently reporting that Mrs. Clinton’s emails are a much worse problem than any of us had ever imagined.
The lights are flickering.
Soon they will turn completely dark.
2
We all know, or should know by now, what Trump is. What we must do is neutralized him at the polls with our votes on November 6th.
2
Fear plays to our primal instincts and our survival instincts. It is a strong emotion and Trump plays the fear card very well! Sadly, our education system has failed us in the development of a population with critical thinking skills that can overcome the fear-based emotions that are sewed by Donald Trump‘s words and actions. The only long-term solution to our problems today is to improve the education and the critical thinking skills of voters.
Trump uses fear perhaps because he himself is deftly afraid. Since his childhood. He was reportedly afraid of his father. He was afraid of losing respect of his father if he failed. So he made things up and blamed others when he failed. He lied to cover up his fears. And now he is lying to protect his presidency which was never his to begin with.
You see, the fear itself is his biggest projection on his base. Fear drives him and he drives fear into others.
1
Assay.....
Remember Wally.....? Tv show “ leave it to beaver”
Wally ..... trump must have idolized Wally as a teen.
Watch Wally in action.
Marketing any product, service or political candidate begins by creating feelings of fear and anxiety in the potential consumer; and, then offering the specific product, service or political candidate as the way people can overcome those fears and anxieties. "I and I alone can fix it!"
Republicans, the Republican Party, has used the political and economic rise of African Americans to create anxiety in their white voters since 1965. Stirring fear and anxiety about Women, Muslims and Immigrants is more recent.
After more than fifty years of creating fear and anxiety in their voters the chickens have come home to roost. Only White, Christian Males, Natural Born Citizens, can be part of the Republican party. And, why would anyone else want to join when they are the targets of the hate and anger the Republicans have created.
93
This is a brilliant column. When the Democrats abandoned progressive economic policies that provided at least some hope of aid to the working class and the poor, they gave Trump and the extreme right an opening. Please note that working people in the social democracies of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany don't fear change because their governments and a majority of their people are committed to maintaining their solid living standards. Genuine social support for all -- healthcare, housing, food and access to quality education and training -- will pull the plug on fear.
16
More and more, Trump resembles a fun house mirror, or is that freak house? He is reflecting our worst image, he is the product of our worst, most base instincts. The thing most to fear, above all else, is the percentage of our population that thrives on hatred, succumbs to propaganda, and refuses to think independently. Trump has revealed all of that, in numbers previously unimaginable. And I am most definitely afraid.
7
"Trump is playing the people who support him and they revel in the delight of being played."
Brilliantly stated.
18
What to do? What to do? Since those Trump/republican tax cuts have not “trickled down” to the middle class and wages remain stagnant, you have to go to the one tool in your toolbox that will assure you the votes you need. FEAR! With Trump in office and republicans at the helm, we don’t need MS-13.
The only thing we need to fear is a president unchecked and republicans hold on to both the House and Senate.
6
So, all we need a another leader that promises to keep me and my family safe from trump and the republicans who are in positions to hurt us and they have my vote.
7
I think Charles and the rest of the Democrats truly are fearful. Fearful of a growing economy. Fearful more people needing less government support, will bring fewer "victims" to the polls.
As a Trump voter, what would scare me, a Democrat plan to make America better, by building on the president's progress. Fortunately, I and the rest of the "woke up" voters have no idea how that could be possible.
And, did I miss the memo, on what the Democrats plan to do, if they are elected. What exactly will impeachment accomplish, without 66 votes from the Senate? 68 days.
3
@Mike. Donald Trump, more than anyone, plays the 'victim' card over and over again. He constantly tells us how the US has been victimized by Mexico, the EU, China, Canada, you name it. His security services seem agreed that Russia has at least attempted to circumvent the basic democratic principles of the country (although why they should bother when we seem to be quite capable of doing that ourselves - gerrymandering is US intellectual property) with or without collusion, but that gets no mention. Odd, that.
7
The economy is booming at the top only AND at the expense of the rest of us in the future. This UP we are experiencing is borrowing from the future and never to be paid back which explains why it's happening so fast and with blinders on.
6
@Mike..impeachment puts Trump on trial. That show alone is worth it.
1
The recognition of the cathartic effect of fear is at least as old as Aristotle. The problem with the Trump Presidency is that it is no longer ritual drama, playing out on stage to purge the populace of raw emotion, but takes place in real time, with such players as Putin, China and Kim and nuclear arsenals for game pieces.
The American public still thinks this is a reality show -- actually, it's reality.
14
"It is easier to instill people with fear than to imbue them with hope."
Well, not a whole lot you can do to change human nature, and Trump will remain a very effective ruler.
Fellow earth dwellers. I was talking to my 95 year old mother recently and she describing the sense of Trump related despair and hopelessness everyone was feeling at the assisted living living community where she resides. She opined that the 24 hour news cycle had a lot to do with it. In the "old days" she claimed , the news was slower to catch up with us. Now it's constant, and it seems, constantly bad, and people were feeling anxious and depressed. I told her that I understood and suggested they just stop watching. But she reminded me that she had experienced the Great Depression, served in the Navy during WW2, raised a family in the 50's and 60's, followed the Vietnam era turmoil and the race riots in Watts had seen the counter culture movement take root in the SF Bay Area. Reflecting back, she observed that on the "big issues" our country, though woefully divided at times, was resilient. Now, she felt, it had grown brittle under Trump and is on the verge of losing it's resilience and as a consequence it's hope. Again, I told her to stop watching tv and let us handle it. And so we shall.
21
His use of fear to appeal to his base has been eminently successful. While many don’t subscribe to those particular fears, the silence of Congress and the lack of consequences for his disdain of unity and law does, and should, instill fear in the rest of us.
Whether we’re inured or exhausted, I see no indication that there’s any strong counterbalance to his fear mongering. Will his successors, from whichever party, continue this same strategy, only with their own set of fears? What will return us to a vision of possibility rather than negativity? It makes me afraid that I can’t find that path.
20
Good compilation. Fear has provided a survival advantage during the long evolutionary process. It persists in us through all our lives: it’s not a good idea to try to cross a busy avenue without regard for the traffic lights. Perhaps fear is more marked in those who've been taught to think of life's challenges as cut and dried. It's very modern to think that for every "issue" there's a solution, and an instant solution at that—a pill, a diet, a new device. On the other hand, courage and a sense of adventure are good counterbalances to fear. Perhaps as well as cataloging Trump’s use of fear, we may also say that he is infantilizing people, and worse, is encouraging them to be less than human: falling over in fright, like possums, at the first sign of challenge.
8
People are fearful in this country for many reasons, one of which was highlighted this week in a NYT article about a Texas school teacher suffering a heart attack. After receiving treatment he was handed a bill for over $100,000 for his treatment. Fear is real and the democrats do not seem to have the ability to address this - except Bernie Sanders. Until the Democrats can acknowledge people's fears and worries directly, with concrete plans, and this includes immigration whether we like it or not, Trump's fear mongering will win him the votes.
15
All true. The only addendum is that he is the marketing contractor for the people who own him. Everything he says and does is a carefully prepared message to the base. In fact, that is basically true for all public conservatives. For proof, look at the 180 degree reversals on numerous conservative talking points of the past.
14
At this point, candidate and president, the country is several years into the Trump experience. Everyone paying attention knows what he is. Certainly his supporters have been paying attention. They know what they are getting, they like it, and they are focused on keeping it. Punditry such as Mr. Blow offers here, to help the rest of us "understand" those people is useless. The only useful punditry at this point involves what can be done to defeat them. The left is sadly lacking in that, but rather seems to be focused on ways to feel good about itself without winning. We've seen that movie, we know how it ends.
13
@Jeff Atkinson “The left” alone is not responsible for fixing the problems we face as a country and individual citizens. People who complain that “the left”isn’t giving them the message they want to hear or isn’t telling them what to do aren’t listening and don’t actually want to hear the answers. We aren’t children, we can’t be coddled and have someone make everything better for us while we sit passively waiting for rescue.
For 8 years, President Obama told us that he needed our help, that we needed to get involved, be of service to our fellow citizens, run for office where we live, demand that our politicians represent our interests and hold them accountable when they didn’t, and that we needed to show up to vote for every election, every time. We didn’t and here we are. What more do people need to hear?
5
My biggest 'fear' is that Republicans will make a concerted effort (essentially by their corporate minders and I.T. strategists) to alter voting machines throughout America, and especially those machines without printed, voting receipts for voters to inspect.
29
As a psychotherapist I work with many people who have a great deal of fear. Sometimes it is helpful for them to check what is under the fear. It is often anger or sadness. I ask them to feel the original feeling and then see if there is an action they can take to alleviate the feeling.
We mustn't get paralyzed by the fear he is creating. We must remember AAAAA Action Almost Always Alleviates Axiety.
19
Fear drives the weak. The strong are moved by love.
Fear destroys - love builds. Fear can never accomplish what only love (compassion and wisdom) can. It appears we need to learn that lesson over and over.
40
@Gunter Bubleit Beautifully stated.
1
My fervent and maybe only hope is that the fear of Trump may yet overcome the fears Trump inspires.
33
It is true that Trump has used fear as one of his major political tools, but the worst may be yet to come. Realizing that this technique has been successful for him so far, Trump is likely to campaign for the 2018 and 2020 elections on more of the same: Democrat’s support for open borders and crime, socialists Democrats who will raise taxes and impose burdensome regulations and Democrats who will take away your freedoms. Trump will use any fact or rumor which reflects badly on brown and black people. In short, he will do and say whatever plays to the fears and prejudices of his base. Little, if any, of what he says will be true. The other part of the story is that Democrats will probably not mount an effective, aggressive campaign to counter Trump’s lies and scare tactics.
16
Many of these fears fall into apocalyptic range, with fragmented lives adhering by fear to the great fear monger who preys on their hopes for anything to stop the reckoning, which paradoxically Trump can only hasten. And which many by apocalyptic belief see as a sign of their coming salvation.
9
Mr. Trump knows he secured power in the Divided States of America and he can only keep power in the Divided States of America, but as Mr. Lincoln observed, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
November is about rejecting the Divided States of America in favor of the United States of America.
71
And fear is one of the weapons that cutthroat capitalism intentionally instills in the masses, so it is always around.
The Democrats never really addressed the fear of those of us who are very low income, at least not in a way that I found believable. A Goldman Sachs Democrat, tightly linking to Wall Street, cannot and will not change the system enough to help us.
Bernie got that.
Hugh
39
@Hugh Massengill
Maybe had you heard those speeches for Goldman Saks, you'd have a different opinion. They were about women in business. Not sure what the yearly speeches that Bernie gave at the parties, paid for by the big banks were about though. Do you know?
1
Interesting thing about fear, it's unsustainable as a political project. Yes, it does motivate great, unwavering support from an obstreperous, sizeable minority; however, it cannot sustain a movement. Eventually fear turns on itself, into a kind of resignation, an apathy. There will come a time when the very fragile, very afraid (mostly white) Trump electorate will spin into disarray. The "alt-right" is already experiencing the limits of fears based rage in a technologically post-industrial, multicultural society: notice their every march is smaller and smaller than their last.
42
@Tony Cochran
And the leader can turn on his followers, should he or she come to fear their power, as in "the night of the long knives" in Germany, 30 June 1934.
@Tony Cochran
Or the leader can turn on his followers, should he or she come to fear their power, as in "the night of the long knives" in Germany, 30 June 1934.
@Tony Cochran: I wish...
May I suggest to Charles Blow and readers that we are long past the point where yet another column or witty comment can say anything new or even useful.
Instead perhaps we simply need a Comment Reader and Writer Forum at which each of us states where we will vote, if we will help anyone else to vote who might face some threshold keeping that person at home.
I will vote by mail in ballot sent on paper from Sweden to Monroe County, New York. Oddly, even though I have written several comments in which I suggested that we in the USA should consider a multi-party system, I give thanks today for the two party system, given the particular nature of our current President.
I voted in the Swedish national election on Monday - early voting, very easy - and can report that deciding which party to vote for to reach the desired end is not easy this year.
No problem there in Monroe County, New York - straight Democratic ticket.
If I were in Rochester, I would try to find out how I might help potential voters get to their voting booth or better yet, vote in advance. Have not seen comments from Mancuroc recently. If he reads this perhaps he can write to me (Gmail at blog) to provide a Report from Rochester.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
47
FDR was wrong: the only thing we have to fear is Trump himself. What a pity that Democrats in office (and/or those campaigning for office) don't have the will or the wisdom to address this issue in the way that Mr. Blow does. They want Americans to believe that they're right on the issues. The problem is that too many of our citizens aren't interested in the issues; they simply want the "usurpers" to go away or, barring that, to be crushed by America's Great White Hope. Try telling them that the folks they need to be wary of are the CEOs, the bankers, the landlords and those (like The Donald himself) who inherited most of America's wealth and power. In short, their enemies aren't in the basements: they're in the boardrooms, and it's high time that Democrats identified the true "elites" and the actual source of their socioeconomic fears and uncertainties.
74
@stu freeman The Democrats CAN'T speak up against the elites......they're funded by them too. Our political system has been overtaken by big moneyed interests who use their overwhelming influence to by legislation THEY like, and keep legislation tied up that the don't like, but WE need. They control a large part of the media (Thanks FCC!). They pack the courts with accolytes and ideologues. They monetize public services for private gain. They make sure poor kids serve in the military, and their kids stay home safe, fat, and sassy. They own pro sports teams, who are more fun to watch than keeping up with who's representing you in local, state, and federal government. It's game over, Man for democracy. It was a nice try, but not enough to overcome the way civilization has mostly played out throughout human history.
1
@JP: I pretty much agree with you but some of the Democrats (Bernie among them) are no longer accepting PAC money or contributions exceeding $100 or so. The rest of them feel as though they have no choice but to "play the game" in order to avoid being outspent and unable to respond effectively to attacks and falsehoods leveled by their opponents.
2
Fear drives authoritarian personalities — both leaders and followers. So it is easy for authoritarian leaders to get their authoritarian followers in line by telling the to fear. Once the leader dies, the followers search for someone else to follow, another fear monger to tell them what and how to think.
47
-I believe the source of the cultural fear is economic insecurity.
The people who want power want the economic insecurity to continue.
It is working.
49
@goofnoff
"I believe the source of the cultural fear is economic insecurity."
But everyone is always economically insecure, even the rich. And Nate Silver estimates the Trumpster's average income at $72,000.
Racial insecurity may be a deeper motivator.
18
@Fourteen: "Racial insecurity" includes fear of losing a place at the feeding trough.
Yes I agree that Trump uses fear but now what? What do Democrats do to turn the tide? They should appreciate what Donald Trump did that works - take the good and leave out the bad. For example, they should use good slogans. I immediately thought, ""I'm with Her" was a terrible slogan and MAGA was awesome in its simplicity. Let's get to it Democrats - there must be some better marketers out there than the last lot.
40
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
The above quote is from Hermann Goering as told to his Allied appointed psychiatrist, Gustave Gilbert, who visited Goering daily in his cell in Nuremberg. Gilbert related the conversation in his book, Nuremberg Diary.
117
@LindaYes, yes I read Goering's quote and used it several times in todays setting. Right on the mark. Thank you
9
At the beginning of World War II, our president said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"--one of the great lines of history, which covers far more in life than wartime. Our current president wants to BE fear itself. And I fear him.
40
@carrobin Actually the quote was when he was first sworn in on March of 1933 and he was referring to the Great Depression that the country was dealing with.
18
@fred
FDR created the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps); the WPA (Works Progress Agency); the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority); he created jobs and gave men the ability to earn a living to support their families. WWII put all to work after Pearl Harbor. My father managed a can plant 24/7, and planted a Victory Garden; my uncles left law school, entered the Navy as very young officers, and eventually fought in the Battle of Midway as young Captains. The country was all in, together; there was no collusion with Hitler or Krupp Industries. That is the difference between then and now: we have a President who is in debt to Russians; he is closer to Putin than to our traditional allies in Canada and Australia; he was mocked in Britain. Angela Merkel is now the "leader of the free world". I believe he is "unfit to serve" under Article 25.
1
Fear of Trump has its pleasures too--the thrilling fantasy of vast numbers of voters voting against him and his policies every chance they get. A fantasy about those who didn't vote in previous elections awakening from slumber to discover their own powers as We the People vote as one to wash Trump and his swamp away with a beautiful blue wave.
77
"Fear is an easily activated emotion. It’s cheap. It’s effective. Trump knows all of this, and he uses it....It is easier to instill people with fear than to imbue them with hope."
I venture to say that every single "successful" dictator rose to power through fear-mongering. Unless you set up a dynamic of dependency where you become the savior of frightened supporters, who will cling to you far faster than through fear than if you had to earn their respect.
So now we have a totally frightened nation: Trump supporters whipped up into a frenzy of looking over their shoulder, and the rest of us not sure what he's going to do next after already doing so much.
150
@ChristineMcM There is something pretty seductive, it seems, about language that stimulates that adrenalin rush. News media use that all the time. In the race to get attention they even use headlines that describe the opposite of what their articles say. My favourite this week is Dana Milbank's column in the Washington Post, titled "The Democrats are a Menace to Public Safety". By contrast, Mr. Blow's subtitle to this column, "Trump's magical mixture is to make being afraid feel like fun", offers something intriguing, not just a hit of horror.
The color code terror alert was pure pandering to fear. The Homeland Security guy who set it up actually said, "Be afraid."
Then for eight years Obama kept it up too. It wasn't only Dubya, it became the new way of things.
Now Trump "makes fear fun?" We were a long way getting to this. He's symptom of serious, long-standing underlying problems.
How did we get twisted into that? So far, I have not seen real challenge to it. Nobody wants to be accused of being "on the side of terrorists."
As for the interview, that is actually what Sun Tsu said was the greatest victory, to prevail without combat by intimidating the enemy. Fear is a tool of international coercion. It is coercion after all. That is how Obama got the deal that Trump blew up.
We have bigger problems than Trump. He's a clown, and the problems are real. They grow out of what Obama's people called The Blob of Washington insider "answers."
14
@Mark Thomason We have bigger problems than Trump, yes, and that is why I write, just above you at this hour - and even Richard Luettgen writes - that endless columns and witty comments have reached the end of their usefulness.
We should be reading about the bigger problems and how the Democratic Party and allied candidates plan to face these problems.
Larry
4
@Mark Thomason
Your absurd comment about the "deal" that Obama got that Trump blew up doesn't stand up to serious analysis. The Obama "deal' was fatally flawed from the beginning as we now understand. Moreover, it didn't have the support of Congress as he was afraid it couldn't be passed as a Treaty so he acted on his own. Had it been a Treaty approved by the Senate, Trump could not have unilaterally withdrawn.
This election we are going to find out if the pen (ballot) is mightier than the sword (firearm). It will be a test of the 1st Amendment versus those that fear the 2nd Amendment is threatened and they must defend it at all costs.
Is this hyperbole? I don't know, but what I do know is that the President is laying the ground work (he has been for quite some time) that violence can be used in defending any perceived threat. - A stand your ground for the nation.
Overcome any fear and vote.
197
The machines are rigged and we don’t have a paper trail.
1
@FunkyIrishman, you are right. Trump’s violence threats were really not about action any left wing group would take in the aftermath of an election. If that were true we would have had 2 revolts this century: bush one and now trump. His threats were a call to action— of his right wing heavily armed cult members. There will be blood. And it will be on the hands of the gop who could, and did not—rein trump in when it was still possible.
3
Ivana Trump has said that her then husband Donald read a book of Hitler's collected speeches that he kept in a cabinet by his bed.
Like Adolph Hitler, Donald Trump is a sociopath who has a complete lack of empathy, social responsibility and conscience.
Here are some of Hitler's quotes that likely inspired Donald.
"The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force."
"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think."
"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
“If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.”
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
“Great liars are also great magicians.”
“The art of leadership…consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention.”
“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”
Nov 6 2018
Vote, before it's too late
908
@Socrates He said yesterday that they do everything 'by the book'. Yes, this is the book I was thinking of when he said that.
2
@Socrates
All chilling and pertinent. The last is the one to lead with; we are seeing exactly that incremental erosion.
Thanks for the posting.
3
@Socrates You are assuming that Donald Trump read a book. That is a wild assumption.
3
Cadet Bone Spurs as the “ Commander Of Fear “. Sure. But it’s more like The Barker at a third rate traveling Carnival. The rickety rides provide the thrills, the sideshows provide the truly odd and some titilating flesh, and the games provide a chance to WIN. The Romans had Bread and Circuses. WE have “ Reality “ TV, Fast Food and FOX “news”. Thumbs DOWN.
176
"It is easier to instill people with fear than to imbue them with hope." Donald Trump is the counterpoint to Barack Obama's "hope and change."
Our 44th president was a man who saw the long view and took the long road--not an easy task in a world in which technology brings us new information on the instant and in the next moment, it's replaced by something totally different. The head spins.
I recall the campaign trail in 2008 when Sarah Palin mocked the Illinois Senator's "hope and change." She derided him as "a community organizer." What our president-in-waiting had, then, was a calling to minister to the under-served. He made no promises but was, himself the embodiment of "hope." He told people that fear is a divider and bridge-destroyer. He wished to unify. His speech on race in Philadelphia in 2008 was a paean to the hope that America could be what its promises said it was.
His successor, a man to whom generosity and humility are as opposed as alpha and omega, is now steering the bus on a collision course with...what? The ages-long white majority population is seeing their beachhead erode with an incoming tide. They are frightened; I understand that. Having enjoyed preference for centuries and knowing it will end--sooner than later--cannot be pleasant.
A majestic leader would have his (her) country know that just because change is coming, it does not have to end badly. Fear is the coward's way out and Trump is showing them the door.
Which way, America? Hope? Or fear?
313
Sarah Palin, true to her obnoxious form, condescendingly asked of President Obama's supporters, "How's that hopey changey thing working out for ya?" Actually, it was great! But maybe Democrats should borrow from that playbook and ask Trump supporters, "How's that cowering in fear thing working out for ya?".
3
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
You can’t compare the two on any level. Barack Obama will be remembered as not just the first African American president, but as one of our country’s best presidents. Trump will simply be tossed on to the ash heap of history, with today’s rabid followers silent, confused, and, if they have a shred of morality, ashamed.
2
And Trump apparently has instilled fear in Congress---
---when will the press start hounding McConnell and Ryan, on a daily basis, about why they aren't investigating Trumps' shady actions (and Jivanka's, too).
They clearly are too afraid to do the jobs they were elected to do.
194
@SLBvt
Or, too compromised...
@SLBvt I wouldn't let them off the hook so easily. They are doing it because they are getting something in exchange, something that is worth far more to them than the well-being of the US, its citizens and democratic ideals. He has merely emboldened them, encouraged them, to indulge in their own deep-seated prejudices and worst instincts – otherwise known as self-serving, lazy, ignoble, immature and dangerously irresponsible.
1
I read somewhere recently that “the first lie wins.” And for trump (lower case intended), a big lie wins bigly. This unfettered social outcast, with his congressional enablers abiding his power trip, poses a clear and imminent danger to the U.S. - if not the entire world. It’s hard to believe that he and his corrupt family will continue to receive lifetime protection after they’re done stinking up normal society. Sad.
77
@JR Gilles I thought about that too when he was first elected, but now I'm thinking they will not receive lifetime protection if (when, hopefully) they're inside a prison.
1
DT: "If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
Translation : Après moi le déluge.
Attributed to Louis XV. Might explain Trump's delusional mind and his bad, bad taste.
85
Of course, that Louis was pretty well correct, from the royal point of view, anyway.
I don’t think most Trump supporters are afraid. I think they just like to feel big about themselves.
60
Yes: you nailed it!!
Great piece Charles!
23
Fear is a guaranteed sell. Fear of The Other. Fear of God. Fear of poverty. Fear of the other sex. Fear of elites. This doofus uses all of them, even contradicting himself in the same sentence.
Fear sells guns. Fear sells hate. Fear sells the seller of fear.
Yes, history shows that it works nearly all the time.
What can oppose the seller of fear? Our government can, but so far, does not. Our free press can, but so far has had no effect. World censure, the UN, that storied one percent, no effect from them either.
This time we will be fortunate if war is not the completion of the process. It usually is.
34
@Marat In 1784
What can oppose the seller of fear?
The message of all the truly wise and inspiring prophets, "Be not afraid." A deep and broad spiritual vision and practice can lift us beyond our fears. Working together in community can lead us beyond our fears. When touched, the human spirit can reach a place beyond fear.
It is terribly upsetting to know our President, our Commander-in-Chief is so fearful of so many people and things...cowardly, in fact.
75
Racism is always born from fear, and grows into hatred of the other. The Don (and Fox) has been able to gather the isolated pockets of hatred together and give them membership into a red capped gang.
These fearful people are easy to manipulate since their fear make them weak and quick to repress their humanity for manufactured threat.
History has shown this to be dangerous. All people of good will must rally this fall to vote out the Republicans, and then demonstrate compassion towards the fearful least they lash out in blind hatred.
31
People fear what they don't know or the negative consequences of their actions. Trump supporters know what candidate Trump promised and, amazingly, he's doing almost everything he promised on the campaign trail. Trump did not condemn immigration, he condemned illegal immigration. He echoed the same positions on illegal immigration that were once forcefully articulated by Obama, the Clintons and many other Democrats and accepted by Democrats as correct conventional wisdom. Bill Clinton also talked of making America 'great again' in the 1990's and the left cheered; now they condemn Trump.
The world has, for decades, prospered via underwriting from US citizens in the form of our lower tariff rates, higher corporate taxes, low interest rates and low energy production. Trump has changed all of these and now the US economy is expanding again. Mexico and now Canada have agreed to revisit NAFTA. Europe wants the tariff tiff to end. China is proudly remaining defiant but one look at their stock markets this year should tell you how their economy is faring.
The true fear-mongering here are these endless op-ed columns telling us that Trump will be the ruination of America. Americans should truly think carefully about what they fear.
4
@Keith
" Americans should truly think carefully about what they fear."
Democrats fear authoritarianism. Republicans fear democracy.
6
@Keith
Yes, Keith, I guess you agree with Trump's statement that the press is "the enemy of the people." Surely Fox News , with no "op-eds'" reassures us that all is well.
3
@Keith
I fear for my biracial nephews, all of whom have been harassed by the police.
2
Words of a Lout (with apologies to Hood’s Song of the Shirt)
With finger at hunt and peck,
The Donald sat in an unsightly robe,
Giving his enemies heck-
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!
The malice and meanness flew out,
And filled with anger from head to feet,
Tweeted the “Words of a Lout."
Spleen, Spleen, Spleen!
While the spite is spraying about!
And spleen-spleen- spleen,
’Til all inner rage is out!
It’s Ô! to POTUS be
With his intellect not seen keen,
Where on genius critics do not agree,
His brilliance is unseen!
Flip-flip-flip,
’Til the heart begins to sink;
Flip-flip-flip,
’Til the stomach begins to kink!
Rat and lie and snitch,
Snitch and lie and rat,
’Til Donald begins to see he’s betrayed,
Ending up under the mat!
56
This is how almost all of us perform our work, under the constant threat of losing our jobs as "employees at will."
17
Trump supporters can enjoy their fear because they think that politics is a made-up "reality" show. They like the thought of blowing everything up the same way they enjoy seeing people blow things up in an action movie. They follow absurd conspiracy theories because it feels like playing a video game. All of this is so much more fun than looking real problems in the face or recognizing their common humanity with people who are not them. They make themselves forget that reality ( and nature) bat last.
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Speaking of Fear: Any American citizen hoping for The House to flip Democratic this November so that this patently corrupt president can be checked, better hope and pray there isn’t a terrorist attack—or anything of that ilk—leading up to the midterms...
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@Matthew Blum great post. That thought lives rent-free in my mind. Maybe we should rent rooms in a tower he owns? Surely he wouldn't...would he?
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Always works: real or not so real. WMD, anthrax, invisible torpedos, and there’s that second term guarantee. The imaginary threat this time may even be Canada.
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@Matthew Blum
"better hope and pray there isn’t a terrorist attack—or anything of that ilk—leading up to the midterms..."
Rulers have historically used both real and false pretexts to solidify authoritarian power, as with 9/11, which gave us our police and surveillance state.
In theory, that's why we need an independent press, but the press always goes right along with those in power to keep their access.
They'd lose readership if they were the only ones against a fake or not war, like the destruction of Iraq, for example, or the Gulf of Tonkin, or the Reichstag fire.
False flag actions are particularly effective if you have an alt-truth media megaphone in your pocket.
Whether your October surprise is authentic or staged does not matter. They both work. They work so well it's like rigging the voting machines.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.” -Frank Herbert
It’s an easy thing to stir up people’s emotions using fear. It’s another matter altogether to unite people around a common good.
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Ruling by fear is the mark of small and impotent men. Draw any conclusions that you want.
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@markymark
He's not ruling by fear of himself. He's ruling using peoples fear of bogeymen. Trump then becomes the big daddy to slay all those middle class dragons.
I can't wait for that malignant goon to be a fading memory. The venom that he constantly sells has gotten beyond tiresome, well past tedious. We're getting into "excruciating". Presidential, indeed. Right on, Mr. Blow.
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In the narrow mind of Donald Trump, anything other than straight white America needs to be feared and condemned. He's a skilled con man and bully who knows how to stoke the insecurities of his base, while lashing out at anyone who challenges his words or deeds. Welcome to America 2018, where the D.C. of Washington, D.C.. stands for Trump's "Diminished Capacity."
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Certainly worked for W the second time around, because, obviously, the first time around he alloweed, well...never mind.
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If you look at the faces of the people in Trump's crowds, you see the same delirious look of pleasure that you see on the faces of people when a bully is pummeling someone, or setting fire to a school, or lynching someone. They are too cowardly to do it themselves, but boy do they take vicarious pleasure seeing someone else do it.
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@An Observer - What hogwash. What you see are people who are happy to have a President who does not characterize them as bitter clingers that should apologize for being American.
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@Keith I'm literally -literally- revolted by Trump, but you're 100% right. The majority of Trump supporters are good people who'd give their neighbors the shirts off their backs. And after three decades of Fox telling them how the "liberal elites" hate them and are destroying their country, it's no surprise to see them elated to have a president who supports them, regardless of the message.
Everyone wants to belong.
We got here because powerful people benefit from our division. If we're going to survive this as a nation, we need to see each other as people.
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@Keith
Have you noticed that they cheer the most when he conjures and then offers up hateful caricatures of people, institutions, countries, and situations? Then he bathes in the enthusiasm and adulation as it washes over him.
I invite you to watch one of his rallies with the sound turned off. Egad, when he puts his hands out, closes his eyes and inhales deeply as he leans back to savor the wave of emotion-- it looks primal.
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“Fear doesn’t have to be rational or reasonable to be real.”
This is why FDR’s quote “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself “ is so apt. People who act out of fear (and for Trump’s rally attendees it is mostly misplaced, and certainly overblown), are dangerous.
Trump talks about how if there is a blue wave this November, the Democrats would “violently “ overturn what he’s done. Why the Democrats would need the anti-fa to accomplish this is curious, but it certainly would generate a lot of fearful responses.
It is despicable that an American President would stoke this behavior, and sad that many Americans are so fearful. We have been better than this.
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@historyRepeated:"This is why FDR’s quote 'Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself ' "
You left out " and Japanese-Americans".
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Fear as a tactic isn’t at all new. How about W. and the WMDs, and all those recommendations to seal your house with tape. Watch “Bowling for Columbine” - the killer bees segment and more. Watch the news and see how much of it is scary. Look at the NRA and how it helps the gun industry - profits. Money Fear Manipulation.
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Here is something for the president to fear: the TRUMP "brand" will become toxic; members of his family will be indicted for state and federal crimes; and he will be forced to resign and tried for treason.
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Call it what it is, paranoia, because these are imaginary fears. Where are these roving gangs of immigrants destroying our country? If anything, immigrants are model citizens. Trump is re-introducing the paranoid style in American politics.
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Your columns invariably hit the mark and pull no punches. And if some find it tiresome, tough! Mr. Blow, somebody with a clear head and legitimate concern for a once great nation being destroyed by a fear-mongering, racist, lying, fascist, mentally unstable narcissist whose self-love is always unrequited, you are doing a great service to your nation and the global community. Whether Trump prevails or not (and let’s hope and work towards the ‘not’), the effort is essential and noble.
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@N. Cunningham
Gee. that sounds like a lot of America.
How do you describe people who run around saying you're going to burn in Hell for eternity if you are not "saved" by my religion? Let me think, oh, Trump voters.
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Fear? Nixon's 'law and order" Reagan's "red" scare, Bush's 'Willy Horton," daily orange and red alerts by Bush and Chaney. All used fear for money grabs, gerrymandering, and talibalizing the nation.
True; Trump's fear mongering stands alone. He wants fearful people to go straight up vigilante. Ironic; the religious right - otherwise driven by power and greed to drive lavish personal lifestyles, is now asked to fear the mid-term (and it is working).
The commander of Fear has won. Republicans (all, rural, suburban, men and women, wall street and religious right) are now openly, and exclusively about white christian supremacy. Fascists are cool, Nazis are decent. White supremacy has galvanized frenzied support for a misogynist with ties to Russians and the mob, or worse - even from women, and Hispanics. Now this is indeed power.
All this begs the question: What is the democratic party the commander of? What is their source of power and authority that will galvanize?
Alas, these holier than thou losers, steeped in gratuitous class envy and self-loathing; acting out their pseudo-principled opposition to every candidate because they don't pass their purity test will destroy us all.
What on earth were democrats commanding when - to make a point - they stayed home, let Trump win, and turn us into a banana republic with gutted institutions and religious nuts in the supreme court?
So Trump's got fear. What have we got other than smug, self-satisfied bumper stickers?
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@Kalidan Democrats came out and gave Hillary Clinton nearly 3 million more votes than Trump got. So much for "one person, one vote."
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@Kalidan: Reagan had the nerve to point out that the Soviet Union was indeed an evil empire. Liberals went ballistic since they thought they had won the revolution of the 1960's and 1970's and expressions of anti-communism was considered forbidden in the new order. This also angered some members of the Non-Aligned Movement nations who delighted in playing both sides against each other for fun and profit.
Willie Horton was furloughed from prison under a program supported by Dukakis while he was in office. He fought against changing it. After he left office he apparently had a change of heart. Might have had something to do with thinking about running for president. You turn the victims of Horton and the liberal scheme into so much collateral damage done in the name of progressivism. Dukakis got everything he deserved.
Law and order? I lived in Detroit for over 33 years. Nixon and Reagan were both right as could be about crime in the city. The last episode that did is for my family was our telephone lines being cut one evening. I had to chase away the would be perps with a firearm which I was thankful I had. A year or so earlier my father was attacked and left partially disabled by two thugs (yep, that's what I said) who attacked him while he stepped off a bus coming home from work.
There's no smugness to it - only real life experiences that you want to pretend do not occur.
Generally, but not always, those liberals are a safe distance from danger.
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Mr. Blow: You cut to the chase every time.
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The president would be a pathetic joke if it weren’t for a population that lapped up his hate-mongering, and couldn’t wait for him to tell them what they should be afraid of.
As he devolves more and more into a cartoon of a fascist dictator he whips up the ignorant and the resentful sorts, capitalizing on their lack of discernment while he strikes absurd, smug postures that would be funny if he wasn’t destroying the country.
The cure for this disease is an electorate that is knowledgeable and understanding. That’s another way of saying there is no cure. Clearly, something happened to our collective consciousness. We had a perfectly sane, normal, empathetic and thoughtful president before him, but it seems millions of people couldn’t wait to elect a vulgar, petty, jealous and stupid man to follow him.
But even he couldn’t wreck the country on his own. It required a cadre of Republican lickspittles and lapdogs to apologize for him, to pretend that his policies were legitimate and to rob the treasury while undermining health care and our basic entitlement to a decent life.
If Democrats can put aside their petty differences, they may be able to bring enough common sense and compassion to bear to render this Republican scourge moot. Sadly, the people who are likely to benefit most from a return to political sanity will resist it at every turn.
I’m not sure this country will ever be the same.
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You forget that the perfectly sane, normal, empathetic president before Trump was black. That was the catalyst for the hate and fear mongering that got Trump elected.
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@gemli: It can
It be the same, you can't put toothpaste back in the tube, nor undrop a bomb. But you can put toothpaste squeezing bombers in jail, along with their cohort of toadies, sycophants, enablers, co-conspirators, flying monkeys, funhouse lawyers and hurdy gurdy men.
3
How far American leadership has fallen since the words " All we have to fear is fear itself." But that quote will be true through the ages. The results of a nation living fearfully are more dire than what was scary in the first place.
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I appreciate the subtlety of this analysis, which explains the avidity of his base for his many Armageddons. It is proper to assay that appetite, even though it is the most hideous thing life affords.
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The frightening aspect to Trump's politics of fear and "Make America Great Again" is that it closely follows the rhetoric used by Hitler, Franco and Mussolini in the 1930s and 1940s. All three used both fear (from external enemies and internal enemies of the people) and a revival of national greatness as rhetorical sticks and carrots to whip up their supporters and massive rallies.
This will all end badly.
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@Brad Thank you for pointing this out. We should also remember that Italy, Spain and Germany were democracies before these demagogues turned them to authoritarian rule. In each case, voters handed these men one party rule. I believe we should be careful relying on the assumption that American democracy is special and that it couldn’t happen here.
1
This is one of those ‘2 kinds of people’ things. One kind appears to believe that ‘fear’ and ‘respect’ are synonyms. The other that these are very different. Trump (and his supporters, perhaps)are of the first type. They believe that might makes right. They tend to be, or support, bullying (if all relationships are power struggles, best to be winners, no matter what.
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Fox News and the other fanatic media organizations that love Trump, all have one thing in common. They sell the same product. That product is hate.
How do you manufacture hate? What is its primary ingredient?
FEAR
That is why Trump is the Commander of Fear. He fully well understands that he needs the fear to sell the hate. This is Trump's talent. He is a superb marketer of our most base and vile instincts, hate and fear. He understands how they interact and feed into each other.
Instead of elevating us to a higher plain of morality, he drives us down into the abyss. It works. This is how he got elected. This is why his support remains so steadfast.
The evangelicals are in fear of the secular state. Workers are in fear of globalism and immigration. Conservatives are in fear of wild liberals attacking them if the Democrats take the House. Antifa is a black terrorist organization. Google is silencing right wing extremist websites. Hillary colluded with Russia to get her unelected. The deep state will enslave us.
When people react to these fears, the natural response is to hate that which is causing the fear. So they then sell the hate.
There is no expiration date for hate. It never loses its potency. It always sells, even at full price. Our society can no longer afford it.
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And anger like comfort. (More to come.)
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@Walter Rhett (More)
Trump's absence of any mention or honor for John McCain is telling in demonstrating Trump's politics are personal or driven by personality. He cannot conceive of the good of the country.
One of the best summaries I have read of his followers affinity for his lies and hate was a Twitter post by Propane Jane, a Texas doctor who is an articulate observer of race and social relationships: “Trump and the GOP identify with both their narcissism and sociopathy. People often refuse to pathologize or criminalize traits/behaviors they personally exhibit and admire.”
I would add sex and crimes, esp. corruption and fraud, to the list—Rudy says its standard practice.
An image of preachers praying means nothing without a change of heart! Do the preachers know we are supplying bombs dropped on a school bus of Yemen children? These preachers met the vow and vocation of religious demand for peace in silence.
Take comfort in knowing health coverage can no longer exclude preconditions or set financial limits.
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Charles … you DO understand, I trust, that Trump can simply outwait you? We’re right about at the point at which readers, even supporters in this life-quest to demonize Trump, will find your endless spleen tiresome. Try writing something different – remind us why we despise Harvey Weinstein so. Write about what we can expect from Pence (a Christian Sharia) if liberals are granted their most fevered wish.
“Commander of fear”? Trump is our commander of Big Macs. We who have been forced to speak professionally in front of groups of people are advised to assuage a nervousness that never really goes away by picturing our audiences stark naked. If you fear Trump so, do that, but try to do it at least one hour after a meal.
I used to look forward to Charles Blow columns, because I’d have the opportunity to respond on issues that mean a great deal to me, such as racial and ethnic justice, and justice before the law and our consciences on such issues as LGBTQ rights and women’s reproductive rights. Now, I approach commenting on Blow columns as perfunctory, the theme (note the absence of the plural) predictable in its single-minded Trumpian dudgeon.
What has the Times done with our Charles Blow? For so LOOONG?
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@Richard Luettgen Charles is right to spend time dissecting, unravelling and reminding us of Trump and I appreciate his columns. There is no greater threat to democracy, or the things that you name and value, than Trump. If we do not remain focused on remembering what's at stake and removing him from office, soon enough our rights will be gone, and democracy with it
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@Richard Luettgen I have no idea whatsoever what you are trying to say. Don't let forever waxing the gadfly get in the way of what you mean. Write simple, literal sentences, and I'll try my best to understand your point of view.
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@Richard Luettgen
Charles, your column has never been better. You write logically and concisely in a way that few people can, especially some commenters.
Thank you for speaking truth to power and reassuring many of us that we haven't gone crazy. Hopefully this Russian supported nightmare administration will be history soon.
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The Republicans have been doing this for a long time. They sell fear marketed as courage. They want the whole country armed to the teeth not because they're cowards, but because they're ''brave.'' They torture people because ignoring reason & morality requires ''courage,'' not cowardice. They demonize people who are different not because they're afraid of them but because they're brave enough to stand up to the dreaded p.c. ''liberals.'' They lie and ignore the rules not because they're afraid of a fair debate, but because they're brave enough to wield power. It's high time the rest of us stood up to them.
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Trump learned his agitprop technique from Roy Cohn. He learned to appeal to the recklessness in those who voted for him. That recklessness is rooted in ignorance and the willingness to abide by lies, if they get you to what you want. So, Trump tells his whoppers knowing his base will eat them up.
That is what Martin Luther King explained in Selma, Alabama when he talked about "eating Jim Crow."
Ignorance is what keeps Jim Crow alive and racists in power. It is how the oligarchy retains some degree of control or, as is the case now, dominance.
---
www.rimaregas.com
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Your anti-Hillary rhetoric helped get Trump elected. Or have you forgotten that?
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@Publius
Pointing out the huge flaws in campaign strategy and policy that ended up causing her not to win enough votes in what should have been a landslide is not helping Trump get elected. It's pointing out the "elephant in the room."
When the media lives in a bubble and serves up propaganda, there are real consequences. You're welcome to go back and look at my commentary and all of the documentation I've proffered with it. My warnings, sadly, ended up being correct.
Nate Cohn, in late December 2016, admitted in a column that the warning signs were there all along. https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2vh
Why weren't they relayed to voters? I did.
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@Publius
"Your anti-Hillary rhetoric helped get Trump elected."
Hillary herself - and the DNC - elected Trump. 80% of Bernie voters went for Hillary (voting anti-Trump). 12% voted (anti-Hillary) for Trump.
She wouldn't have won the popular vote without the Bernie bros and sisters, because she didn't.
The Democrats will give us Trump again if they don't get rid of their 80-year-oldster leadership, just like the they allowed the Republicans to gain complete control of the country.