The Great Man Speaks

Now that the outrage over Trump’s verbal excretions about the “shithole” countries from which immigrants come has died down, it might be a good time to reflect more generally on his use of language.  The “shithole” episode is nothing out of the ordinary.  Trump is, after all, a vulgar, hate-mongering pig, so these episodes of vulgar, hate-mongering piggery should come as no surprise.  But they do cast some light into the darker corners of US political culture.

  Trump shrugs off criticism of his vulgarity, claiming that it is just “locker-room banter.”  His flunkies and others in the GOP offer a variety of less than convincing excuses for his demeanor, for example, that people say these sorts of things in bars all the time.  Ex-wife Ivana thinks that sometimes he just says “silly” things that he doesn’t really believe.  Really.

  There is certainly an element of truth in these excuses.  Trump is certainly not the only vulgar person in the world, and probably not even the most vulgar.  And certainly many of us are vulgar on occasion, even if not constantly.  Many of the things Trump says are certainly silly, and I suspect that much of what he says doesn’t have much to do with expressing his beliefs.  (More on that below.)  But none of this addresses what is really troubling, at least to some of us, about Trump’s language.

  Trump knows very well what will be the effect of his vulgar, aggressive, insulting pronouncements, and he makes them anyway.  Indeed, it seems that he makes them intentionally.  Donald Trump is an accomplished con artist; his career has been well-documented by the press for 50 years.  He is closely attuned to the effect that words have on people.  Words are the stock in trade of people in his line of work.

  No doubt Trump’s aggressive vulgarity and hate-mongering are a breath of fresh air for the more virulent racists that comprise part of his base—the Nazis and white supremacists and nativists and such who have been much emboldened by his campaign and his behavior as President.  It lets them know that he is still with them.  And Trump knows this.

  But I think there are other elements among his supporters who, while they clearly are not much troubled by his vulgar hate-mongering, are also not primarily motivated by it.  Rather, they are swayed by the Great Man who appears in times of trouble to smite evil.  The Great Man, the strong man, speaks strong words as a prelude to strong action.  The strong man protects his followers from whatever it is that threatens them—poverty, foreigners, government, the banks.  (This is the American Monomyth that Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence articulate so well in their 1977 book of the same name.)  It is the strength revealed by the great man’s words, rather than any literal meaning the words might have, that moves his followers.  And Trump knows this.

  And Trump knows just how offensive his pronouncements are to his opponents.  This, too, serves the purpose of securing his power.  The outrage of his opponents simply strengthens the loyalty of his base.  The strong man doesn’t bow to the complaints of doubters.

  I am increasingly inclined to think that it had become inevitable that US political culture should fall under the sway of someone like Trump.  The country has been on a steady trajectory toward fascism at least since Nixon declared war on drugs and began the process of militarizing the police.  The process of building a corporatist state that began in earnest with the Reagan administration—with such policies as monetizing public goods like education and prisons, and deregulating the financial industry—continued under Clinton, Bush, and Obama.  The Bush administration saw the triumph of the surveillance state—the NSA monitors everything.  

A militarized police force, a corporatist state, pervasive surveillance—the machinery of fascism is in place.  And now we have our own little tweeting tyrant to lead us.  Trump is not an anomaly in US politics, some sort of irregularity or aberration.  The corporate sector has taken ownership of our political culture and institutions.  Trump is the perfect CEO to keep the masses occupied whilst profits are made.