Yesterday was the third anniversary of the Insurrection at the Capitol. This event remains prominent in the news due to ongoing civil and criminal litigation and the overall meaning to culture and politics in the United States. At the level of accountability there are striking discrepancies between those who were physically at the Capitol and many who orchestrated the event. The most striking discrepancy and controversy is former President Trump. He has currently been removed from the ballots in 2 states pending what will likely be Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court is clearly stacked in his favor and one of his attorneys stated an explicit quid pro quo this week as in “this President appointed you - better get him back on the ballot.” There have also been threats that Republicans would remove Biden from the ballot to compensate for Trump being removed from ballots as a 14th Amendment insurrectionist.
There is striking video footage of Republican legislators
calling the initial event an insurrection and clearly stating that Trump was
responsible – but years later walking all of that back and saying the
Insurrection was just a protest – nothing to see here.
Former President Trump continues to promote The Big Lie
whenever he has access to an open microphone despite overwhelming evidence
being frequently recited that it is a lie. He continues to portray himself as a
victim of politics even when partisans from his own party and administration
recite why it is a good idea that he never be elected again. Since I ascribe to
the Goldwater Rule, I will avoid any psychiatric speculation. At an overt level, it is obvious he can keep
going and continue to attack and alienate people even when it is not in his
best interest. Many of his interviewed followers describe this as his best
trait.
I happened to be watching a popular television show the
other night and they put up a recent poll about the Insurrection and whether it
was initiated by the FBI. Quite surprisingly 25% of the respondents were
convinced the FBI initiated it and 26% were unsure or did not comment. So even
though at this point 1200 people have been charged and 890 convicted of federal
crimes associated with the Insurrection – over half of Americans are either
certain that this was an FBI conspiracy or uncertain that it was not. What is happening here?
Although much of politics is an irrational appeal to
emotion – it is clearly at an all time high in the United States. A recent Foreign Affairs article
describes this trend as coinciding with the US now being a major exporter of
white supremacist terrorism. Most Americans probably do not know that President
Grant created
the Department of Justice to counter white supremacist terrorism by
the Ku Klux Klan in 1870. A group who
spread recruiting literature across Twin Cities suburbs in 2022 also promoted
antisemitism. Just the act of dispersing
that literature is a clear sign that something in the US has gone horribly
wrong. What is the problem?
Listening to many of the supporters of these processes it
is easy to attribute the support for autocracy, the Insurrection, and the MAGA
movement to ignorance. They see the
former President as a strong man who speaks his mind and that is all that they
are interested in. They do not care about the book length criticisms of people
with worked closely with him during his Presidency. Many of those criticisms have been severe –
questioning his depth of knowledge and decision-making ability. They don’t care
about public remarks he has made that were basically false or dog
whistles. They say they care about the
economy but the Biden economy is clearly superior to the Trump economy and
easily exceeded any warnings Trump had about not re-electing him. They don't care about the fact that Trump does not campaign on relevant domestic or foreign policy issues.
The lack of a rational basis for supporting Trump and MAGA
suggest that other factors are at play. First and foremost is partisan
politics. Practically all the
Republicans that were skeptical or critical of Trump have fallen in behind him
– not wanting to provoke the ire of his MAGA loyalists. Their affiliation is with a seriously
compromised Republican party rather than the republic itself. Better to have a good career and government
job and let the Insurrection cards fall where they may. The Republicans walking away rather than make
that compromise are a small minority and deserve our gratitude.
Nihilism is a significant factor. Nihilism is a vague term, I am using the
existential meaning. In other words,
meaninglessness is pervasive both in terms of the truth being relative rather
than absolute and the same is true for institutions. This is a large part of
what Trump does on almost a daily basis.
Using a shotgun approach he has attacked just about every aspect of the
government, military, public health, educational, and judicial systems and
continues to do so. Many of the attacks
have been personal and directed at people who have distinguished government
service. These attacks are unprecedented by any American president and
unquestionably erode the authority of these agencies – not just with his
followers but in general. Some have
endangered the people attacked and their families. Many of his supporters clearly want to burn
“the system” down and not replace it. Nihilism also reinforces many right-wing
conspiracy theories like the secret Deep State or the FBI orchestrating the
Insurrection.
The symbols of nihilism were prominent at the January 6
Insurrection and included a Confederate flag, a gallows
and a noose, militia gear and paramilitary tactics. Since then, at least one Republican candidate
offered support for Lost Cause rhetoric that revises history to suggest
that aggressive northern states fought the Civil War to suppress states’ rights
in the south rather than end slavery. The idea of a rebellion is also suggested
rather than an insurrection and an attack on the legitimate government of the
United States. The Civil War was really
a war between the Confederacy and the United States rather than the North
versus the South. All that rhetoric is designed to render the real history of
the Civil War meaningless. It was no
accident that the Confederate flag appeared in the Capitol carried by insurrectionists.
There is nothing more nihilistic than
vigilante law as evidenced by the threat of hanging rationalized as “so the
traitors know the stakes” initially and then a site where insurrectionists
chanted to “Hang Mike Pence!” while searching for him in the Capitol Building.
“Nihilistic hooliganism” or “striving to create the
atmosphere of a street battle or barroom brawl” was a tactic used by Goebbels
in the Nazi propaganda paper Der Angriff because at the time he knew it
appealed to supporters (2). It seems obvious that several individuals and
factions in the Republican party are intent creating this kind of atmosphere. Late in 2023 it extended into Congress with
threat of physical violence against a witness in a hearing and alleged physical contact between Republican members of Congress in the hallways.
In the vacuum of nihilism, the right does not hesitate to dictate
how people should think on culture war or hot button issues like guns,
abortion, LGBT issues, separation of church and state, control over education, climate change denial, and pandemic denial. They
cast attempts to remove overt misinformation as censorship and a return to
rational gun control as a denial of Second Amendment rights. In many cases there is a “doubling down” on
any political gains made in these areas.
This level of cynicism and disingenuousness keeps the threat of gun
violence very real for most Americans and has had a clear negative impact on
women’s health where abortion access is considered
essential health care by experts. This doubling down to the point of
criminalization is characteristic of autocracies that consider winning cultural
issues crucial for the survival of their ideology.
Trump and his supporters are using very well-known
propaganda techniques. The first is to
establish Trump as a cult of personality. He has certainly done this himself by
marketing himself as a superhero. Any search on superhero Trump merchandise
brings up pages of this stuff. He also
markets himself as being a genius and being tough and ruthless if necessary.
Practically all the drama surrounding the current court cases, including
sustained attacks on court officials is all part of that image. An average
citizen watching this unfold can only wonder why he can get away with behavior
that would cause anyone else to get contempt charges and incarceration. Since
this is also unprecedented behavior it is reminiscent of other negatively
charismatic leaders like Hitler who cultivated mythical images:
“Hard, ruthless, resolute, uncompromising, and radical, he would
destroy the old privilege - and class-ridden society and bring about a new
beginning, uniting the people in an ethnically pure and socially harmonious 'national
community'.” (1)
The entire MAGA movement and its associated “drain the
swamp” mottos are consistent with Trump’s cultivated image that has
successfully obliterated the fact that he has had far more privilege than
practically any other person in the MAGA movement.
As in the case of Hitler, it takes more than a
self-cultivated mythical image to establish a following that will ignore
obvious deficits and vote for you no matter what. In the case of Republican
politicians – self-interest is the obvious motivation. If any other candidate has a chance in the
national elections, they would not all be in lock step behind Trump. The fall
out from that process has been astounding including continuing to support the
Big Lie strategies and making the original January 6th Insurrection
out to be a picnic.
A pillar of the autocrat playbook is to attack everything
in the existing government and suggest all these problems will be solved when
the superior human being is elected.
That involves significant distortion at three levels. First – it devalues clear accomplishments of
the existing government. Most serious
students of government would describe the Biden administration as one of the
most successful in modern history. Some
of that success depended on correcting the damage done by the last Trump administration. Second - direct attacks on the opposition, unfounded accusations, and name calling. Third – it depends on a distortion of the
abilities of their ideal candidate. In
the case of Trump there is a long list of deficiencies provided by members of
his own party and people who were in his own cabinet. Many of them are clear
that he should never be re-elected. That
stands in sharp contrast to the hyperbole candidate Trump and his dedicated followers.
The real lesson of January 6, 2021 is that American
democracy is under attack from one of the major
parties and a former President who is combative to the point of alienating members of his own party, never admits he is wrong, is hypersensitive to criticism, and is not honest with the American people. A significant part of the electorate finds
that attractive even though it is not clear what would happen if their
candidate is reelected. His stated first order of business is to get revenge on those who he feels
have slighted him. That image should give any rational voter pause. The only thing scarier is what happens when
autocrats implode (and they all do). It
is typically as a colossal failure – negatively impacting the entire country
for years. In the United States there is
a good chance that fall will be far greater than any other country.
That is why the lessons of January 6 at the Capitol should
never be forgotten.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
Supplementary 1: How the FBI started the
Insurrection Conspiracy Theory got started was discovered
and debunked in January 2022. An Arizona
man named Ray Epps was filming the insurrection and apparently encouraging people
to enter the Capitol. Assuming he was an
FBI agent provided the basis for the conspiracy theory. When he was questioned by the January 6
Committee – Epps stated he was not working for law enforcement or a member of
the FBI. As the linked article states
prominent Republicans including Sen. Ted Cruz promoted this theory.
The actual story:
".....Fox News Channel and other right-wing media outlets amplified conspiracy theories that Epps, 62, was an undercover government agent who helped incite the Capitol attack to entrap Trump supporters. Epps filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News last year, saying the network was to blame for spreading baseless claims about him...."
Kunzelman M. Ray Epps, a target of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories, gets a year of probation for his Capitol riot role. Associated Press January 9, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ray-epps-target-jan-6-164800399.html
References:
1: Kershaw I. The Hitler Myth. History Today. 1985; 35(11): 23-29. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/hitler-myth
2: Lemmons R. Goebbels and Der Angriff. 1994.
University of Kentucky Press. Lexington, Kentucky. p. 128-131.
Graphics Credit:
1: Main Graphic is:
DC Capitol Storming by TapTheForwardAssist, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7947.jpg
Note the original was altered by me with the superimposed
transparency.
2: Transparency
is: WWII, Europe, Germany, "Nazi
Hierarchy, Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Hess", The Desperate Years p143 –
NARA by National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWII,_Europe,_Germany,_%22Nazi_Hierarchy,_Hitler,_Goering,_Goebbels,_Hess%22,_The_Desperate_Years_p143_-_NARA_-_196509.jpg
