Trump’s Watershed Impact on American Politics: My Article from 10 December 2015

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

This is what I wrote in December 2015. Another chilling prediction of what would happen if Trump became the GOP nominee in 2016 and went on to win the election. The article which you can find on this site is named: The Mob Determined the Theme.

I had readers who did not understand the title and thought I was talking about organized crime, but I was talking about a political mob, as in mob of people not driven by reason but purely motivated by primal hatreds and passions. Think about the Nazi thugs of the 1920s and early 1930s. Back in 2015 I realized what the GOP had become, a den or racist thugs in the thrall of uneducated ideologues like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, pseudo-intellectuals, and unscrupulous young bloggers and propagandists. Meanwhile, the formerly reputable, even if you disagreed with them, bastions of conservative journalism, papers, magazines and journals were now controlled by ruthless ideologues masquerading as journalists. Of course there were the powerful Evangelical Christian Preachers especially those commanding mega-churches, most of which became MAGA-Churches overnight. In 2016 and this year they were a majority of Trump’s support.

We have seen what transpired between when I wrote this article and what we are witnessing today. I saw this coming in 2008 when I left the GOP, during the rise of the Tea Party, and the actions of the GOP between the election of President Obama and the election of Donald Trump. During that time, but beginning in the 1970s the GOP was transformed into the ghoulish party that it is today. It is the cradle of a Fascist and Racist Mass Movement, whose true believers are committed to overthrowing our system of government to establish a dictatorship. Why do you think that all through the campaign they have been calling Democrats “Communists?” It is because the GOP base is basically composed of White Nationalists, Christian theocrats, and people who believe in the exultation of a superior race, and the subordination of all others, including women, and anyone that opposes them. They are a Fascist party.

Trump’s election was the watershed. They cannot step back, and I would encourage my readers not to take them lightly in the run up to President Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

They are capably of anything. Do not let your guard down. This is what I wrote in December 2015.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

Friends of Padre Steve’s World

When Albert Speer discussed the ability of Adolf Hitler to captivate the German people he noted something important. He discussed how Hitler and his minions played to them set by the disgruntled and angry German population. Speer wrote, “The mob determined the theme. To compensate for misery, insecurity, unemployment, and hopelessness, this anonymous assemblage wallowed for hours at a time in obsessions, savagery and license. The personal unhappiness caused by the breakdown of the economy was replaced by a frenzy that demanded victims. By lashing out at their opponents and vilifying the Jews, they gave expression and direction to fierce primal passions.”

Hitler played to that misery, insecurity and the obsessions of the politically and economically disaffected “conservative base” that no longer trusted the party establishments of the old-line conservative parties. He also played to the deep-rooted racism and anti-Semitism of those people. Hitler was an outsider, he was not indebted to any traditional party hierarchy and as such was able to throw away convention and play to the fear and anger of many Germans.

Donald Trump is doing today and he is running circles around the traditional politicians of the Republican Party. Every time trump says something that would have gotten himself blown out of the race twenty years ago had he said such things, today his poll numbers keep going up. He is now trending around 35% in most polls of GOP voters and my guess is that those numbers are low, as some supporters may not be willing to tell a pollster that they are for Trump, at least yet. My guess is that Trump’s support in the GOP is probably higher than 40% and won’t go down much. The party hierarchy and most of Trump’s primary rivals consistently criticize Trump, but most say that they will back him if he is the nominee. I cannot imagine that being the case twenty years ago when both the party establishment and the voters would have dumped him in a New York minute.

Trump understands the mood of much of the traditionally conservative public better than his Republican establishment competitors. Trump is not stupid, unlike Hitler who actually believed in his message, Trump is not a radical, he cannot be, he has too much invested in the system. Instead, he is a street smart and pragmatic businessman who is exploiting the situation on the ground to his advantage. His opponents and the GOP establishment are frightened, but like the hidebound conservatives of the Weimar Republic who either dismissed or Hitler or thought that they could contain him are not willing to make a stand. As a result, Trump is able to play to the mood of the base and to coin a phrase, to “trump the establishment” by channeling the deepest anger, fear, hatred, xenophobia, and racism that the GOP establishment refuses to acknowledge. When there is a push back by the establishment it further angers the base, and Trump, quite adroitly threatens to leave the party; something which would doom the GOP in the 2016 general election, and possibly shatter the party.

Trump’s GOP opponents should not underestimate him and neither should establishment Democrats. Trump is using his celebrity bombast and the democratic process to take control of a major political party, and he is a lot smarter than most political analysts give him credit. As such, as a non-establishment outsider, Trump has a chance at taking over a major political party, something that has never before happened in the United States.

If he succeeds in his takeover bid, it will forever change American politics, especially if he is able to ride the fear, hatred, and fear to the White House. I don’t think the latter will happen, but I would not exclude it from the realm of the possible. To paraphrase Speer’s words about Hitler and Goebbels: By lashing out at their opponents and vilifying the Muslims and immigrants, Trump gave expression and direction to fierce primal passions of a disaffected GOP base.

Peace

Padre Steve