Divide-and-conquer plan destroys society’s trust
If special counsel Robert Mueller finds that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election, or even if Trump fires Mueller before he makes such a finding, Trump’s supporters will protect him from any political fallout.
Trump’s base will stand by him not because they believe Trump is on their side, but because they define themselves as being on his side.
Trump has intentionally cleaved America into two warring camps: proTrump and anti-Trump. And he has convinced the pro-Trumps that his enemy is their enemy.
Most Americans are not passionate conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats. But they have become impassioned Trump supporters or Trump haters.
Polls say about 38 percent of Americans approve of him, and most disapprove. These numbers are the tips of two vast icebergs of intensity.
Trump has forced all of us to take sides, and to despise those on the other. There’s no middle ground.
The Republican Party used to stand for fiscal responsibility, state’s rights, free trade and a hard line against Russian aggression. Now it just stands for Trump.
Pro-Trump Republicans remain the majority in the GOP. As long as Trump can keep them riled up, and as long as Republicans remain in control of at least one chamber of Congress, he’s safe.
“Try to impeach him, just try it,” Roger Stone, Trump’s former campaign adviser, warned last summer. “You will have a spasm of violence in this country, an insurrection like you’ve never seen.”
That’s probably an exaggeration, but Trump (with the assistance of his enablers in Congress) has convinced his followers that the Russian investigation is part of a giant conspiracy to unseat him, and that his enemies want to replace him with someone who will allow dangerous forces to overrun America.
Sure, this paranoia is based on the same racism and xenophobia that has smoldered in America since the nation’s inception. Trump’s strategy is to stoke it daily.
Sure, American politics had polarized before Trump. Trump’s strategy is to exploit and enlarge these divisions.
Schooled in reality television and New York tabloids, Trump knows how to keep both sides stirred up: Vilify, disparage, denounce, defame, and accuse the other side of conspiring against America. Do it continuously. Dominate every news cycle.
Fox News is his propaganda arm, magnifying his rallies and lies. The rest of the media also play into Trump’s strategy by making him the defining controversy of America.
It’s the divide-and-conquer strategy of a tyrant.
Democracies require sufficient social trust that citizens regard the views of those they disagree with as worthy of equal consideration to their own. That way, they’ll accept political outcomes they dislike.
Trump’s divide-and-conquer strategy is to destroy that trust.
So if Mueller finds that Trump colluded with Russia, or Trump fires Mueller before Mueller makes such a finding, the proTrumps will block any consequential challenge to his authority.
Nothing could be more dangerous to our democracy and society.