Following the leader means ignoring constant stream of lies
It’s easy to blame Donald Trump for Wednesday’s chaos at the Capitol that has left five people dead.
It’s easy to blame the Capitol Police, whose law enforcement ineptitude should become a “how not to” video. And it’s easy to blame the Republican lawmakers who continue to coddle Trump because when they see him, they see votes and nothing more.
But I wonder why we’re not heaping more blame on the true culprits.
The rioters.
Some people are so desperate for something to believe they hang on to the fallacies of a master manipulator. They’re ready to charge into battle for a man who has never cared about people a day in his life.
Trump has a well-documented, long history of racist controversies. He discards people the minute he brands them disloyal. He’s been sued dozens
Guest Columnist of times by working class people he claims to champion for not paying his bills.
This is who he’s always been, and I still get why people voted for him (an outsider, liberal hate, tells it like it is) and support his policies (conservative judges, immigration, deregulation).
What I don’t get is why people follow him to the ends of hell.
Maybe that’s not a surprise either. Humans don’t learn, make the same mistakes over and over. Hitler parlayed outrage over the Treaty of Versailles into a decade-long reign of terror. People still followed him.
Angst-filled Americans fearful of social progress (gender equality, for example) loved the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Joseph Stalin remains wildly popular in Russia despite his brutality.
I’m not comparing Trump to these three; but I am saying people can be easily manipulated into believing anything, and it’s much easier in today’s partisan content age. Psychology Today, writing about manipulation, noted, “Manipulative people prey on our sensibilities, emotional sensitivity, and especially conscientiousness.”
So no, I don’t blame people for voting for Trump. I don’t blame them if they think he’s the best president of all time.
I blame them for following a man willing to destroy the fabric of democracy because they believe his constant stream of lies. When a master manipulator gets in the heads of a people desperate for their own brand of hope, we get chaos.
But we’re starting to get signs some of his followers are seeing the light. I’m not talking about Republican politicians breaking with Trump. That’s easy to do at the end of a presidency.
I listened to a tearful C-Span caller ask if her president “lied to her” and apologize for voting for him.
No apologies needed. We just have to be better and smarter.