 |
| Although Trump would never openly compare himself to Napoleon (he's obsessed with height and afraid of short jokes) he sees himself as the great leader in exile, waiting to return to the White House so he can lead his followers to victory, just as Napoleon returned from the Isle of Elba and -briefly- managed to regain the leadership of France. |
For former President Donald Trump, perpetuating the "big lie", including his wild-eyed fantasies of being restored to office, is part of a deep-seated psychological need to maintain his ego. Numerous psychopathologists have insisted that Trump demonstrates symptoms of anti-social personality disorder. Individuals with that disorder have an overwhelming desire to be either feared, or adored. By maintaining his grip on power within the Republican Party, and continuing to string along his supporters with fantasies of returning to office, Trump is perpetuating the on-going fear and worship that his ego craves. Trump supporters also feel an overwhelming need for this on-going fantasy, and Trump reinforces that need and the involvement of his followers by portraying himself as a defender of their interests. As mentioned in the Unified Theory of Fascism essay, Trump's supporters have come to require a steady stream of conspiracy theories to support their habit of "ego maintenance". Trump reinforces the ego maintenance habit of his audience by feeding them conspiracy theories delivered in a paranoid style of rhetoric, and the use of "ad populum"; praising his audience as "the best people", so long as they remain his loyal followers. Trump maintains this stream of rhetoric because if he were to cease, his followers, eager for the diet of conspiracy theories that support their ego maintenance, would abandon him, and Trump would be left without the sense of power and worship that his ego requires.
A number of psychopathologists have noted that Donald Trump demonstrates behaviors associated with anti-social personality disorder, and that he has developed a form of shared psychosis with his audience of followers. Individuals who are diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder also frequently demonstrate extreme narcissistic tendencies, and Trump is no exception. While narcissistic tendencies are common among all politicians, Trump is rather unique in that he has pathological needs to be both feared and worshipped, and a complete lack of any underlying conscience that might make him wary of the consequences of his agitative rhetoric. Trump has developed a symbiotic relationship with his followers that feeds his need for attention, worship and fear. Trump supporters hinge on his every word and insist that every statement in support of Trump is undeniable fact. Other politicians within the Republican Party don't speak out against the concept of "Trumpism", because they fear reprisals from voters. Trump's grip on the GOP has become so strong, that few Republican elected officials are willing to speak out against him prior to deciding that they'll be retiring from public office.
In exchange for their profound loyalty, and promises to abandon any politician who does not unquestioningly support him, Trump provides his followers with the steady diet of conspiracy theories to support their ego maintenance function. This paper defines "ego maintenance" as a habit of adopting conspiracy theories as a means of explaining one's station in life, and avoiding the cognitive dissonance that arises from confronting the divergence between the idealized self-image, and the neurotic and authoritarian actual self. Trump employs the language of nostalgia with his "make America great again" rhetoric, in trying to sell Americans on an out-dated, television-based vision of America that never was. His followers, dissatisfied with the condition of their daily lives, buy into his sales pitch and imagine that if they put all of their trust in Trump, then they will be returned to the security of an idealized image of youth, when their bodies were young and strong, Mom always had a sandwich waiting when you got home from school, and a lack of 24 hour news programming or Twitter meant American citizens lived in a world of limited information, and blissful ignorance.
Historian Richard Hofstadter characterized the paranoid style as a belief in conspiracies as a central motive force in the course of human events. In Trumpism, the constant repetition of the "MAGA" slogan is intended to spur a belief that if it weren't for all those "wealthy liberal elites", then life would return to the perceived simplicity of past decades. The conspiracy theories that are peddled to Trump supporters to support the ego maintenance function may be characterized as "narratives of persecution", which explain why the "liberal elites" are trying to keep the "good, simple people" from enjoying the perceived simplicity of past decades. When Trump tells his audience that they are "the smartest people" and "the best people", he is ultimately telling them that they are good and right for buying into the narratives of persecution that he and his henchment present for public consumption. Trump's portrayal of himself as a victim of a vast conspiracy to prevent his re-election is another example of a symbiotic relationship between himself and his supporters. Trump's narcissism and anti-social personality disorder prevent him from being able to properly consider the consequences of his actions, or to admit that he simply lost the election, because most Americans saw him as -at best- bumbling and incompetent, or -more often- as a dangerous psychopath. By presenting himself in the role of defender of the people, who has been laid low by a vast "liberal conspiracy", who will one day return to power and allow his followers to resume their simple lives and find a place where their idealized and actual selves become one, he can maintain his grip on both his supporters, and the Republican Party.
Trump's perpetuation of the "big lie" is ultimately a means of preserving his own ego, by maintaining the loyalty of his followers. Trump supporters have been conditioned to require an on-going diet of conspiracy theories to help them cope with the cognitive dissonance that arises from their perception of the divergence between their idealized self-image, and their actual selves. The Republican party is left in a bind as Trump's adoption of these kinds of agitative tactics has set in motion a fascist movement within the GOP that most Republican politicians don't fully understand, and certainly are not able to control. As a result, Trump is the charismatic leader to the "Trump base", and he cannot retire from his political career without a massive drop-off in support for the Republican Party. Although we cannot be sure just how much of this situation the Republican Party Leadership fully comprehends, it does appear that there is a growing sense of doom in the party of what happens after Trump, and their perpetuation of the "big lie", and continued stroking of the Trump ego, is an attempt to avoid the consequences of their ill-fated actions.
Thank you for taking the time to read my essay
If you enjoyed this work, then I encourage you to consider
purchasing a copy of my book
Now available in the Amazon store
Image Credit: Napoleon's exile to Elba: Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleon%27s_exile_to_Elba3.jpg
Comments
Post a Comment