Jan 16, 2021
How Donald Trump became president
George Bernard Shaw inadvertently explained Donald Trump’s future successful run for president when he wrote: “Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.” In 2016, education lost that race, and catastrophe won.
Trump became president because he was an accomplished demagogue, and too many voters never learned about the disastrous effects a demagogue always has on a nation. More important: they failed to understand why demagogues have a competitive advantage against genuine leaders who want to make a nation better.
Our country is still paying for Trump’s win, especially because of his lie, while knowing better, that Covid-19 was a Democratic and health industry hoax.
To begin with, the historical record indicates that every nation that has allowed a demagogue to rule eventually regrets it. Everything a demagogue does is intended to benefit himself. What’s best for the nation or even for his own supporters is irrelevant. As President Trump has clearly demonstrated, he will attack, demean and punish anyone who may oppose anything he wants to do.
When a nation is facing serious and complex problems, a demagogue will be more appealing to voters than a leader who is committed to telling the truth. Trump claimed that he would solve the nation’s problems quickly and painlessly — just as he supposedly did as a businessman.
He would cut everyone’s taxes, which would put more money into the hands of consumers who would spend it better than government bureaucrats — although government was in desperate need of funds for infrastructure, education, health care research and so on.
He said his Republican opponents were incompetents who didn’t know how to pursue obvious solutions to unfair trade. When opposing Democrats he said that the Covid-19 pandemic was a Democratic hoax intended to make his economic record look bad. The health industry also contributed to the hoax, he said, because they profited from it.
The public also needs to be able to recognize the usual and numerous signs of a demagogue. Lying and ridiculing others are obvious ones. Interviews with supporters at Trump rallies indicated that many voted for him even though they knew he was a liar and he made fun of people. However, he would do these things to support their interests. In other words, he was their demagogue.
He would do whatever it would take to make abortion illegal, or defend the right to own a high capacity assault rifle, or start a trade war with China and bring jobs back to this country. Voters didn’t realize he took positions like those because he knew that, although his behaviors were unfavorable to the general public, he would get votes in the electoral college from crucial swing states. But when he got into office, he did things that hurt everyone, including those who voted for him.
“Inoculation” is an important but little known propaganda technique. A politician can inoculate himself from criticism by accusing his opponent of doing something he does or intends to do. Trump said that Hillary Clinton was the most divisive presidential candidate in history.
Then, when others call Trump divisive, it becomes a draw to Trump supporters who say everyone does it. Many Republican congressional enablers of Trump still use the inoculation technique today. They point out that liberals and Democrats were making fun of and belittling Trump before he ran for president and was just a businessman — and they continue to criticize Trump to this day. The fact that his entire life’s history is richly deserving of criticism is irrelevant to voters who mistakenly think he has their interests at heart.
It’s essential to the demagogue that he discredit the traditional news media professionals and organizations that accurately report the news. Trump’s and his supporters’ claim of “fake news” comes at the public so often and from so many directions that many voters begin to believe that the elites of the news media are indeed biased against Trump.
Voters now need to hear frequently, from many different sources, that traditional professional journalists and organizations are not biased. Their criticisms are the result of objective investigations by those who are closest to the action, and who understand the reality of what’s going on.
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You may find an old website of mine — that I haven’t been maintaining very well — to have some interesting views about our economy. It‘s at a secure: https://democraticcapitalism.net/
