It Could Be Deja Vu All Over Again

I just read an excellent article in The Washington Post. It was titled, "In Venezuela, we couldn't stop Chavez. Don't make the same mistakes we did." The author, Andres Miguel Rondon, talks about the struggle the Venezuelan people have had over the last two decades with their leader, Hugo Chavez.

The author does a great job boiling down populism to one paragraph. It's a beautiful compendium.

"The recipe for populism is universal. Find a wound common to many, find someone to blame for it, and make up a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they feel. That you found the bad guys. Label them: the minorities, the politicians, the businessmen. Caricature them. As vermin, evil masterminds, haters and losers, you name it. Then paint yourself as the savior. Capture the people's imagination. Forget about policies and plans, just enrapture them with a tale. One that starts with anger and ends in vengeance. A vengeance they can participate in."

His advice on dealing with America's populist is the following:

1. Don't forget who the enemy is.
2. Show no contempt.
3. Don't try to force him out.
4. Find a counterargument.

In another post I'll flesh these four points out.

Nostradamus in Tweed

It is amazing what President Trump recently said about him winning the popular vote for the presidency. He said he would have won the popular vote if it were not for all the illegal voters. Yet he has provided no evidence.

And it is good to see other Republicans pointing out that what he is saying is ludicrous without any solid evidence.

Yet, this does seem to fit in with the notion that we are in a post-factual society.

And I think Neil Postman, the media critic, had predicted this sort of phenomenon in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. One point he stressed was that politics, largely because of the medium of TV, is now seen as entertainment. He talked about this when an actor became president (i.e., Ronald Reagan).

Our current president would be a fulfillment of what he predicted.

Politics becoming entertainment: who else could better represent that than the celebrated reality-TV star, Donald Trump (now President Trump).

On Understanding the Election of Trump

I am trying--still--to make sense of the election of Donald Trump as president. In a way it seems simple, yet in another way it seems complex and made up of lots of footnotes, and parenthetical statements within those footnotes.

I guess I could sum up my view in that there was a core group (a larger one than thought) of people looking for change and they went with the major populist candidate, one who came across as "not caring who in government he pisses off."

Bernie Sanders also ran as a populist. But there was more--at least this time in history--people on the right looking for change. Right after the Gilded Age or the Great Depression, it was mainly people looking for a left-of-center candidate.

The trouble I see is that populists are good protesting against things, it's just when they are in power they usually don't have a clear vision, and get stuck.

That's what I see will happen to President Trump. That coupled with his many questionable statements and actions, he's almost guaranteed to be in a virtual tailspin. Also, and this is not talked about a lot (at least in a negative sense), but with no government experience, it's like walking into any job where you have no knowledge of the field. Usually that doesn't bode well.

For instance, many, including myself, thought Ray Nagin as mayor of New Orleans would be a great idea. He was a successful businessman, he seemed motivated, he had charisma and was engaging, and New Orleans was ripe for some "new blood."

Unfortunately, it ended badly. A city that seemed to go nowhere under his administration, and him, ending up in prison.

The new blood was worse than the old blood.

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A New Administration

Yesterday we got a new president, Mr. Donald J. Trump. And from his introductory comments he said, in effect, that he wants to have the government serve the people, not special interest.

I believe I now see why Mr. Trump became president. There was a core group of people who truly felt like government had no interest or desire to assist them in some of their needs. I get that.

These people saw government working for the wealthy, for big businesses, and for other select interest groups. I definitely agree.

I see the wealthy and big businesses taking the lion's share of what government allocates to the public. Whether through tax breaks for the very well-off or setting up laws that favor employers or special-interest groups, politicians tend to remunerate the sectors that give them the most votes or money, especially the latter.

And President Trump is a prime example. A number of his "deals" were little more than quid pro quo, where he gave to politicians and they gave back. Indeed, it usually was a deal for him.

For instance, President Trump got New York's first-ever tax break for a commercial property. And got it through some ingenious sleight of hand.

But maybe our new president does want to have government truly work for the people.

Now is the time for less talk and more action.

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Introduction

Hello, My name is Mark Haase and I'm a licensed counselor and marriage and family therapist. I've worked in the social service field for over 20 years. I would like in this blog to write about various themes as they relate to psychology, particularly social psychology. With social psychology as a sort of canopy I will look at various subjects--current events, politics, religion, work, and parenting.