As everyone knows who pays much attention to the news, the Democrats have been spending a heck of a lot of time lately analyzing how it was possible that they could have lost the American presidency to Donald Trump. Like a masterful surfer in Hawaii, most Americans thought Kamela Harris was going to be able to ride the wave of good feelings and good fortune that a lot of Democratic candidates for other offices did during the 2024 elections and win her own contest in the same way. Granted the Democrats lost control of the Senate and did not regain the House, but in both cases, the margins were close and a lot of Democrats did win their seats. But when Harris lost the presidential election, everybody including most of the pundits were simply stunned. How could Harris have lost, when it was so obvious that Trump was going to wreak havoc if he was elected for a second term?
One answer that has been given is that the Democrats as well as other liberal and progressive interest groups associated with them did not focus enough on pocket book issues. They were too abstract and remote in their discussion of America’s economic problems. They didn’t talk about them in a way that indicated that they felt the pain of the average American who was hurting a lot as a result of inflation. Unlike the Republicans, of course, who demonstrated a complete understanding of the problems of the average working American. Ha, ha. I’m being facetious, of course. The two main things the Republicans have understood in terms of economic matters is tax cuts for the very wealthy and deregulation. Although recently, the Republicans under Trump have added one more tool to their economic tool box – namely tariffs which could end up hurting American business terribly. They will just start an economic war with the countries on whose goods tariffs are imposed.
So, if the Republican economic policies are anathema to the interests of the average American, why did so many Americans vote for Trump, particularly when they indicated that economic policy was the most important thing in determining who they were going to vote for? The answer is that like Trump they have grown to appreciate living in chaos. Chaos creates a lot of abrasive stimulation which, in turn, helps to pull people out of the numbness they experience from living in a frictionless experiential vacuum. Chaos is like having an endless string of overstimulating tension-pocket explosions. Like an endless string of fireworks to shock one out of his numbness. This is an important notion, because most of the people I know, who happen to be politically liberal, are quite frightened of Trump taking over the government for a second term precisely because, among other reasons, of the chaos which he will bring to the government and, by extension, to the society as a whole.
Which brings us to the major theme of this article. This is going to seem like a rather heretical notion, but it makes sense within the larger scope of the model I have been presenting. On one very important level, the activists are quite content to have an opponent like Trump in the White House. Just as Trump’s followers are shocked out of their numbness as a result of being up close and psychologically merging with him and experiencing his shifts in positions directly, so his opponents are shocked out of their numbness by fighting him and his ideas from a distance. In other words, all of the activists that oppose Trump form a social system with Trump. Trump and the anti-Trump social activists need each other in order to feel alive. The same is true with Trump and the news commentators on television. In general, we can say that the more modern technology makes our living environments increasingly frictionless, the more news commentators are attracted to Trump and people like him. People who are constantly shifting their positions on social and political matters and who are constantly involving themselves in different social and political actions. People like Trump are heaven for news commentators. His constant shifting in intentions and actions creates an ongoing shocking narrative which, as it is conveyed to the public, is constantly mesmerizing and draws more and more viewers to the different television stations. The breaking news about Donald Trump’s escapades becomes an addiction, an ongoing series of kicks that rattles the brains of his viewers and creates a compelling chaos in them.
So Trump’s escapades help keep people addicted to the screen reality of television and computers which is the major cause of their numbness in the first place and their incapacity to properly absorb organic stimuli. And the escapades of Trump help keep all of his opponents who are involved with various activist groups moving along with a sense of purpose. As the escapades of Trump continue to outrage these activists, they are pulled out of their numbness like never before. Whatever the cause – abortion, immigration, climate change, inflation, Trump’s position is sure to add insult to injury and make them angrier and thus more vibrantly alive than ever before.
© 2024 Laurence Mesirow
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