Oxford Languages defines phenomenon as “a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.” That is to say, one might be tempted to ask themselves: did this really happen? Or: how could this have been possible?
I’m looking at this in the context of the 45th president of America now having left the White House, as reluctantly as that would have been the case. He rejected the outcome of a democratic election by declaring it to be fraud, and going as far as inciting an insurrection by urging a viscous mob to violate and ransack the US Capitol, and trying to justify this with the – since deleted – tweet on January 6, stating that “these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”
The fact that he or his supporters could not produce one shred of credible and verifiable evidence in support of that bizarre and outrageous claim is just one more reason to refer to his turbulent and abysmally divisive four year term as the head of the USA as a unique phenomenon that requires some exploration.
I’ve written enough about this now ex-president in earlier posts to make it clear that, yes, I have an intense dislike for him – and for all the reasons that are perhaps best summarized by something his former National Security Advisor John Bolton once said about him: he has a hole where his character should have been.
If the 45th president of the United States has demonstrated anything during his noxious reign, it is the fact that he appears to be totally devoid of humanity. By the time he left office on January 20th, over 400,000 Americans had been killed by current pandemic, yet one would have a hard time recalling even one instance in which he publicly expressed genuine empathy towards the families affected by the tragic loss of their loved ones.
Nor did he demonstrate at any time the kind of resoluteness and determination required to address this deadly pandemic with the sense of urgency that one would expect from the leader of a country that is being ravaged by it. The conclusion has to be: he couldn’t care less! After all – be it one or 400,00 dead Americans – they are of no use to him, i.e., they will not be able to pledge fealty to him, let alone vote for him. At most they are an embarrassment for having died in such numbers during his term in office, to the point that when his presidency came to an end the USA had the highest number of novel corona-virus deaths in the world
Throughout his career in private business and during the last four years as a politician it has become very clear that the only person he cares about is himself. Add his inability to admit mistakes by always blaming others and deliver false and misleading claims on just about any subject should that serve his purpose: you have the textbook definition of a sociopath!
While he might seem to care about those who support him and appear to be loyal to him, the moment that seems no longer the case you may as well not exist, i.e., you are of no value to him, as many of his former supporters have found out. A case in point would be the situation his ever-loyal vice-president found himself in on January 6, 2021, when Mike Pence decided to uphold his country’s constitution and certify the election results – as he was legally required to do – instead of complying with Trump’s demand to throw them out so he could stay in office. More recently it appears his ever loyal legal sidekick Rudolph Giuliani has now been given the heave-ho, presumably for services perhaps not so successfully rendered.
So the question remains: how was it possible for a sociopath such as Trump to be elected as the 45th president of the US? I don’t believe I can offer any kind of unique insight into this – for me – baffling phenomenon but the short answer appears to be: he benefited from the significant and historically longstanding divisions within the country, by appealing to the disgruntled hard hearted side of the political spectrum and become their chosen champion to rebuild the USA in their image.
Moreover, he was able to transformed the Republican party from a political organization into a cult of personality that would endow him with a sense of reverence seldom seen within Western politics. The upshot was that he could do no wrong; he could count on their absolute support for whatever action he would consider necessary – legally or illegally – to make the country see things his way.
That he was able to accomplish this over a relatively short period of time is remarkable, but it would be a big mistake to credit him with any kind of political savvy to make this happen. Instead, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Never short on ambition, his crude and abrasive in-your-face personae became the perfect medium to personify and give voice to the spiteful and less generous side of human nature on behalf of those on the political right wanting to express their resentment and anger with their country’s status quo.
Trump and the political right rise to power must be seen within the context of many Americans having been manipulated to perceive the looming threat of “socialism” during the eight years of the Obama administration. Despite being among the top world economic powers, the US remains the sole industrialized nation in the world without universal health care coverage. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) – nicknamed Obamacare – aimed to provide affordable health insurance coverage for all Americans – it would be portrayed as another major step towards socialism by those who opposed it.