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It’s Not 1934
Wanted: A name for the hypertrophied fear of Trump that’s overcome so many — maybe most — of his opponents. Do you really need examples? There was the ThinkProgress editor terrified of his plumber:
He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional. But he was also a middle-aged white man with a Southern accent who seemed unperturbed by this weeks news. … I couldn’t stop thinking about whether he had voted for Trump, whether he knew my last name is Jewish … I couldn’t shake the sense of potential danger. I was rattled for some time after he left.
More recently, here’s Adam Gopnik in one of those New Yorker paragraphs so classily convoluted you don’t notice the embedded hooey:
Assaults on free speech; the imprisoning of critics and dissidents; attempts, on the Russian model, likely to begin soon, to intimidate critics of the regime with fake charges and conjured-up allegations; the intimidation and intolerance of even mild dissidence (that “Apologize!” tweet directed at members of the “Hamilton” cast who dared to politely petition Mike Pence); not to mention mass deportations or attempts at discrimination by religion—all things that the Trump and his cohorts have openly contemplated or even promised—are not part of the normal oscillations of power and policy. They are unprecedented and, history tells us, likely to be almost impossible to reverse. … [**]
The best way to be sure that 2017 is not 1934 is to act as though it were.
Of course, you don’t need these examples if you have Democratic Facebook friends. Just read their posts — alarms about journalists jailed and killed, brownshirts, ethnic cleansing, pervasive surveillance, people living in fear, exterminationist violence, the whole nein yards. They’re scared.
The thing is, they’re not poseurs — they’re sensible citizens. They are, many of them, my friends. They’re in no way ignorant. That’s why the dismissive label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” doesn’t seem an accurate description (in addition to being belittling and ineffective). If they see the seeds of authoritarianism in Trump’s “Hamilton” tweet — or more plausibly in his suggestion that he might pick and choose which reporters can attend briefings … well, sure. Those are seeds. There’ve been seeds before, of course. There were the seeds of authoritarianism in Truman bullying a press critic who panned his daughter’s singing. There were more than seeds in Roosevelt’s NRA, in Nixon’s wiretapping and J. Edgar Hoover’s longrunning COINTELPRO surveillance and harrassment of dissenters.
It’s not deranged to extrapolate from seed to tree, and to worry that the relative handful of alt-righters (50,000?) and smaller handful of anti-Semitic trolls (1,600?) might produce something very bad. You can imagine a world where Jews are attacked by their plumbers. My mother grew up in such a world (Frankfurt, Germany in 1933) and I’m here because her parents had the good sense to flee.
It’s thinking that such development — from seed to tree — is at all likely today that seems … well, wrong. Let’s call it wrong! We have strong counter-majoritarian institutions (including an independent judiciary) and a culture that supports them. The idea that Trump is going to mobilize some army of thuggish supporters to intimidate the press, the courts, the opposition party and half of his own party seems a fever dream, no less feverish because of its rational basis.
Yet those who adhere to this unnamed tendency — let’s call it ’34ism, unless you can come up with a better name *** — allow the power of their terrifying dream to overwhelm sober consideration of everything Trump does or intends to do, good or bad (on trade, taxes, regulations, immigration, etc). We’re supposed to draw up sides — condemning (and ostracizing) those who are “complicit” in Trump’s administration and welcoming those who “stand on the right side of history” — even before we know whether the authoritarian seed will grow or wither, disregarding all the other positively auspicious seeds (reform of trade, control of borders, fewer foreign miliary adventures, ending the Republican threat to Social Security and Medicare, etc.) that might flourish instead. In Slate 34ist Yascha Mounk’s head it’s practically Life During Wartime already, with brave Trump critics fired from their jobs, sleeping on the couches of their secret colleagues in the Resistance. Keep the car running.
Suggested alternative: See what happens first! Don’t let the reaction to Trump be dominated by one extremely unlikely bad possibility, at the expense of nurturing the far-more-likely good possibilities.
Coming in next post: How does 1934ism go away? Is it enough that the brownshirts don’t appear? (Spoiler: Maybe not.)
__________
**– The Hooey: Gopnik says authoritarian measures against critics “are unprecedented and, history tells us, likely to be almost impossible to reverse.” This is fatuous on both counts. 1) Even direct assaults on free speech are far from unprecedented –e.g. the Sedition Act of 1798, passed not too long after our nation’s founding, or the imprisonment of Eugene Debs for opposing World War I. 2) They also haven’t been that hard to reverse. The Sedition Act was repealed in Thomas Jefferson’s term. It’s highly doubtful that Debs could be imprisoned under current First Amendment law — the opposite of what Gopnik declares “history tells us.”
*** — Better name ideas appreciated — just put them in the comments section below, or tweet them to @kausmickey. Thanks.
Published in General
I agree. The best policies are usually unpopular. I am excited about Trump’s attack on regulations though.
When fascism comes to America, it will be called “anti-fascism”-origin disputed
Otherwise known as “Social Justice”.
Have you ever watched The Last Supper (1996)?
DocJay and Roman brought the Grey Goose. And Doc can’t have been that trashed if he correctly recalls the brand. I do, because I gave the Russian grief for drinking frog vodka.
I’ve been thinking further about the phrase “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and I do think that there is a problem with it. Not with the word “derangement.” That word could not be more appropriate. No, the problem is with the word “Trump.” Because it really has nothing to do with Trump. If Trump resigned tomorrow, the leftists would be even more hysterical and deranged about President Pence. At least that’s how it seems to me. And if Pence resigned, they would be equally hysterical and deranged about President Ryan. We hear that Trump is Hitler. We heard that Bush was Hitler. We heard that Reagan was Hitler. Anyone with an R next to their name is Hitler. So this is not Trump Derangement Syndrome. This is Leftist Derangement Syndrome.
And right after this, the two of them rolled Rob’s house. Sad!
Mickey,
If your liberal friends need adult liberal bed times stories read to them so they can drift off to never-never land then let them get a top notch shrink. As I’m sure they make between 5 times and 500 times as much money as I do, I’m sure they’ll be able to afford it. Just one more thing.
Don’t ever tell me about their whining nonsense again.
Regards,
Jim
Agreed, yes, they would be more hysterical and deranged.
And as they say, dissent is part of the fabric of our culture, but only their dissent, not anyone else’s dissent.
Isaac and Trinity: EXACTLY!
Great post Mickey Kaus. What distresses me most is that this derangement syndrome is still coming from the supposed big thinkers of the President’s own Party …
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/01/21/bill-kristol-profoundly-depressing-vulgar-hear-american-president-proclaim-america-first-438497
‘It’s profoundly depressing and vulgar to hear an American president proclaim America first’.
I haven’t seen anything by Mickey Kaus here before, so I offer a hearty WELCOME, Mickey!
Don’t know what to think about Bill Kristol anymore…actually I don’t think much of Bill Kristol anymore. I know one thing, his interview podcasts were real snoozers. This is the guy that did his best to make Hillary Clinton the 45th President by putting McMullin in the Presidential race in Utah. It’s a real head shaker.
I’m glad to see him here, too. I follow him on Twitter, where I long ago put him into the private list of maybe 20 people that I pay attention to more than any of the others.
I was bemused by this part:” But he was also a middle-aged white man with a Southern accent who seemed unperturbed by this weeks news. …”
What news did he think the plumber should be perturbed by? And, did he really expect the plumber to discuss politics with him? At the plumber’s hourly rate?????
And also – welcome Mickey! You are the only liberal I can stand to read anymore ( sometimes Kevin Drum).