I used to think that Trump’s persuasive power was due to Americans’ ignorance. Then I discovered Tim Miller’s book, “Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell.” Tim was a one of Trump’s political strategists preoccupied with the game that gave Tim fame, money, and power. As a public relations expert, he was a young hit man and even backed anti-gay advocates even though he is gay. Miller now knows that Trump’s followers succumb to his charisma, his vocal skills, and Fox News.
Trump’s success is not the result of our ignorance. It’s about clever and deceptive advertising. Any well-trained advertising exec can push kernels of truth, exaggerate them, and then convince us that the world is coming to an end. It’s called The Rapture, the Great Flood, or Biblical Prophecy. It’s called Donald. It’s called Fox.
But that can change. Trump’s recent talk in Washington, D.C., began as he mocked a transgendered weightlifter. No surprise. We recall his mockery of a disabled reporter in 1917. Healthy persons empower others; it’s the angry, morally and emotionally deficient, and hateful who have no love in their hearts and don’t rise to perfection owned and defined by the bully.
Not long ago, with charismatic Bill O’Reilly as its public face and Roger Ailes as the strategic mastermind, Fox News built its appeal on the idea that the mainstream media were full of East Coast elites who ignored the concerns of the people and sneered at them. So-called elites used media dominance to shape American values. Fox still pitches itself as the channel for everyone who was sick to death of radical socialists, communists, and hippies. When Ailes met Trump, he soon realized that Trump was exactly the right figure to lead the crusade. (CNN)
It’s surprising that both conservative papers, The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, recently published scorching editorials against Donald Trump after prime-time hearings of the House select committee on events of Jan. 6, 2021. In the view of these conservative papers, Trump has proved himself “unworthy” of returning to the presidency, and both opined that he’d “utterly failed” the test posed by Jan 6. That demonstrates that many of us may not be ignorant but are still vulnerable to boldfaced lies as pennies from Heaven.
Tom Klein
Bowling Green
