(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Give Alex Kingsbury at The NY Times credit - he's taking Trump's threats seriously [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-05 In 5 minutes and 20 seconds, Alex Kingsbury speaks plainly about what Trump is doing these days. (Link through the pay wall.) Donald Trump has never been shy with his language but recently, the editor Alex Kingsbury argues, his violent speech has escalated. In the last few weeks alone, Trump suggested his own former general was treasonous, said that shoplifters should be shot and exhorted his followers to “go after” New York’s attorney general. Kingsbury says he understands why voters tune Trump out, but stresses the need to pay attention and take action for the sake of American democracy. In the audio, Kingsbury speaks to the consequences of Trump’s remarks, how his followers act on it, how targets of Trump’s threats have had their lives disrupted, have had to go into hiding, and worse. Mitt Romney says he pays $5,000 a day for security for his family. What can regular people afford? Trump’s words have consequences. Trump’s visit to a gun store had a subtext — that gun store had sold an AR-15 used in a racist mass-shooting. That was not a coincidence. As a public figure, Trump is saying things that lead to political violence — extreme rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and violent imagery. He’s implicitly — and increasingly explicitly — condoning violence. He’s priming the pump. Kingsbury also warns what can enable this: apathy aids authoritarians . He warns that ignoring what Trump is doing until after the primaries or until the general election is a trap. He warns Trump likely has the nomination locked up at this point and stands a good chance of being elected. He calls on all Americans to recognize what Trump is doing, and if they oppose it, get involved. Vote, donate money, talk to friends and family members — do something. As has been said elsewhere, silence is assent. For The NY Times, despite the understated tone of the Kingsbury’s audio, this is practically a hair-on-fire call to action. Kerry Eleveid’s report Republicans suck so bad, some mainstream media outlets are even getting McCarthy’s ouster right is further evidence the press is increasingly finding it acceptable to openly talk about the dysfunction of the Republican Party without trying to both-sides it. (Another example here.) On September 28, 2023 Kingsbury wrote about what Trump offers his followers: Trump’s Promise of Lawlessness. Though it was lost in the four-year cyclone that was the presidency of Donald Trump, one of his most immoral acts was to pardon soldiers who were accused of committing war crimes by killing unarmed civilians or prisoners. Military leaders, including his own defense secretary and the secretary of the Army, objected, saying it would undermine good order and discipline. Lawlessness can easily beget lawlessness. But the American system is ill prepared to deter leaders bent on undermining the rule of law. Checks and balances spread powers across the government, but that isn’t enough to temper or stop bad-faith actors looking to subvert the law. According to a new article in The Atlantic, Gen. Mark Milley, upon becoming the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2019, “found himself in a disconcerting situation: trying, and failing, to teach President Trump the difference between appropriate battlefield aggressiveness on the one hand, and war crimes on the other.” Mr. Trump, as General Milley discovered and many Americans already knew, is a man unencumbered by any moral compass. He goes the way he wants to go, legalities and niceties be damned. Last week in a post on his social network, Mr. Trump argued that General Milley’s actions would have once been punishable by death. The essay lays out the same points Kingsbury brings up in the audio short linked above. This is pretty explicit: There are many nations where citizens live in fear of governments that wield unchecked and arbitrary authority against their enemies, real or imagined. That is the America that Mr. Trump is promising his supporters. When Mr. Trump told supporters “I am your retribution,” all Americans should take him at his word. The Bigger Picture The Republican Party has become a right-wing authoritarian cult. It long ago traded away any real democratic principles and ideals it might have had in exchange for power. Too many people still think the party is a legitimate participant in democracy. That ship has sailed. Unfortunately, the press and too many other people don’t understand what it happening, and no expeditions to Midwest diners are going to explain what is going on these days. There is something that does, however. Professor Bob Altemeyer’s research on authoritarianism describes the symbiotic relationship that binds authoritarian leaders and followers. John Dean used it as the basis for his book Conservatives Without Conscience. Sara Robinson summarizes the basic concepts here. Leaders and Followers Authoritarians come in two flavors: leaders and followers. The two tiers are driven by very different motivations; and understanding these differences is the first key to understanding how authoritarian social structures work. Leaders form just a small fraction of the group. Social scientists refer to this group as having a high "social dominance orientation (SDO)" -- a set of traits that can be readily identified with psychological testing. "These are people who seize every opportunity to lead, and who enjoy having power over others," says Dean -- and they have absolutely no qualms about objectifying people and breaking rules to advance their own ambitions. High-SDO personalities tend to emerge very early in life (which suggests at least some genetic predisposition): you probably remember a few from your own sandbox days, and almost certainly have known a few who've made your adult life a living hell as well. High-SDO people are characterized by four core traits: they are dominating, opposed to equality, committed to expanding their own personal power, and amoral. These are usually accompanied by other unsavory traits, many of which render them patently unsuitable for leadership roles in a democracy: emphasis added Trump is practically the perfect example of this — there’s a list of defining characteristics at the link. They apply to quite a few of the rest of the GOP leadership as well. Followers have a different orientation: 1. Submission to authority. "These people accept almost without question the statements and actions of established authorities, and comply with such instructions without further ado" writes Dean. "[They] are intolerant of criticism of their authorities, because they believe the authority is unassailably correct. Rather than feeling vulnerable in the presence of powerful authorities, they feel safer. For example, they are not troubled by government surveillance of citizens because they think only wrongdoers need to be concerned by such intrusions. Still, their submission to authority is not blind or automatic; [they] believe there are proper and improper authorities…and their decision to submit is shaped by whether a particular authority is compatible with their views." 2. Aggressive support of authority. Right-wing followers do not hesitate to inflict physical, psychological, financial, social, or other forms of harm on those they see as threatening the legitimacy of their belief system and their chosen authority figure. This includes anyone they see as being too different from their norm (like gays or racial minorities). It's also what drives their extremely punitive attitude toward discipline and justice. Notes Dean: "Authoritarian aggression is fueled by fear and encouraged by a remarkable self-righteousness, which frees aggressive impulses." 3. Conventionality. Right-wing authoritarian followers prefer to see the world in stark black-and-white. They conform closely with the rules defined for them by their authorities, and do not stray far from their own communities. This extreme, unquestioning conformity makes them insular, fearful, hostile to new information, uncritical of received wisdom, and able to accept vast contradictions without perceiving the inherent hypocrisy. This description of what motivates authoritarian followers goes a long way to explaining why they keep voting against their own interests: they think they ARE voting for them. If you understand how they view the world, their actions make perfect sense. Read the whole thing, and the follow-up installments for the big picture. If you are wondering how to reach Trump followers, as Robinson describes it, it’s a process that has to start from within. It usually takes a personal crisis, something they experience as a betrayal of their trust so great that they can no longer explain it away. That can lead them to questioning their beliefs and open them to seek answers elsewhere. Or, they may just decide to pick a new “Strong Leader”. (It’s not a coincidence that High SDO Republican leaders are attempting to purge public education of ‘liberal’ ideas. You can effectively chain people’s minds by keeping them in ignorance.) Yelling at them, calling them riff raff and mouth-breathers isn’t going to win them over obviously. Their leaders think of them in those terms, but are usually careful not to say so openly — and their followers often dismiss it if they do. “Fake news!” Sometimes the best you can hope for is that they decide to stay home instead of turning out to vote — or to riot. It also suggests that putting resources into trying to win them over is a high-risk, low return scenario. They’re not interested in attempts to meet them halfway. (See #3) It makes more sense to try to motivate others who are amenable to persuasion, or need help getting off the sidelines. The leaders are the ones to watch out for; the follower description from #2 is especially pertinent in the age of Trump and his efforts to promote stochastic terrorism. To repeat: Right-wing followers do not hesitate to inflict physical, psychological, financial, social, or other forms of harm on those they see as threatening the legitimacy of their belief system and their chosen authority figure. This includes anyone they see as being too different from their norm (like gays or racial minorities). It's also what drives their extremely punitive attitude toward discipline and justice. Notes Dean: "Authoritarian aggression is fueled by fear and encouraged by a remarkable self-righteousness, which frees aggressive impulses." There’s a clear and present danger coming from a leader promoting stochastic terrorism to a base which is also heavily invested in gun culture. It’s about time the media is starting to recognize it. (Some of them at least.) It’s also time for the rest of us to do what we can to counter it. Kingsbury is not wrong when he says we don’t have time to wait. 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