Demonize the other!
That mantra is propelling Donald Trump to sustained leadership in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. First Trump vilified Hispanics and now it is Muslims – and in between it has been fellow candidates and even Senator John McCain. As result Trump has had little incentive to offer policy statements. And why should he? He is riding a tide of self-congratulatory kudos and a belief in his own ability to solve any problem anytime because well, he’s the Donald.
A friend of mine claims that the real reason people gravitate to the Trump is less his ideology – what little of it there is – but more especially the fact that he is a winner. Three bankruptcies aside, Trump is a billionaire and his name is known worldwide as an upscale hotelier and purveyor of branded merchandise and the author of several best-selling self-improvement books.
People love a winner, especially when they are afraid, not simply of terrorists but also for their own well-being, including financial security. Trump followers, if the polls are to be believed, are not committed voters; they are attracted to his “in your face style” and his aura of glitz and gumption. What he says is less important than what he represents: success.
Success has provided Trump with a platform upon which to pontificate about his own greatness as well as the baseness of anyone who disagrees with him. What fuels his message is ignorance. Human beings fear what they do not understand especially if that fear has some link to reality. And it does. Islamic terrorists have ripped open the Middle East and their savagery has spread to Europe and now to the United States. We are right to be concerned as well as vigilant.
What we cannot be is afraid. Cautious yes but not afraid! Fear is the objective of terrorism. This year, like many American business people, I have traveled to the Middle East; friends of mine have expressed skepticism at my trips, wondering if I was smart to visit a place where Americans may be at risk. Well, these days Americans – or anyone in the Western World – is at risk. We cannot control what a fanatic will do; we can only control how we will react.
Fear only makes us weak. When we are afraid we fall prey to baser instincts. We become vulnerable to hateful messages that seek to portray others as subhuman. This is a trick that dictators throughout history have used. It has been used our country too notably by segregationists.
There is a curious irony in Trump’s fear mongering. As a businessman he is “dealer in hope” – as Napoleon would say. He does not give into fear; he trusts himself to make the right deal for the right reasons. As a candidate Trump does just the opposite. He traffics in fear as he squashes reason and diminishes the hopes of others.
Our response to fear should not be silence. We must be vigilant not simply against those who would do us harm but against those seeking our votes who are harming our value system. If we succumb to jingoist hatred we lower ourselves to the level of those who do us harm. We play right into their hands.
Leaders are right to call out enemies. We must defeat them certainly. But true leadership must be rooted in more than what we are against. It must be grounded in who we are what we want to become.
Leadership requires vision; it also requires hope of a better tomorrow. When your message is only to demonize you have only vitriol; you have no plan. Maya Angelou, who has known the sting of oppression, has said, “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.”
