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When the messenger is the message

In his essay “The Dictator’s New Playbook: Why Democracy is Losing the Fight,” journalist and author Moises Naim argues that a new crop of leaders has emerged in some of the world’s richest and poorest countries. Unlike past totalitarian strongmen, these populist leaders came to power via elections and not revolutions or military coups.

Among the “new autocrats” are Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, India’s Narenda Modi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in the United States. While these men have different world views they all revel in “post-truth politics” (defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the public burial of “objective facts” by an avalanche of media that “appeals to emotion and personal belief”) to undermine democratic values and norms to amass power.

Populism is not a political and/or economic ideology. Rather, it’s a technique for seeking and maintaining power and is compatible with almost any world view. Naim states that while the techniques used by populist leaders are hardly new, the explosion of internet information and media outlets “has created opportunities for deception, manipulation, and control that simply didn’t exist as recently as a decade ago.”

Populists construct a dichotomy (the very definition of populism) wherein all politicians and controversies can be collapsed into two camps: the “noble people” and the “venal elite.” Populist leaders decry that every political, economic and cultural problem is the consequence of a craven plan by a small group of powerful men — the venal elite — who have nothing but contempt for the masses they callously exploit. According to populist leaders, Naim states, what the people need is a “messianic savior, a champion, able to stand up to that voracious elite, to make it heel on behalf of the people.”

The strength of populism is adaptability — it can be deployed by power hungry individuals anywhere, especially in societies where economic inequality has increased. I would add this adaptability is especially effective in ethnically and racially diverse societies such as the United States. Minority groups can be singled out (and attacked) for being favored by, or complicit with, the corrupt, venal elite. Consider the rise of white supremacists in the Trump presidency, neo-Nazi marchers chanting “Jews will not replace us.”

Payton Gendron, who shot 13 people at a Buffalo supermarket, (10 were killed) including 11 Black people, repeatedly cited the “Great Replacement Theory” in a rambling manifesto. Gendron claimed that white people are being replaced by non-whites (including immigrants) as part of an elaborate Jewish conspiracy to slant elections in favor of Democrats.

Naim states that in a “healthy democracy” citizens can support a leader on most issues “without necessarily feeling the need to support him or her on every issue.” Not so with populist leaders, who decide “which views define membership and true citizenry.” In so doing, they “extract from their followers “complete and unconditional loyalty to all their views …”

For example, Trump claimed the 2020 election was stolen and the majority of his followers seemed to accept this conclusion without a shred of evidence to substantiate it. A recent University of Massachusetts poll found that 25% of Republicans surveyed said the presidential election was “probably not legitimate” and 46% said it was “definitely not legitimate.” Trump’s defeat strengthened “Trumpism” as it reinforced the former president’s cardinal precept — the evil ones will do anything to stop him.

Populist leaders readily lie to create and maintain their idealized public image as they perpetuate “post truthism” — an environment wherein facts are considered irrelevant or less important than personal beliefs and opinions. Truth is divorced from any correspondence to reality. With populism, truth derives from the identity of the person stating it.

For example, Trump persuaded rioters who assaulted the U.S. Capitol their behavior was the highest order of patriotism, “a brave stand in favor of election integrity.” This is textbook Mussolini, who told his followers they must “credere, obbedire, combattere” — believe, obey and fight.

Naim states that supporters of autocratic populist leaders are like fans of sports teams who place their emotional identification with the team at the center of their sense of self. Think rabid Red Sox and Yankee fans. There is a melding of one’s identity with the identity of the leader to such an extent that any criticism of the leader is perceived as an attack on oneself.

The primary threats to democratic societies in the 20th century came from the outside: fascism, Nazism and communism. In this century, the principal challenge comes from within, populist leaders and their followers. Consider voting, the fundamental characteristic of democracies. Since 1776, in the U.S., voting has become increasingly inclusive as the franchise gradually extended from white male property holders (in some states only white male Christian property holders) to African Americans, women, Native Americans, and younger adults. (With passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18).

As of March 2021, Republican lawmakers in 43 states have proposed over 250 laws that would limit mail, early-in-person and Election Day voting with numerous constraints, such as stricter ID requirements, curtailing hours to cast ballots and narrowing eligibility to vote absentee. In Georgia, it’s now illegal to hand out food and water to people standing in line to vote.

Voting restriction measures have, or are highly likely to, become law in the 23 states wherein Republicans control both the governorship and the state legislatures. According to a New York Times editorial, these restrictions will especially impact African American and urban residents, making voting more difficult “for tens of millions of voters.”

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University, states the genius of Trump’s “stolen election” lie is that it prevents his die-hard followers from having to deal with the truth that he lost. I would add it also gives them a justification to challenge or discount future elections.

Near the end of his life, someone allegedly asked John Adams (1735-1826) how long he thought the United States would endure. The former president said he hoped 150 to 175 years. Using the latter figure, perhaps he was only 25 or 30 years off.

George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.

Sources

Collins, B. and M. Kosnar (2922) “The Buffalo Shooting suspect posted an apparent manifesto ‘Great Replacement’ theory,” May 14, NBC News, www.aol.com

Gardner, A (2021) “How the GOP-backed voting measures could create hurdles for tens of millions of voters,” November 11, The New York Times, www.nytimes.org

Karimi, F. (2021) “It’s now illegal in Georgia to give food and water to voters in line,” March 26, CNN, www.cnn.com

Kruse, M. (2022) “The one way history shows Trump’s personality cult will end.” April 16,

Politico Magazine, www.politico.com

McCloskey, J. (2022) “Buffalo supermarket shooter’s chilling 180-page manifesto said ‘great replacement theory’ of whites being outnumbered drove him to kill – and New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant was his inspiration,” May 14, Daily Mail, www.dailymail.co.uk

Naim, M. (2020) “The Dictator’s New Playbook – Why Democracy is Losing the Fight,” March/April, Foreign Affairs, pp144-154

“State partisan composition” (2022) National Conference of State Legislators, www.ncsl.org

“Toplines and crosstabs December 2021 national poll: presidential election & Jan 6th insurrection at the US Capitol” December 28, University of Massachusetts, http://polisci.umass.edu

“Voting Rights: A Short History” (2019) November 18, Carnegie Corporation of New York,

www.carnegie.org

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