ENEMY WITHIN

Correspondence

Patrick McCaughey

Don Watson is good at skewering American embarrassments, most notably “American exceptionalism” and the “American Dream.” For the past three decades I have lived in the US and still cringe when I hear the political classes call America “the greatest nation on earth.” This is even more awful when one is confronted with the spectacle of American inequality, persistent discrimination against minorities and women, and endemic gun violence. The American Dream seems an unbreakable bubble. The belief that everybody can rise and become rich if they simply “play by the rules, work hard and pay their taxes” is like a divine mantra. How can any politician say such things when the administration struggles to establish a minimum wage of $15 per hour? If you do the math, that would barely bring you over the poverty line if you worked a forty-hour week. 

Cognate to these embarrassments is the persistent belief that a failure in “leadership” has robbed America of its greatness, its exceptionalism, and denied its struggling citizenry the fulfilment of the Dream. The weakness of Barack Obama and the need for a strong leader became the rallying cry of the Republicans in 2016. To their horror, Donald Trump emerged in that role. Hillary Clinton was denied it because she is a woman and a self-serving career politician. 

The left like to throw the word “fascist” around on such occasions. Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, fascists? Hardly. Trump comes closer to wearing that Halloween costume. Watson is rightly measured on the topic, but the following words and actions would make the most moderate pause:

• Discredit the judiciary: Trump has claimed and never revoked the statement that the Mexican parentage of the federal judge hearing the case against Trump University should disqualify him.
• Muzzle the press: Watson’s vignette of the Republican campaign corralling the press at Trump’s rallies at the back of the room to make them a clear object of mockery to the crowd smacks of more than intimidation. Trump banned journalists from the Washington Post from travelling in his official press entourage. 
• Deploy the state against the individual: Trump has threatened to use the engines of the state to intimidate and harm individuals who oppose him. The most obvious case is that of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and proprietor of the Washington Post. Life would not be so easy for Amazon if I became president, so Trump mused to the press.
• Persecute a minority: Trump has overtly threatened a minority by claiming he’ll deport undocumented Latinos and their children, and also threatened to isolate Muslims in American society, who are portrayed as a perpetual threat from within.
• Demonise foreign powers: The threat from without is a common thread in totalitarian ideology and behaviour. Trump has demonised “Jina”, as he calls the People’s Republic. Once again, only the Strong Leader can prevail against such powers.
• Prey on women: The revelations following the release of the Access Hollywood tape about Trump’s sexual mores and behaviour strongly support the claim of his belief in the superiority of man, the Übermensch, now as reality TV star, who must have his way with women.

The drive and effect of these elements in Trump’s campaign have created the fearful electorate. Watson is very good on this: “Americans, who once admired courage above all human qualities, now seem to get high on fear. Not that we see them trembling; but we see and hear fear’s most common disguise, belligerence.”

Fear is contagious. African American communities are more deeply fearful of the police – of the forces of law and order in general – than ever in the post–Martin Luther King world, even when there are many African American cops on duty in the inner precincts of America’s troubled cities. Every month, unarmed black men are shot and killed by police. It’s as though the police can’t help themselves, knowing full well the dire consequences of such shootings – from triggering major communal riots to instigating federal investigations by the Department of Justice, to say nothing of individual prosecutions for manslaughter, and even murder. Trump promises to encourage “stop and frisk” policies, even though they have been ruled unconstitutional. Such a policy is rightly seen as the perfect way of intimidating African Americans. Any black man in a car driving through a white suburb or area is liable to be stopped, told to get out of the car, and shaken down by a police officer ostensibly looking for drugs or illegal handguns. The numbers of white men who are subject to such treatment could be counted on an abacus.

Fear spread to the liberal Democratic side of the table from time to time when Hillary had a bad week and Trump a good one – happily, a diminishing feature of the race. The question surfaced: what would be the consequences if he actually won the presidency? 

Here psephology – lovely word and action: the science of elections – and dark forebodings confront each other. Psephologically, Trump cannot win on white voters. There are not enough of them on the shaky Republican side to carry it off. He has made little headway with Latino and none with African American voters. He is widely disliked by white women, a key and reliable voting group. It would take an unprecedented wave of new voters to sweep him into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Thankfully, Trump believes in the Great Man Theory of History and refuses to prepare for debates, and disputes with those who try to prepare him. “Let Trump be Trump” is the best news for the Democrats.

If, however, the election outcome is close and Hillary emerges as the victor with a slender majority in the Electoral College, then Trump, always a sore loser and in this case a “yooge” one, would certainly resort to the courts to have the result overturned, and the rigged system that put Crooked Hillary in the White House exposed. It could be long, drawn-out, an ugly spectacle and damaging to the Republic.

Patrick McCaughey

Patrick McCaughey, a former director of the National Gallery of Victoria, has lived and worked in the United States since 1988. He has published widely on modern and contemporary art.