Richard Spencer, the president of the alt-right National Policy Institute, used anti-Semitic remarks over the weekend, saying „Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory.“ (CNN)
„Alt-right“-Movement. National Policy Institute. Hier sind die weissen Ultras zu Hause, die Trumps nationalistische Basis bilden. Die Völkischen feiern den Sieg ihres Führers: „Heil, Trump!“ (click for video). Derweil lässt der HeilKundige die demokratische Presse wissen, dass er nichts mit ihr zu tun haben will. Botschaften per Video müssen reichen. Ansonsten gilt, was Jerrold im Folgenden aus den USA berichtet: „Trump feeds his base!“ Wir kennen das.
Just substitute „Hail“ to „Heil“ and you see the code being applied to Trump by his alt-Right/White Nationalist/White Supremacist base. They do/say what he can’t. His clenched right fist salute is the White Nationalist gesture. His son Jr is a clear member and has attended/spoke to them.
All of this may be Trump theater – displays to feed his base. Trump uses code and often feeds his base.
The video shows how Bannon leads Trump with setup questions. Trump loves this sort of flattery and magnifies his outrageousness to fit the needed boost to his base.
Now it doesn’t really matter if many recognize Trump’s re-use of fascist-era phrases/actions/gestures. It works for Trump’s base and, in his thinking, it is fine. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t prefer the authoritarian governing process and devoted legions attentive to his words/actions/suggested acts by his base. It does indicate that he’s aware of this and has chosen to make it work for him.
Lets just assume that those attracted to Trump don’t recognize how like „Larry the Cable Guy“ he is, pursuing the meme of „git ‚er done“. But he is. His attraction began by violating „political correctness“ notions – just what the „White working class“ base wanted to hear. He then exploded outward attacking all elites/politicians as „useless eaters“ and his base roared. He demeaned all „insiders“ and his ratings grew.
He lied, twisted facts, claimed outrageous policies and the media focused on him – he built their ratings and they gave him billions worth of presence, after all, they had become news-as-entertainment. The more outrageous he was, the bigger his numbers and the bigger media ratings grew. Trump was enriching the media while growing his support.
We’ve seen so much media focus on knowing this base – they built the base with their coverage of Trump. His primaries performance was the equivalent of a World Wide Wrestling „Smackdown“ – he smashed rivals by demeaning them and his base roared. Then he won the primaries and targeted Clinton – viciously. No limits, no nice speech – just kill or be killed worked for his base and the media. He loomed all over the Debate stage, interrupted her frequently, repeatedly claimed she was „wrong“ all the time. He practiced sexist behaviors and nastiness, crushing Clinton’s mastery of political organizing/polling.
Trump sensed that attacking all those „cutout copy“ rivals viciously would grow his base. They had lost careers/jobs to modernization, outsourcing of industries and found themselves majorly disadvantaged by the way their nation ignored them. The believed that legal and undocumented immigrants were taking their jobs, working for less, demographically escalating their numbers so that they are about to become the national majority, criminals ruining „their“ nation.
Trump promised he would bring their jobs back. That’s a huge lie since the energy industry has already stopped investing in coal, other outsourced industries are only focused on low labor costs so they won’t come back – but Trump promises what he can’t deliver. His base eats it up. What will happen when they realize that he lied to them? Hugely. Bigly.
He claimed he forced Ford to not move a factory to Mexico – when it wasn’t thinking about that at all. Another lie but having an impact on his base.
Trump now resists any „blind trust“ approach by claiming his children will run everything. That’s another outrageous approach good for his base – they love his tweaking the noses of the elites and pols. He wants to stay in NYC and visit the White House on weekends – another snub loved by his base (but nightmare traffic demands for NYers). He’s picking flawed people to hold positions for which they’re obviously unsuitable – also loved by his base. The more he snubs the expected, the more his base loves him.
Although, as much of the nation suffers from trauma, his base is gloating but will they see relief? His struggle with Congress grows but he simply dismisses them – his base roars. He has Ivanka in on a meeting with Japan’s Abe but this raises huge conflict of interest problems. He ignores it all. He wants Jared to have security clearance despite anti-nepotism laws – another conflict of interest issue. He ignores it all.
Jerrold Atlas, Psychohistoriker, Vermont/USA
