Rational debate withers away in the Trump years

About 60 per cent of Americans don’t trust Donald Trump, writes James Zogby

Americans are divided over Donald Trump. Alex Brandon / AP Photo

Over the years, there have been many divides that have defined the American social, cultural and political landscape. Some have been philosophical, regional, issue-based, racial, economic, gender or age-related. But none has been as deep or as disturbing as the divide that is currently fracturing the American people.

This one is different because it crosses demographic lines (except for race) and isn’t as much about ideas or issues as it is about Donald Trump himself. I’m not sure if he is the source of this rupture or if he is a symptom of it. But whether it is one or the other or both, it should be clear that this division is about Mr Trump. In listening to conversations about the president, it feels as if the United States is now two separate nations, with each seeing him and what he represents so differently.

About 60 per cent of Americans don’t trust Mr Trump. They see him as impulsive and erratic. They are either disgusted or embarrassed by his behaviour and they are frightened at the prospect of the lasting damage they fear he will do to the country.

This past week, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of lengthy editorials that captured the mindset of this 60 per cent. Collectively they constituted a scathing indictment of the dangers posed by Mr Trump. They charged him with demonstrating "an utter disregard for truth", giving voice to race-based conspiracy theories,"targeting the darkness, anger and insecurity that hide in each of us and harnessing them for his own purposes" and "undermining public confidence" in a free press, an independent judiciary and the electoral process.

In one particularly devastating paragraph the Times's editorial board wrote: "What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies, real and imagined, his craving for adulation – these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped him get elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous."

While I identify with those views, I recognise how important it is to remember the nearly 40 per cent of Americans who hold a dramatically different view of the president. They see him as a truth-teller who represents their best hope to restore traditional values they feel are in danger of being lost. They have placed their trust in him and believe that he is the strong and principled leader who defends them and fights for their interests. They are true believers who reject any criticism of their president.

It is difficult to understand how evangelicals could vote for and continue to support a thrice-married hedonist. Or why so many women would vote for and continue to support a misogynist who has spoken of women in such degrading terms. Or why honest, hard-working Americans facing economic hardships could put their faith in an individual who in his multiple bankruptcies has brought economic ruin to tens of thousands of folks just like them.

Equally confounding is how, in an election year when elites were rejected, when voters railed against politicians who couldn’t be trusted to defend the interests of the common man and when a key concern for many was the class-based issue of the “rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer”, some voters chose and still stand by a president who was born rich and parlayed “pay-for- play politics” to get richer.

The academic part of me can understand what’s going on, nevertheless, I am troubled. I did my post-doctoral work studying movements that spring up in societies under stress – where severe or prolonged social and political dislocation have produced societal shock sufficiently disturbing to leave portions of the population vulnerable and open to messages and messengers who can explain their plight and rationalise their anxiety.

They respond to and often place blind trust in leaders who provide answers to their confusion and a sense of security that can resolve their stress. This can be as harmless as a feel-good preacher whose message acts as a palliative or it can be dangerous as in the many times in history when we have seen the emergence of leaders who prey on fear and vulnerability and foment division and anger and violence.

I know how this works and have studied it in other societies. I must confess, however, to being deeply distressed when I see it playing out in front of me. Intellectually I know what’s going on; emotionally, I just can’t. And I worry. Because the divide – between those who believe that Mr Trump will save America and those who are convinced he will bring ruin – has grown so deep that even rational discussion has become impossible.

Dr James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa