Stupid or evil?
It's the perennial question that haunts those of us who support democracy when gazing upon the red-hatted minions of Donald Trump, who are working to destroy it. The everyday Republican voters who issue ungrammatical and fact-averse defenses of their beloved orange demagogue are a forever mystery. Are they really just too stupid to know that backing Trump means ending democracy? Or are they fascists who long for an American Reich, where all the people who made them feel bad for being racist will be made to suffer? On one hand, Trump supporters do sound like a bunch of morons, leading credence to the "stupid" theory. On the other hand, it's impossible to believe anyone could think a guy who attempted a coup is safe for democracy. Most Republicans hold down jobs and manage to dress and feed themselves, suggesting they aren't so braindead as to miss that Trump cannot wait to be a fascist dictator.
Regular readers know I'm Team They're Evil, in no small part because I grew up in red state America and know that Republicans like to play at being stupider than they are. But a recent Washington Post article interviewing Trump fans in Iowa underscores the point: Republicans who plan to vote Trump in the primary know that he has promised to be a dictator. They know he's not joking. They're just thrilled, because they loathe America's multiracial democracy and want to bring it to an end.
To be certain, many a Trump supporter claims to believe that he's merely "joking" when he says he wants to be a "dictator." Some may even keep a relatively straight face as they tell reporters, as one Republican, Clyde Carson, did, that Trump "was trying to fool with the media" and "he just done that because he knew the news would go crazy with it."
But it's worth unpacking this comment for a moment. The 53-year-old Carson admitted that he thinks it's good to lie to the media, who he has no doubt been trained to loathe after absorbing decades of right wing propaganda. As he notes, his hero, Trump, lies to the media. Which is not to single Carson out. The issue with believing anything Trump voters say to reporters is this: They hate reporters. They believe lying for the MAGA cause is righteous. Indeed, nothing is seen in MAGA-land as a better time than trolling reporters with lies and bullshit. And so their claims to believe Trump is "joking" must not be taken at face value.
Another woman, 66-year-old Leann Reed, couldn't even keep her story straight on whether Trump is "joking." Her comments are worth quoting at length:
“I don’t think he meant what everybody is saying, being a dictatorship — and actually you know right now under Biden, that’s probably what we got because he does what he wants to do and he’s not really listening to the voters,” Reed, 66, said. “I think we need somebody that’s going to move forward fast to clean up everything, and I think that’s what he meant.”
We take an entire journey from "he's joking" to falsely claiming Democrats did it first to arguing that fascism is a necessary evil — all within the space of a few seconds. These aren't folks who are confused about what they're voting for. They're people who want a dictatorship very badly, and feel justified in playing word games to get what they want.
Another woman didn't even bother to argue it's a joke, simply saying, "Like if you had a home that was in disrepair and your parents came in and they were firm and they wanted to get it done, and when you got done you had this beautiful home, how could you be mad?"
At this point, the space between Trumpism and Nazism is disappearing quickly. The "disrepair" we're talking about is not hard to suss out, when Trump is out there claiming immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." Four out of five his children were born to immigrant women, removing all remaining wiggle room that this phrase is anything but an assertion that non-white people are a subhuman taint. This is eliminationist rhetoric, which reduces human beings to "disrepair" that needs to be forcibly removed or destroyed.
All credit to Marianne LeVine and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post, who do not fall into the trap of giving Trump voters the benefit of the doubt of assuming they're all just a bunch of innocent rubes who don't know what they're saying. The article includes plenty of quotes from scholars explaining the history here and why Trump is not joking, as well as the many other times Trump falsely claimed to be "joking" when he was not. They remind readers he already attempted a coup and that his supporters cheer robustly every time he promises to install himself in power permanently. Most importantly, these Trump voters are quoted at length, so it becomes clear that they aren't really confused, so much as rationalizing their ugly impulses.
Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media is still unable to grapple with why Trump's fascism is not hurting him in the GOP primary. Flip on MSNBC on any given day and you're likely to hear pundits handwringing about what it will take to make people see that Trump is not joking. The assumption that his base is driven by ignorance rather than malice feels easier, because presumably, all it would take for them to wake up is to get educated.
But having a clear-eyed view of what is really driving the Trump base is critical. For one thing, the less credulity shown the "just joking" argument, the harder it is for the small-but-crucial number of swing voters to convince themselves there's nothing to worry about with Trump. More importantly, it will help progressives and Democrats conserve their energies. Trying to convince Trump's loyal supporters that he's a fascist is not worth your time. They know — it's why they like him. That's time and energy that needs to be directed towards turning out the vote for Democrats and educating the persuadable voters to take the Trump threat seriously. And that will be much easier to do if we don't get bogged down with bad faith arguments that he's "just joking."
