How to Avoid another Visit from the Goon Squad
By: Laurence Peters
Tags: Literacy, Capitol Hill, Trump, Biden, Employment

Dr Laurence Peters

Trump Supporters confronted outside the Senate Chamber, Wednesday January 6, 2021

Dr. Laurence Peters

What happened on January 6, 2021 was not only the unmistakable sign that American’s democracy was cracking but that its education system might also be in need of some intensive care. It was also a long over due wake up call for all of us coastal elites that had been taught to either ignore or deride that Trump base depending on your current mood.

The marriage between Trump and the rioters whom he inspired on January 6, was made long before he planned his last maniacal move to steal the election. Trump who spoke at an eighth-grade level and refused to read even his briefing books met his perfect set of supporters — a base that had the same trouble with reality as their reality show hero. This is not an elitist view. The evidence comes from Trump himself who once famously declared “I love the poorly educated.”

The fact that Trump never tried, in his entire four years of office, to expand beyond his base of largely white male voters living in rural and rust belt is something of a mystery. Was he simply incapable of reaching out to the rest of America with any kind of inclusive message? Was he too lazy? Or was he fearful that if he did so he would have to start making fact-based arguments that might in turn undermine his appeal to his most devoted fan base? Trump’s laziness was probably the primary factor but close behind was the sense of hero worship that he found when he riled up his crowds at his famous rallies. His peak set of pleasures seem to come from flooding the zone with rage and emotion. Phrases like “lock her up”, “build the wall” became his tools to fuel that turned the event into a sick form of political entertainment. As he did so he found how easy it was to plant inside the minds of his adoring fans his self aggrandizing view of reality. He joined their hate of elites with his disgust with the media for their willingness to correct his “facts” and fantasies. Trump not only gave the crowd permission to ignore mainstream media but to encourage them to refer to any facts that he did not like as “fake news” and any journalist who asked difficult questions as part of the “crooked media.” From there it was just another small step to embrace conspiracy theories and then to argue that any election that he would contest would naturally be “rigged” and giving him the right to dispute any election in which he was not the winner.

The scary part of it was he nearly won. He managed to bring over to his side another seven million new votes and were it not for his complete mismanagement of the pandemic he would have easily have gained a second term. Trump’s political success was in part due to his ability to manipulate his base but it helped that his audience were not readers. At least one study confirms the fact that “support for Trump was better predicted by lower verbal ability than education or income.”

Going forward we have to be concerned about this turn in our politics. A sense of grievance of being robbed a victory that was rightfully won is just about the most toxic element in politics. The “stab in the back” theory that Jewish international bankers were behind the unfavorable terms of the Versailles treaty was “the big lie” for Hitler that he used to gain power and start the most devastating war mankind has ever seen. History teaches us that big lies sooner of later have to be supported by more and more lies and then finally violence. We are on a course to more violence that not even America’s huge infrastructure of schools and colleges can easily snuff out. The people who believe Trump’s big lie are largely those that don’t read, that never listen to mainstream media who prefer their news parceled out short sound bites and want issues reduced down to slogans that can fit on a hat. They largely feel excluded from the world of modern America’s multi racism and feel unloved, forgotten and condescended to. Ignored by the liberal elites, their communities were devastated by the two most recent recessions and have not recovered as fast as those less isolated.

To avoid another visit from the goon squad Biden’s America will have to not reach out if not to these Trump voters. Some of the same people in the White House who had the imagination to invite Garth Brooks to sing at the inaugural need to visit the decaying parts of the rural and working class America. They need to understand that globalization might lightly touch an urban or suburban area with the loss of a few factories, but in these areas all they have is the one major plant or factory and when it closes the town also dies. With no social net, no economic future, it is no wonder that many of these communities have been the same communities consumed by the opiod crisis and the spike in youth suicides. Trump lied his way into the hearts of this population by falsely promising that jobs could return to these communities if only he renegotiated trade deals or put up a wall to prevent migrants taking people’s jobs. Hope for these communities can only come now through the federal government. That does not mean dependency — it means investments in infrastructure, in education and job training have to be led by the federal sector working in partnership with the private sector. Progress will not come magically by wishing to return to a US where after the war this country controlled forty percent of the world’s trade. That world has gone. President Biden should together with relevant congressional committees set up hearings in which the pain of these communities can be expressed and bipartisan solutions crafted with clear goals and measurable outcomes. This is a moment where good governing counts — and we have to do it now not just to avoid another visit from the Goon Squad but to help a country desperate for healing.

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