The 31% Landslide – The Great American Descent Into Authoritarianism

The 2024 US election has provided the world with a wonderful demonstration of everything that is ugly about the way we humans manage our affairs.
Firstly, the way the media jumped on the conclusion, with group-think spontaneity, that Trump won by a landslide was absurd. Out of the 244.6 million eligible voters in the US, 75.6 million voted for Trump.

So, the “landslide” consists of 31% of eligible voters. In fact, the real landslide was the 69% of eligible voters who did not vote for Trump.

The real winner was “none of the above,” . Given that the public trust in government is now at about 20% for the past three administrations – compared with 80% during the Kennedy years – this result should surprise no one.
The 3.2 million more people who voted for Trump than Harris, represent 0.4 percent of the 244.6 million eligible voters.
So, in reality, two-thirds of eligible US voters don’t want Trump, and he was more popular than Harris by a whisker.
Based on that marginal advantage, the final outcome is that the Trump machine now controls the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. Trump is behaving as if basically everybody had voted for “him” and is pretending he has a mandate to do whatever he wants. It is almost like a psychological coup. With the 169 million US-Americans who did not vote for him standing around in a hypnotic trance in the face of “The Man.”

The US was never designed to be a democracy – despite all the propaganda to the contrary – but this really takes the cake.

As Joanne Freeman – a professor of history at Yale University and author of The Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America – puts it: “It’s hard to say that the founders agreed on a lot, but they did agree that the greatest threat to any republic, but particularly a democratic republic, was a demagogue.”
She added, “What made these largely elitist founders nervous was that ‘the public’ would be easily persuaded, warped, led astray by someone who could get their emotions riled up.”
So, we can hardly blame those old white, male, slave-owners who wrote the constitution. They seem to have wanted to make it as hard as possible for the masses to elect someone like Trump.

They succeeded pretty well for a couple of centuries… but all things come to an end.

Finally, the cunning minds of the politicians – aided and abetted as always by the religions – have managed to destroy that imperfect system of checks and balances. The sight of so many of the “elites” enabling this demagogue – under the guise of sticking it to the elites – was just an example of the stunning hypocrisy that lies at the root of politics in general, and this particular episode in particular.
A critical factor in all this is the increasingly powerful way technology is being used to influence everyone’s opinion. The people are then “persuaded, warped, led astray…” or, as many people very publicly described it, brainwashed into a cult-like acceptance of our Dear Leader.
And here we are?

Even The New York Times, hardly a bastion of radicalism, balked:

“You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences.
“Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He is without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote.”
Yet, such a dramatic intervention by The New York Times didn’t move the needle.
It is easy to get lost in all the endless analysis as to what happened.
We kept hearing how US-Americans, perhaps among the richest people on the planet, were complaining about the economy – which was actually doing very well.

Or, as the Financial Times put it:

“While last month’s US election was fought against a backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, the country’s economic performance in recent years has been the envy of the developed world.”
And:
“Donald Trump will inherit a booming US economy when he enters the White House in January.”
We kept hearing how this country of immigrants was freaking out about more immigrants coming and stealing their rice bowls.

The truth is that immigration contributes nearly 20% of the US GDP, over $ 3 trillion dollars a year!

Clearly, there are a lot of poor people in the US. There are about 40 million living in poverty in this ocean of wealth, including a ton of kids – who may soon have Trump-approved Bibles in their classrooms with nothing much for lunch.
Did any of those complaining about the economy mention inequality? So, you are a little short of cash, and your hero’s hero has creamed a few hundred billion out of the system making cars and rockets, and you didn’t notice the sucking sensation in your pocket! So, you voted for your hero?

That is what the founders called being “led astray.”

Or climate change? You just watched whole towns being washed away by the impact of what your man calls a hoax. Yes, you are for sure “warped” if you still vote for him.
Then there were the black-skinned men who seem to have forgotten that Trump called the Black Lives Matter protesters “thugs”, while refering to the January 6th rioters as “special people” – and voted for him.

Was the average voter concerned about a minor issue of genocide in Gaza, fueled by US-American taxpayer’s dollars? Seems not.

Yes, some Muslims – as well as Jews and others – were understandably outraged. So, they also voted for Trump in protest. Trump is totally in the pocket of the Christian nationalist evangelicals. For fundamentalist Christians, the destruction of the Middle East is a necessary prelude to the final return of Jesus. At that point, all the Jews and Muslims will burn in hell for eternity. Voting for Trump in the hope of saving Palestine from mass murder was not a smart choice for Muslims, or Jews for that matter.
That tiny minority who cared about their own complicity in this genocide to take to the streets and really protest were generally threatened with violence and jail for daring to suggest something as subversive as a cease-fire!
Yes, their government’s support for the destruction of yet another Middle Eastern country is a major crime against humanity. But to imagine that Uncle Donald would care more about Palestinians’ rights….
Anyway, the general point is obvious. Zillions of ill-informed people were sprouting the Dear Leader’s talking points and voting as instructed.
If you step back a moment, a very different picture emerges. The endlessly discussed local causes of this US election result were mostly just rationalizations for something deeper and more global than threats to car production in Michigan.

Looking at the state of Planet Earth right now, one species is in complete control of everything except its own mind.

And those minds are 90% unconscious, and the unconscious part easily overwhelms the 10% that is conscious. As we all know.
Anyone who has decided today to definitely do something tomorrow – like go running, stop smoking, stop drinking, go to bed earlier, etc., etc. – knows that the conscious mind can blabber on about whatever it wants, but it is the unconscious that decides that “just one more won’t hurt.”
Or, put another way, if the unconscious has reasons to vote for Trump, it will grab any old rationalization, like the economy or migration, and genuinely believe that is the reason for the choice.
So, what else do we notice when we step back a moment?
We can see that this same species is in the most critical situation it has ever endured since the last time we nearly went extinct about 900,000 years ago.
The average IQ of the voters is 100.

So, many of them may not be “clever” in the usual sense of the word – and cunning priests and politicians may be able to persuade them about this and that – but they are not stupid!

They can see their country’s forests going up in flames. They can see whole towns being washed away in hurricane rains. They can see a lot of people leaving the more vulnerable parts of the planet for safer areas. They can see huge sums of money being poured into fueling insanely destructive wars around the world. They know it is only a matter of time before one of those nut-case politicians triggers a nuclear exchange.
Are they scared? Probably. Meanwhile, the key algorithm of the political right and the technologically greedy is to keep triggering more fear. Of course, a steady stream of violence, like invading Congress, or Nazi marches through town, or death threats and mass killings and such like, all help.

That constant threat of violence against women, blacks, transgenders, gays, Asians, Jews, Muslims – in fact, anybody who is deemed to be in a weaker position – fills the gap created by a total lack of a coherent message beyond the usual fascist dictum that “might is right.”

Are they easily duped into repeating meaningless noises about who is to blame for all this chaos? Of course. But they do know the shit is hitting the fan, big time. They know the whole system is rigged in favor of someone else, and there is little they can do but dodge the bullets. Above all, playing it safe is their only recourse.
Then, we notice this same trend emerging all over the world – the US is not exceptional in this.  Everywhere, people are being frightened into playing it as safe as they can. Always offering local reasons, which are never the reasons, just rationalizations for acting out of fear.

The result is that they are moving away from proposals for progressive solutions to this chaos and instead embracing reactionary ideologies.

Even in places where people actually get some kind of choice over who will rule over them, there is a clear swing towards authoritarian and fascist politicians. In Africa, coup after coup, one fiddled election after another, makes the peaceful transfer of power recently in Botswana seem positively quaint.
It is no surprise that the new autocrats greet each other’s success with relief like long-lost buddies. Trump’s chumminess with people like Russia’s Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is only surprising if you are not paying attention.
They all have their adoring masses genuflecting in front of them, waving their flags and hailing their ruler with the ultimate autocrat’s currency, loyalty.

They probably missed the insightful comment Osho is reported to have made about loyalty: “It is a wonderful quality. In a dog.”

Underneath all this Hitleresque posturing lies a deeper reality. People are being easily “persuaded, warped, led astray…” to believe that supporting the heirs to the holocaust could possibly be in their interest.
We have these insane psychopathic politicians indulging in mass murder. Just look at these people: Putin in Russia, Netanyahu in Isreal, Assad in Syria, the two lunatics in Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hamedti), or Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar….

These are the current reigning champion demagogues of human brutality.

Despite the evidence of where all this leads, that minority of US-American voters still voted for their own demagogue! “Easily persuaded, warped, led astray,” did you say?
You make all this fuss about the occasional individual killer, especially a serial killer or someone involved in a mass shooting. Oh yes, a mass shooting means more than three people killed. Shocking, right? And then you move towards supporting the same ideology of people who kill millions!
Of course, the moment Trump’s election was over – his as he ominously put it recently – he started wheeling out his “cabinet.” King Donald’s court of ring kissers, billionaires, power freaks, and sexual predators was announced. They have as much interest in, or in common with, those “working class” MAGA supporters as they would with people from Mars.
Ah, yes, Mars. The golden age of tourism will include a musky-flavored trip to Mars, which will be a tad pricey for the deceived car workers in Michigan. But it felt such a relief to have those cathartic moments of screaming, “Lock her up” and “Stop the steal.” For a moment, we really felt like the good guys enjoying our own “High Noon.”
Now it is all over. You have done your work. You are not needed now. I am in power. Take your MAGA hats and go home. Or, as Trump told the white nationalist Proud Boys, “Stand back and stand by.” You created this wonderful performance of rallies all over the country where “real” people were able to shout God Save the King, just like in the good old days, before the War of Independence.
So, here is the big question that everyone who finds fascism the ugliest of options is asking.

Why are progressive solutions so unattractive? Why do people choose these autocrats and their billionaire friends rather than support the people who clearly side with the oppressed – who are a vast majority?

Can’t they see how these progressives want to end the exploitation of the masses? Yes, that’s almost all of us. Don’t those on “the left” want everyone to have healthcare, childcare, education, decent housing, good paying jobs…? Don’t they want to reduce the brutal levels of economic inequality and eliminate the way those in power abuse the less powerful?

Those in power are a tiny minority ruling over a large majority, so why don’t you support the progressives who are with you, not against you?

37% of U.S. adults could not cover a $400 emergency expense completely using “cash or its equivalent” (meaning that you pay using cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement date). Of that 37%, 13% couldn’t pay by any means.
Compared with only 31% of the eligible voting population who chose the Republican’s Trump – the party of the rich, if nothing else. And the economy was “the” issue!

Those 37% alone could have won this election in something much closer to a landslide!

White men hold 62 percent of all elected offices despite being just 30 percent of the population. You can bet the ones who fill those “elected offices” come from a fairly small subsection of white males.

In reality, you are allowing a tiny minority of white, wealthy men to rule over everyone else.

They are naturally persuading you of the benefits of the good old days when white men ruled over everything – when women and children and people with less white skin, from “other” backgrounds and religions knew their place. So, if you want to make America Great Again… back we go!
How far back is not clear. To a time when blacks couldn’t vote? Or to the time when women couldn’t vote? Or to Jim Crowe time? Or slavery? Or to the time of the first genocide of the indigenous population? I mean, how great do you want to be?
Or perhaps you feel that is too simplistic. If so, Howard Zinn and Naom Chomsky can probably fill in some of the blanks to help you answer this question more precisely.
So, here we have the dilemma that anyone interested in a more humane world has to have the courage to face.

Why do the masses support reactionary leaders offering yesterday’s agenda rather than the promises of the progressives?

Even if you find today really unattractive…. For example, two-thirds of US-Americans say that the US is moving in the wrong direction. Ok. So, then, how did we get here? From the past, obviously. So, going back to the past is simply ridiculous. The past is what has given us the present. If you don’t like the present, the past is the last place to look for alternative solutions.
So, we are back to the fundamental question: why do progressive solutions fail to attract the support of even those for whom those solutions are directed. Not to mention all the other intelligent people on the planet who can see that reactionary huffing and puffing from people like Trump and Putin lead only to terrible places we have already been – and have rejected.
In the next part of this article, we will explain why this is.

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The post The 31% Landslide – The Great American Descent Into Authoritarianism appeared first on OSHOTimes.