The Politics of Fear and Hate

Fear and hate have been political tools for centuries, if not millennia. Portraying various groups of people within as well as outside of countries and territories as different, inferior, an economic, social, ideological, religious or military threat, has not only been the justification for countless wars, genocide and oppression, but has often been used to gain and consolidate political power. Trump certainly didn’t create this playbook, but was savvy and/or lucky enough to be able to use it to help worm his way into the White House, using illegal immigrants as the object of his venom. If you substitute the word Jews for illegal immigrants in Trump’s speeches and tweets, it’s not that much of a stretch to harken back to Nazi propaganda. One of his recent tweets even blatantly dehumanizes these people by describing them as “infesting” the country!  In Trump's case this political strategy is also conveniently and inextricably linked to his personal need to always have one or more defined adversaries or enemies to demonize and battle against, whether a specific individual such as Hillary Clinton and/or a group such as the media. It is sad but not really surprising how he has been able in such a short time to stoke and legitimize so much suppressed or at least silent bigotry among his supporters, while of course denying that he is doing so. Although Trump is the most conspicuous and successful example of this strategy on the current world stage, he is unfortunately not alone. In addition to its prevalence among various dictators, this ugly political pattern is regaining both popularity and effectiveness in much of the western world along with the recent rise in nationalistic sentiment and movements, including here. This is partly a consequence of the progressive decline of the middle class and associated economic fears, exacerbated by the 2008 global recession and consequences of economic globalization, the dramatic rise in recent years in migration from areas of war, instability and extreme poverty, including from Syria into Europe, and the relatively recent rise in global terrorism. These factors are not going away anytime soon, even after Trump and his presidency are just a horrible memory. This all bodes poorly for the future of this country as well as the rest of the world.