Thursday, August 01, 2024

'Lock Them Up'

“It was one of the greatest errors in evaluating dictatorship to say that the dictator forces himself on society against its own will. In reality, every dictator in history was nothing but the accentuation of already existing state ideas which he had only to exaggerate in order to gain power.”
― Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism


One riveting yet fraught moment in what has become Kamala Harris’s new stump speech comes when she portrays herself as a prosecutor going after her rival, Donald Trump, a felon.

This drives her followers into a virtual frenzy as they begin loudly chanting “Lock him up!” It is, of course, a rejoinder to Trump’s crowds’ chilling chants about his political rivals.

And it would be fair say Trump is finally getting a taste of his own medicine.

Still, there is a darker side to all this. So far, there is a subtle but important difference in how the rival candidates react when their followers start those chants. Trump encourages them, joins in and nods approvingly, clapping in rhythm; whereas Harris looks uncomfortable, smiles awkwardly and seems hesitant to embrace the potentially ugly mass sentiment she has tapped into.

The negative aspects of mass psychology set loose by a populist demagogue are not so easily squeezed back into the bottle once they have been uncorked; we know that from history. And there is more than one scenario for how everything could go terribly wrong here.

Trump’s blunt threat that if elected he intends to be a “dictator on day one” is only the most obvious one currently. 

Bolstered by the Supreme Court’s sweeping decision granting presidential immunity, future Commander-in-Chiefs may feel emboldened and justified to implement anti-democratic measures in a moment of crisis, say, after an assassination attempt or another January 6th-style insurrection. Under extreme circumstances, and freed from the traditional restraints, who knows what actions the occupant of that office might take?

What I am suggesting is that the fate of our democracy going forward may partly hinge on what our next president chooses not to do with all of that new power as opposed to what he or she actually does.

For now, for a harbinger of what may be to come, keep a close watch on how our would-be leaders react to those madly chanting crowds. 

And ask not for whom the mobs chant. They are chanting for you.

HEADLINES:

  • Russia agrees to free Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in multi-country prisoner swap (ABC)

  • How two strikes on militant leaders in the Middle East could escalate into a regional war (AP)

  • Fed opts to hold interest rates steady — but a cut could be coming in September (CNN)

  • About 8 in 10 Democrats are satisfied with Harris in stark shift after Biden drops out: AP-NORC poll (AP)

  • Harris wipes out Trump’s lead in polls of US presidential race (Al Jazeera)

  • Kamala Harris Carves Open Huge Polling Lead Over Donald Trump (Newsweek)

  • School taught JD Vance to see a divided nation — and to use that division (WP)

  • Republican senators divided over Trump sticking with Vance (The Hill)

  • Trump says Harris ‘became a Black person’ as NABJ event turns hostile, chaotic (WP)

  • Trump falsely questions Harris’ race as he appears at gathering of Black journalists (AP)

  • Trump’s outreach to Black men hits a stumbling block: Kamala Harris (WP)

  • The Haves and Have-Nots at the Center of America’s Inflation Fight (WSJ)

  • US-Mexico border arrests are expected to drop 30% in July to a new low for Biden’s presidency (AP)

  • Protesters took to the streets across Venezuela, demanding that President Nicolas Maduro acknowledge he lost Sunday's election to the opposition, as a major international observer concluded the vote was undemocratic. (Reuters)

  • Wildfire smoke is probably harming your brain (NBC)

  • After Furious Battles, Ukraine Loses a Pair of Hard-Won Villages (NYT)

  • Cars Are Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates? (Wired)

  • 3,500-year-old tablet in Turkey turns out to be a shopping list (LiveScience)

  • Senators Introduce Long-Awaited Bill to Protect Artists From AI Deepfakes (Rolling Stone)

  • Terrified Conservative Planning To Move To 1930s Austria If Trump Loses (The Onion)

 

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