Political Sorcery

As every magician knows, you need a good distraction. If you are to fool an audience your means of distraction is critical for success. An attractive female assistant will get half your audience looking elsewhere. Add in a loud noise, a fast movement, a flash of light, a puff of smoke and you will have them all distracted so they don’t see what you are really doing.

As every politician knows, when you don’t want people to know what you are up to, it is best if you can keep them occupied with something else. Distraction in politics is a matter of survival. It is used to divert attention to further an ulterior motive. Focus their attention elsewhere and you can get away with almost anything. Inflation, abortion, racial hatred, antisemitism, gun regulations, immigrants, drugs, and crime are all good distractors. Better yet, roll up all the catnip trigger words into a four-letter one and call it WOKE. This can now be the loud noise that gets the villagers to light their torches and storm the castle.

When the natives are restless, they need attention. Ronald Reagan was called the Great Communicator; Donald Trump might be called the Great Bloviator. The term bloviation was once attributed to President Warren G. Harding who had perfected the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warranted without saying anything. Trump who is an insatiable consumer of television news perhaps understands best how to manipulate it. As his detractors get more and more aggravated, the MAGA base becomes more energized. As Trump’s narrative taps into an existing perceived fear, it becomes a proxy for a larger concern. The citizen victim needs a villain.

Original image was of Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator

Adolf Hitler was also a master of distraction. With a populous depressed after a crushing defeat in WWI, Hitler created his villains to explain that defeat, the failing economy, high unemployment, and the widening chasm between rich and poor. He was able to divide the Germans and, over time, he was able to indoctrinate them with lies, accusations, and innuendo. He tapped their fears and used antisemitic racism, which had been present for centuries, to provide an outlet for their frustration.

Donald Trump does much of the same. He is the spinning mirrored disco ball above the dance floor of a nation. He catches the spotlight from all directions and reflects it with dazzling effect. None of it makes any sense but it holds our attention. He dominates the media, all media. In one psychological biography, the author states of Trump, “He lives outside of time and narrative, like no other person I have ever encountered. He is the episodic man living forever in the combative moment, striving to win each moment, moment by moment, episode by discrete episode.”

Cue Donna Summer’s Last Dance and spin that disco ball one more time. For Donald Trump, perhaps the song should be Never Can Say Goodbye by Sister Sledge. (Super Freak would have been too on the nose.)