Month: March 2020

THE AUDACITY OF AUTHENTICITY WITHOUT VIRTUE

What do you call a president who, in the middle of a deadly pandemic, repeatedly spews falsehoods, insults political opponents and praises himself?  A-U-T-H-E-N-T-I-C. You call him authentic.

After all, the 2016 presidential election was all about authenticity (here, here and here). The pundits and the pollsters kept telling us that, for all of his failings, Donald Trump was seen by voters as being authentic. The Donald won the election, the story line went, because he was real and Hillary Clinton was fake.  This bizarre binary standard for evaluating politicians extended into 2020. Reams have been written about potential Democratic presidential candidates and their authenticity or lack thereof. 

Why are we treating authenticity – irrespective of the content of a person’s character – as a virtue?  Clearly, Trump is no phony. He’s the real deal. But the deal is terrible. He is authentically bad, immoral and indifferent to the needs of others. Why is that kind of authenticity virtuous? How did we get here?

Well, don’t blame Aristotle. The architecture he provided for ethical systems that lasted centuries revolved around such virtues as courage, honor, temperance, truthfulness, justice and friendship. Authenticity did not make his list. In fact, Aristotle went in the opposite direction, advising us to emulate others who have these virtues until they become habitual with us. 

Then, in the 18th century, a Genevan philosopher named Jean-Jacques Rousseau, advocated an alternative view, one in which authenticity – being true to one’s self – sits atop his ethical hierarchy. Rousseau, according to academicians who studied him, saw pure, unvarnished authenticity as the most important source of happiness and psychological coherence. He believed that people are naturally good and that their authentic selves cannot harm others since “their self-love is moderated by concern for others.”   Rousseau developed this school of thought roughly 300 years before Donald Trump roamed the earth.

The late social critic and academic Christopher Lasch was, however, very aware of the self-absorbed Trumpian archetype. More than 40 years ago, he wrote a book called The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. In it, Lasch noted the similarities between Narcissistic Personality Disorder and authenticity. He wrote that narcissism and authenticity are both characterized by “. . . deficient empathetic skills, self-indulgence and self-absorbed behavior.” In other words:  An authentic narcissist is still a narcissist. And wholly without virtue.

The political fascination with authenticity did not begin with Trump. It exploded with him and, if we are lucky, it will end with him. But this bizarre phenomenon has been building for some time. Think back to the Bush v. Gore election in 2000.  The rap on Gore was that he was too stiff and had a propensity to overinflate his resume. Bush, despite – or maybe because of – an  antipathy toward good syntax, struck people as more real, the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with.  

This desire for authenticity in leadership is certainly understandable. Politicians have long been seen as crafty, cagey characters who say one thing and do another, who appear overly buttoned down and tightly scripted.  Add to those perceptions the current environment of rampant distrust and disgust with our government and political systems, and you can begin to see the attraction of someone who simultaneously wants to trash the status quo and appears to be genuinely authentic.  

Like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.  Yes, they are lightyears apart in so many ways.  Yet their appeal has embraced the same two elements: being authentic and promising to blow the system up.  Sanders’ brand of authenticity is considerably different than Trump’s.  Bernie is not a narcissist.  But his fans constantly boast about how their candidate hasn’t changed in 40 years.  Indeed, there is a lot of truth to that.  Sanders has forever believed in the dictatorship of the proletariat, the evil of capitalism and value of class warfare.  

In many ways, Sanders’ authenticity is more pure and moral than Trump’s.  In the finest Rousseauian tradition, Bernie is stridently faithful to his principles. They reflect his true self and he is not of a mind to modify them in order to enlarge his base.  Therein lies a serious problem for a presidential candidate. His allegiance to an ideology makes him authentic, endears him to his followers and advances his movement. But given his narrow appeal to a minority of the electorate, and the absence of the slightest rhetorical nod to wanting to be “president for all Americans”, he lacks the votes to win.  To Bernie, being true to himself is more important than winning.

That is decidedly not the case for Donald Trump.  To him, it’s all about winning. He has no ideology or core beliefs. His positions on . . . well, on everything, change with the wind, depending on what he thinks will help him win.  He spent the first three weeks of the coronavirus crisis insisting it was a hoax that would soon go away. Then he became a “wartime president”, leading the battle against the dreaded enemy virus. As cases started doubling every few days, as temporary morgues were built near hospitals, he talked about a quick return to normal. On Sunday, responding to a bipartisan outcry, he backed away from abruptly ending the war, saying, “Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won.”

 All of these dramatically disparate moves were about only one thing: Trump’s perception of what would best help him win reelection.  That’s authenticity. That’s being true to his narcissistic self. 

It has been said that this life-and-death crisis we are going through will forever change us. Let us hope that one of those changes is a massive rejection of the notion that we should pick our leaders on the basis of unbridled authenticity, regardless of how obnoxious and odious a candidate’s behavior may be.  

Aristotle had it right. Virtue doesn’t lie in being true to whatever kind of self we may have. Virtue is about qualities like courage, honor, honesty and justice that provide a better life for all of us.  Authenticity without virtue is no more than a fool looking into a mirror.

OUR COMPOUNDED VIRAL CRISIS: COVID-19 & TRUMP

And on the 56th day of the pandemic, Donald Trump crawled out from under his rock of make-believe and denial, to declare: “This is a bad one. This is a very bad one.”  Gone was talk of the coronavirus being a “Democratic hoax.” Gone were assurances that “it will work out well,” and will soon “just go away.” Could it be that The Donald has finally seen the light? Either that or, as the New York Times reported, he saw a new scientific warning that, without drastic actions, 2.2 million Americans could die. Worse yet (for him), he could lose the election.

Many of us thought Trump hit rock bottom when he had children snatched from their parents’ arms and tossed into cages. Wrong. For this volatile and mercurial president, there is no bottom in sight. All we have, as the past few weeks have shown, is a metastasizing obliteration of everything we value in a leader. Like decency, humanity, empathy, humility, insight and competence.

Historians will one day divide the Trump administration into two chronological periods: before and after the plague of COVID-19. Americans rarely experience the fear and pain of a crisis at the same time. Hurricanes, fires, tornadoes and the like devastate regionally, leaving the rest of us to breathe an empathetic sigh of relief as we send thoughts and prayers to the victims.  Not since the 2001 terrorist attacks, have we suffered together as a nation, experiencing the same foreboding – over both the present and the future. There is now, as there was then, a dramatic loss of social equilibrium.

Our world, as we know it, is shutting down.  Churches, schools, restaurants and workplaces have been shuttered. Flights, sporting events, Broadway plays and community festivals have been canceled. From the dark depths of our existential isolation, we ponder the unknowable and unthinkable: How long will this last? Will I lose my job? Will my 401(k) come back? Will I, or people I love, get this virus and die?

This national angst and anxiety cried out for leadership, someone to soothe our souls, acknowledge our pain and provide us with credible information and constructive steps to deal with the crisis.  Bill Clinton did that after the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed. George W. Bush did that after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Barak Obama did that after the Charleston church shooting.

Donald Trump, however, will go down in history as the only president who grabbed hold of a national crisis and made it worse.  Rather than trying to unite the country by appealing to “the better angels of our nature”, as Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War, Trump turned a deadly virus into a bitterly partisan litmus test. He insisted that talk of an epidemic was designed to hurt him politically.   Until just recently, when U.S. cases of the virus began to grow exponentially, national polling confirmed the absurd and unprecedented results of this politicization of a disease.  Democrats were seriously concerned about the coronavirus. Republicans were not (here, here and here).  

To be sure, Trump did not cause this virus. What he did, however, was inexplicable, inexcusable and downright dumb. This president totally shut down the very essence of who he is. Gone was the bombastic, I-alone-can-fix-it authoritarian, a guy who routinely abandons the rule of law in order to have his way with the world. 

This is the same president who told border patrol agents to break the law in order to keep immigrants from entering the country, promising to pardon them if they were arrested.  He started his presidency by slapping a constitutionally dubious Muslim travel ban together, letting the courts sort it out later. He did the same with cutting off funds for sanctuary cities, placing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, funding his Mexican wall, among many other issues. He moved quickly, unilaterally and often illegally, but won more than he lost in subsequent litigation.

Here’s a thought experiment: Turn back the clock to January 21, when the first U.S. coronavirus case surfaced. Imagine Trump, in his finest bellicose and authoritarian persona, doing what he did Monday with his “bad one” rhetoric, and ordering, in an abundance of caution, a ban on groups of 10 or more gathering together.

Imagine further that he declared a national emergency back then, instead of waiting two months, and issued an executive order closing all schools, non-essential businesses and public transportation, all to protect Americans from the tragic experiences of other countries.   Sure, some of us liberals would have yelled about his authoritarian overreactions. The ACLU might have gone to court.  But, if come May or June there was a substantially smaller spread of the virus here than in other countries, Trump would claim hero status. And for the first time in his life, such self-adulation would have credibility. With mere months to go before the election.

Of course, that would have involved concepts foreign in Trump’s orbit, like strategic thinking, science and planning ahead.  This is a president who lives only in the moment. All that matters to him is how he looks in that moment. He didn’t want the stock market to tank and make him look bad.  So when the Dow took a big dip, he insisted the Democrats created the virus as a hoax to torpedo the economy and hurt his reelection chances.  He insisted there was nothing to worry about and encouraged people to take no precautions.  As the number of infected Americans began to rise, he told one lie after another. When there were 14 cases, he claimed the number would soon drop to zero. The number is now more than 5,000.  He insisted millions of people would be tested. The United States, to this day, remains the least tested among industrialized countries.  He said a vaccine was at hand. It is not.  

As a result, our country is engulfed in two crises of astronomical proportion.  One is COVID-19, a disease caused by a fast-spreading virus that will, according to medical experts, infect at least a third of the country, potentially killing millions of us. The other crisis is one of deplorable and morally bankrupt leadership, a president who can’t see beyond his own ego needs, one who – slogans notwithstanding – has never put the American people first. 

Scientists are confident that the virus will eventually be controlled.  As for our other crisis, the only shot we have at eradicating the poison from our democracy is the ballot box.  May November 3 bring us the vaccine we need to restore dignity and decency to the American presidency.

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING BUT TRUMP REMAINS THE MASTER OF HIS OWN CHAOS

The Russians are supposedly working hard to tamper with our elections. Their goal, according to intelligence agencies, is to sow confusion and disarray.  How utterly redundant of them. Don’t they realize their guy Trump has already infused our democracy with perfect chaos?   Here in the fourth year of our Kafkaesque nightmare, there is zero demand for imported havoc. 

This bizarre dichotomy of home grown versus off-shored chaos reached a daunting and ironic crescendo recently when Trump fired his national intelligence director for, in effect, doing his job. The agency reported that Russia was up to its old election interference tricks in an effort to confuse Americans by blurring fact from fiction and eroding their confidence in democratic institutions.  The Donald, of course, has always guarded fact blurring and confidence erosion as part of his exclusive jurisdiction.  

For that reason, and because his ego enters apoplexy at the mere suggestion that he can’t get elected without Russia’s help, Trump stirred the chaos pot by firing the intelligence director over the detection of Russian election interference designed to create chaos.  Somewhere in that mess is a delicious irony. And a question: Why knock yourself out, Russia, when your candidate is doing such a superb job of turning the country into a cauldron of confusion and obfuscation all by himself?

Intelligence experts say Russia’s main weapons in its disinformation war against us are phony news items and social media messages aimed at attacking many of Trump’s opponents and turning American voters against each other.  Really?  That’s it?  The South Carolina Democratic debate – back when there were seven candidates – resembled an inelegantly choreographed fight scene from West Side Story. As far as social media attacks go, nothing spewing from a Russian bot can be more mean or vitriolic than the daily political discourse among real-life friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter.  And we have somehow survived all that. So far.

What may be far less survivable, however, is the tsunami of chaos that Donald J. Trump creates – and basks in – on a daily basis.  During just the past week, for example, our president managed to produce a level of mass confusion that had to be the envy of every Russian troll farm. During our national panic attack over the $400-a-bottle-Purell-coronavirus, Trump, rather than offering clear and accurate guidance, spouted the obfuscatory gibberish of a Veg-O-Matic salesman.

Trump said the disease will soon disappear, “like a miracle,” probably in April when the weather is warmer.  Government health experts said the epidemic is likely to be bad and long.

Trump told a campaign rally in North Carolina that the coronavirus is a plot by Democrats to make him look bad. “This is their new hoax,” he said.  Government health experts said this is a “very serious virus” and Americans must prepare to deal with it.

Trump said the virus is no more lethal than the flu and minimized it through branding, calling it the “corona flu”.  Government health experts said the coronavirus is far more dangerous than the flu.

Trump said tests for the virus are available for anyone who wants one.  Government health experts said there is a serious shortage of tests.

Trump said a coronavirus vaccine will be available any day now. Government health experts said it will take more than a year to develop a vaccine.

In other words, who needs Russian subterfuge to stir chaos and panic in our body politic?  Trump has this stuff down pat. Sure, Russia is proficient at creating fake websites and social media posts to deviously spread false information on their political opponents.  But Trump has also mastered this niche of deception.  Check out this phony Joe Biden site. At first glance, it looks real and official. Then come the pictures and videos of Biden touching, hugging and patting the shoulders of various women and young girls. It also features a collection of the former vice president’s more embarrassing gaffes and his less-than-popular Senate votes.  The site is the handiwork of one Patrick Mauldin, who produces video and digital content for Trump’s reelection campaign.

Trump himself sent out a “deep fake” video on Facebook and Twitter purporting to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up pages of the president’s State of the Union speech immediately following Trump’s commemoration of the accomplishments of various citizens.  Pelosi did, indeed, rip up the speech, but only at its conclusion, not at those poignant moments honoring audience members. The doctored video deliberately altered the context.

Intelligence reports say Russia is attempting to tamper with our actual voting process in hopes of delegitimizing the elections and keep some folks from voting.  Again, Trump and his party are way ahead of their foreign counterparts.  The GOP leadership in Georgia has purged tens of thousands of voters, mostly people of color for such minor discrepancies as having a misplaced hyphen in a name.  In another Republican-governed state, Texas has closed 750 polling places since 2012, predominately in black and Latinx neighborhoods that typically vote Democratic.  One man waited seven hours to vote in last week’s Texas Democratic primary election. Many others left long lines without voting.  Research by University of Houston political science professors showed that people are less likely to vote if they have to travel further to cast their ballots.

In a recording obtained by the Associated Press, Justin Clark, a senior Trump campaign advisor, spoke candidly about his camp’s efforts to suppress likely Democrats from voting.  Here’s what he said: “Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places. Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are. . .Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”

It is, of course, insidious and vile that a foreign adversary would invade the contours of our sovereign democratic elections in order to sow confusion and suppress voting.  Yet, based on all available evidence, the incumbent president and his party are far more effective at accomplishing those goals than their foreign allies. Obviously, that’s why Vladimir Putin wants him reelected. Nobody does chaos better than Donald Trump.