We’ve entered the 2020 Presidential Campaign with Trump and the Republicans, predictably, cranking up manufactured crises to generate more anxiety and fear among Americans. The goal, to herd more people towards conservative, authoritarian, politics. This is a tactic that has worked repeatedly through history. Trump’s campaign of fabricating anxiety and elevating it to fear is a cliché, but it works.
Iran is a good example. Trump’s ignorant interference in the nuclear agreement stopping Iran’s uranium enrichment to weapon’s grade, which was working, led to Iran’s renouncing the nuclear agreement and restarting their enrichment program and possible development of nuclear weapons.
The US’s renouncing of the agreement and everything that has followed was avoidable. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have continued with problems with Iran, we would have. But, the atmosphere in which we dealt with them wouldn’t have been as dangerous as it is now and, potentially leading to further improvements.
Context Isn’t Sexy but It’s Important
On 9/11, the world came to us and offered condolences and help. It was a time when we could have built stronger ties with many countries. For instance, Iran approached the US and offered condolences and information about the situation in Saudi Arabia and the region. President George W. Bush pushed all of this aside and proclaimed that we didn’t need help and that we’d handle it alone. This began the isolationist trend that Trump has capitalized on, driving us farther and farther from both our allies and potential enemies.
Trump is trying to turn the entire world into “THEM” who are taking advantage of the US. This rachets up anxiety and fear in a segment of our population. It also pollutes the general social environment, gnawing at reality.
Starting with Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been constructing a false narrative about how terrible the world was becoming. Ignoring obvious signs that things have been improving world-wide, they have spent the last 45 years expanding and strengthening this dystopian fiction. For instance, crime in the US is at a 30-year low. Yet, Trump, Republicans and Media reinforce the false belief that crime is rampant. Yes, crime numbers have increased, but that is to be expected when our population has grown by about 100,000,000 people since then. The crime and incarceration rates are dropping significantly with the legalization of marijuana.
US crime in proportion to population is not the worse in history, not even close. So why the lie that crime is out of control? It creates anxiety and fear, and a feeling that we need more order and authority. But the only way to do this is by sacrificing or democracy and personal freedoms.
Historically there Is Good Reason the Iranians Don’t Trust US
Iran is the international example of the same process. Iran and the US are competing for dominance in the Mid-East. However, there is a good reason that Iranians don’t trust us. In 1950s the CIA replaced a democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. He was a reformer who wanted to get rid of the rampant corruption by the oil companies and others. In 4 days, the CIA overthrew the Iranian democracy and installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah. The CIA admitted this in 2013. What followed was 27 years of US support for the Shah, along with corruption and dictatorial rule. This ended with the Iranian Revolution.
A Reasonable Path Not Taken
The Obama administration, using diplomacy and negotiation, was able to temporarily halt, for 20 years, Iran’s central ambition to develop nuclear weapons. Setting the stage for further talks, once some trust was established. Honoring the treaty was fundamental to further progress with nuclear issues. If this continued then, in time, enough trust would have been formed for talks about other pressing US-Iran problems. This process could have reduced tensions between our two countries and made conflict less likely.
Unfortunately, Trump and the Republicans decided on a confrontational approach, unraveling decades of effort by the US, EU, and others to peacefully resolve the dilemmas we faced.
Arrogance and ignorance put us on a dangerous path that will increase anxiety and fear in the US and steer more reasonable Americans towards the contrived need for a strongman, resulting in undoing 250 years of efforts to create a free people.
2020 Fear and Loathing In America
2020 is the year that Trump and the Republicans are pull out all the stops and try to drive us mad with anxiety and fear, with the goal of destroying democracy in America and delivering us into a 21st Century serfdom ruled by people who don’t care about the rest of us. Even Trump supporters will be victims of this coup.
Authoritarians rule through fear. When everyone fears everyone else, including friends, control is complete. That’s where we are headed.
Welcome to 2020.