"American Carnage"
Inaugural addresses of American presidents are usually remembered, if they are, for their inspirational tone or visionary perspective. At his inaugural address on January 21, 2017 President Donald Trump struck a different note by proclaiming that the era of “American Carnage” had come to an end. That was surprising news to a lot of people who were unaware that the era of American Carnage had ever begun.
Working class Americans had propelled Trump to an Electoral College victory and the phrase “American Carnage” was intended to acknowledge the grievances they felt after years of globalization and automation had diminished them financially and in cultural esteem. Trump’s triumph, they believed, would be a prelude to regaining some of the status they had lost.
Trump marketed himself as a savvy businessman who was able to get things done. He spoke their language. He could challenge what he called the “Deep State” that disaffected Americans came to see as the root of all their grievances. Rough and gruff, he would be their champion and set things straight.
Rarely had a constituency been so naive about the leader they chose. Perhaps they should have listened to his fellow New Yorkers who knew Donald Trump well.
Trump had a long history of bankrupting contractors and litigating against other working class people connected with his real estate projects. Believing he would suddenly care about the laboring class getting their fair share is simply astonishing.
Demagogues throughout history have used populist grievances to leverage their way to power and to hold on to it. German Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels showed the world how to market grievances into enormous power.
Grievance is a powerful emotion. It can take you to unwise places. Like the cycle of insult/injury and retribution.
Now Trump says, “I am your retribution.” So, unlike Abraham Lincoln who beseeched the American people to find “the better angels of our nature,” Trump promises to be the “avenging angel” for the working-class Americans who believe in him like a messiah. Like the Germans of the 1930’s believed in Adolph Hitler.
Trump has lately been comparing himself to “God.” A more realistic comparison would be to the main character in the Sinclair Lewis novel, Elmer Gantry. Gantry is a narcissistic, morally vacuous con-man who latches on to evangelical religion as his path to satisfy his lust for power, wealth and promiscuous sexual gratification.
One of Trump’s many recent grifts has been an effort to sell “patriotic Bibles.” At the same time, he is on trial for paying “hush money” to a porn star during the 2016 presidential election campaign to cover up a sexual affair that occurred years earlier.
In 1960 Elmer Gantry was made into a movie, nominated for five Academy Awards. It starred Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones and Patti Page. Lancaster in the title role won an Oscar for Best Actor and Jones won for Best Supporting Actress.
My father often said about personal grievances, “get in line.” He was of the generation born in the time of World War I and who lived their young lives during the Great Depression. World War II landed squarely upon their young adult shoulders. To him, and I think to many others of his generation, personal grievances were viewed as almost a social taboo. At the least, a great extravagance.
A friend of his owned a hardware/army surplus store which were common in the post-World War II, post-Korean War 1950’s. In the front of the store there was a two-foot diameter grinding wheel that was operated by a person sitting on a seat and using foot pedals. The sign above the wheel read, “If you have an axe to grind, grind it here.”