Fear is critical to every mammal’s survival, including ours. Fear keeps us from sticking our hands in a campfire, staring at the sun, or swimming out into the ocean in the middle of a hurricane. We know that these things could injure or kill us and we avoid them. But there is another type of fear – I’ll call it psychic fear – that permeates much of our modern culture today that is not based on the physical loss of life or limb. It’s the fear of some form of loss, things like losing a job or losing face through public exposure and disgrace.
Psychic fear is catnip for bullies, who feed upon it with gusto. Merriam-Webster defines a bully as: A blustering, brow-beating person…especially one who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable. Bullies are also always on high alert, trolling for the next susceptible victim. Take Donald Trump, for example, for whom I have awarded the title of Bully in Chief, who is terrorizing members of his own Republican Party, as crazy as that sounds even as I write it. Trump targets who have displeased him in some way have been and continue to be harassed, sued, and publicly ridiculed, often exposed live in the maw of the insatiable 24-hour news cycle. The Trump Targets’s fears are not baseless. Trump and his henchmen have targeted congressional districts, trolling to inject novice, seemingly unhinged MAGA candidates into races where they have actually unseated vulnerable incumbents. How else could a fool like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), who is reportedly lobbying to become Trump’s VP pick in this year’s general election (should the unthinkable come to pass and he emerges as the GOP presidential nominee), possibly have gotten her nut-case self elected, even in a deep-red district in Georgia? Greene said in a Vanity Fair feature that she was encouraged to run (in a district she did not live in) by pro-MAGA House Freedom Caucus members including Reps Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs, starry-eyed Trumpers all.
So why are so many congressional Republicans so scaredy-cat scared of this disgraced, indicted, vindictive, unprincipled buffoon-of-a-bully, who doesn’t even hold elective office anymore? They’re afraid, afraid of his assured retaliation, up to and including losing reelection in their home states. Just ask Liz Cheney, former Wyoming representative and high-profile Trump Target who lost reelection to her House seat in Wyoming to Trump-picked challenger Harriet Hageman in a landslide after calling out Trump for his lies about winning the 2020 election and his provocative actions on January 6. I am a life-long Democrat and rarely read autobiographies of politicians, which I view as a shady subcategory of autobiographies given, tainted by definition by their self-promotional natures. But I read Cheney’s book, which was a fascinating blow-by-blow account of what was happening within the House chamber on January 6. If only a fraction of what Cheney described is true, you’ll never again see Kevin McCarthy or Mike Johnson in the same light (assuming you have any lingering positive views of either man). I also read Mitt Romney’s autobiography, equally well written. Romney has many theories about serving in Congress, of course, including advice to would-be candidates to NOT run for office if they need the salary to pay their mortgages. Elitist, of course, though it goes to the nut of psychic fear, especially if you’re newly elected, perhaps by a less-than-resounding margin, and even more especially if you are sole support for your family and kids. If you fear the consequences of that loss, you’ll probably think twice before poking the Bully in Chief, who could not only destroy your current career but make it difficult to forge a new one from the ashes.
For some reason, many Republicans of the MAGA persuasion still believe, despite two indictments on state charges and two federal indictments (amounting to a total of 91 felony charges), that their man Trump is the blameless victim of a vast Democratic conspiracy. Cold judicial reason has proved to be a blunt instrument against Trump’s hot, sharp, paranoid rhetoric; every legal setback, every new charge against him has inexplicably raised his popularity among Republicans in survey after recent survey. Since the general election is a long way off, this could hopefully change.
The other thing about bullies is that they obsessively nurse their many grievances in the shadows, waiting for the most politically opportune moment to mete out the offender’s punishment. Trump has recently begun to call those imprisoned or charged with crimes stemming from the January 6 Capitol attack as “hostages” instead of the convicted criminals they actually are. He is vowing, to any reporter who will listen to him, to pardon all of those he calls the “J6 hostages.” Revenge and retribution for perceived wrongs against them are the frosting on a bully’s cake – as long as the bully succeeds in defeating them.
Trump must be soundly defeated by We the People, preferably in the GOP primaries but absolutely if he somehow survives as the GOP presidential candidate in the general election. When you have passionate Trump true believers, our courts alone sadly don’t appear to garner enough public respect to turn the political tide against him. This is as troubling as the specter of Trump as President again. Without the courts, who will make the laws and adjudicate legal procedures that, especially in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court, directly affect every one of us since its decisions become the laws of the land?
Marilyn ,the courts do not make laws, that is the function of the legislative branch of government.
Everyone know Congress does nothing anymore, except cut taxes for their rich corporate handlers. Fear is healthy. Fear is motivating. We should all be fearing the loss of Democracy. The people’s voices have been drowned out by Corporate money.