Trumpropaganda, 2016: The Fallacy of a Clinton Dynasty

After Trump won the Presidency, newspapers all over the country came up with editorials to get their two-cents-worth. No op-ed surprised me more than this one from the Chicago Tribune. Its off-kilter assessment of Trump shows why Chicago went from being “the city of big shoulders” to the “big town of tiny brains.” Or, to put it another way, Chicago went from being a BS-free zone into prime BS territory:

“Shudder if you will, but recognize Trump’s talents as a communicator. With his defeat of Clinton, his vision — his branding of the country — is now America’s chosen path. The people have spoken. The next president will be an ego-driven outsider, a name-caller who struggles to control base impulses, who avoids self-reflection, and who shows little interest in policy, diplomacy or the accuracy of his statements.

Trump’s crowning ability, which led him to victory, is salesmanship.”

Mike Royko isn’t just spinning in his grave now, he’s dancing a mazurka full-throttle on this one.

Trump, the great communicator? No way. He’s not a real communicator. He’s not even a good salesman. He’s not that smart — not as smart as everybody keeps saying he is, anyway. So what is he?

He’s merely a master of propaganda…with thanks to the GOP Thinktank, Karl Rove, Roger Ailes & his gang of faux journalists at Fox News.

In case you skipped that unit in civics class, I’ll spell it out for you. Propaganda is the calculated, systematic spreading of ideas and opinions and beliefs — through various communications, tools, and techniques — in order to achieve specific (usually self-serving) results. Contrary to some definitions, it’s not always a bad or inherently evil means to an end. Churches can use propaganda to spread The Word — or, in the case of some religious organizations, THEIR Word. Schools can use propaganda to control children and make them easier to manage. Governments can use propaganda to give the public important information on fatal diseases — even to halt the spread of outbreaks.

So propaganda can also be defined as the intentional, organized means of getting accurate information across to large groups of people.

What’s wrong with that? A lot, if deception, trickery, and misinformation are used to intentionally mislead people; and, if your communications appeal primarily to their emotions rather than their intellect or their logic. Deception is really what makes propaganda dangerous.

The use of this deceptive propaganda, in a nutshell, is how Trump got elected. During his campaign, he didn’t just communicate with specific symbols and time-honored tools and techniques of propaganda. No, he deliberately distorted and misused all manner of information. He lied and lied and lied.

What’s worse, he did it in a way that made crowds believe he was telling the truth — when he wasn’t.

During his celebrated Trump rallies, he’d fly into different cities like a rock star, then have nothing much to say to his supporters. Take a good look sometime at a transcript of the remarks he made to the crowds. They’re usually low on facts and accurate information, but high on heart-throbbing drama. No substance, just emotional angst that he revved up to a fever pitch. Imagine a fire and brimstone preacher morphed with obnoxious stand-up comic Sam Kinison and you’ll get the picture of Trump onstage.

But one man delivering Preacher Kinison schtick during campaign rallies can’t make it to the White House. Trump got help — big league — from the GOP wordsmiths and GOP supporter/campaign strategist Roger Ailes and his propaganda network, otherwise known as Fox News.

In the upcoming weeks, I’ll delve further into how this Republican machine operates. For now, though, I’m going to illustrate my points with just one word: dynasty. Specifically, I’m going to examine that oxymoron known as The Clinton Dynasty.

No, I’m not saying that Trump himself repeatedly used the phase “Clinton Dynasty.” What I’m saying is that the Republican machine and its followers used this term so much that it became burned into public consciousness. After years of repetition, the phrase turned into a battle cry for change. As in, “We’ve already had Bushes and Clintons, give someone else a chance!” Which didn’t make much sense, either, given the actual definition of the word dynasty itself.

Let’s look at a couple of definitions of the word dynasty (something that has never been attempted by the GOP media during its onslaught).

“A succession of rulers from the same family or line.” Rulers? In a democracy?

You can make all the jokes about Arkansas and Billary all you want, but Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton are not related. There was no succession. There was no transfer of power from the same family, either.

“A family or group that maintains power for several generations.”

Again, there’s no relation between Bill and Hillary: they’re just married. There’s no maintenance of power, either. Bill Clinton served as President from 1993 to 2001. We’re in the election year 2016 now. Had Hillary Clinton been elected President, her term would have begun in 2017. That would have meant a long, 16 year gap in their so-called succession.

Actually, the Bush family seems closer to the definition of a dynasty than the Clinton family. But whether you’re talking about the Bush or the Clinton or the Adams family, there still could not have been any dynasty, given the word’s definition. Why? Because the President is an elected official who presides over our country, not a monarch who reigns over it.

Furthermore, the President of The United States only heads The Executive branch of our government. Not The Legislative branch. Not The Judicial branch. His power is limited to only one branch of our government, thanks to our system of checks and balances.

But this false notion of an American dynasty took hold, and more importantly, influenced voters in this Presidential election.

That’s the insidious effectiveness of this kind of propaganda. It’s so good at distorting the truth and misusing truth as reality that everyone starts to believe the wrong definition of a word like dynasty. Sure, I can give reasons that show how this word was incorrectly defined. But that wouldn’t stop the GOP Braintrust from continuing to misuse it. Even if Hillary Clinton had become President-elect, there still would not have been a Clinton Dynasty.

But no one would believe me now, because the more a lie is repeated, the more people tend to believe it. Propaganda — especially Trumpropaganda — works, it really works.