REGRESSION is a fantasy of going back to “Make America Great Again.” The slogan is a reactionary longing for a magical and mythical time when “life was better.” Trump’s rhetoric and behavior speaks to a rich, white-male-dominated America that denied women and minorities equal rights. Regression, as a defense mechanism, sells ideology without an idea.
INTROJECTION is a psychological defense of celebrity attachment to vicariously “get drunk” on Trump and “be somebody!” Identifying with the famous, powerful and wealthy offers a false sense of status. Without questioning, cult-followers swallow Trump’s authoritarianism, bigotry, crudeness and cruelty while abandoning autonomy and responsibility.
DISPLACEMENT, a defense mechanism of “us against them,” blames others and takes anger out on those imagined as vermin, or “enemies from within.” Fascist memes promise mass deportation, arresting opponents and incarcerating liberals and socialists. Zero-sum thinking says another’s gain is your loss. Feeling better at another’s expense is dehumanizing.
PROJECTION allows Trump, a convicted felon, to minimize his own faults and unacceptable behavior by casting those flaws onto others. False accusation and lying about others require a bit of psychology in our civic arsenal for detecting and evaluating the power of political self-delusion.
RATIONALIZATION explains away irrational behavior with seemingly “reasonable” excuses. Trump supporters find it necessary to “justify” the irrational outbursts of a “wannabe” dictator. Accepting Trump’s lies as truth is troubling, but rendering truth as disposable and obsolete is repulsive, reprehensible and repugnant.
DENIAL, a psychological defense, ignores reality by refusing to accept unpleasant facts such as climate change, denying the reality of the COVID virus, the 2020 presidential election results, or describing Jan. 6 as a “day of love.” Think of fascism, as descriptor, not an epithet! Is it Trump’s fascist lure at work or is it home grown fascism raising its ugly head?
Harold Honkola
Stillwater