Outrage should meet this horror show

An increasingly apathetic society needs to remember that disengagement doesn't yield progress

It doesn’t do any good to turn away from the horror that’s right in front of us. (Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash)

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Losing presidential candidates often are remembered for a foolish stray comment — “basket of deplorables,” in the case of Hillary Clinton, for example; “binders of women,” from Mitt Romney — but Bob Dole’s words actually evoked some sympathy in 1996 as his campaign faltered in the face of the implacable popularity of Bill Clinton. At a campaign event in Texas days before the election, his impending failure looming as all but inevitable, Dole wailed his frustration: “Where’s the outrage in America? Where’s the outrage?” he implored.¹

It's a question we may well ask these days about Donald Trump, because even among those who can’t stand the idea of another Trump term in the White House, outrage seems almost passé: So many of Trump’s words and acts have been outrageous, and we have endured them for so long, that reasonable people may feel a need to move on to a more useful emotion. But what might that be? Acceptance, or maybe just tolerance? No, those are surely out of the question — at least, for anybody with a moral code and respect for the law and our Constitution.

So the emerging sentiment in a nation where a majority of voters tell pollsters they don’t like either presidential choice is a rising insensitivity that borders on apathy. Even solid supporters of Joe Biden mostly aren’t enthusiastic about his candidacy, while Trump is doing what hardly seemed possible: ramping up his rhetoric beyond the odious notions and foul pronouncements that have defined his political career, as though he now needs ever more flagrant conduct and ideas to draw attention to himself.

Democratic political strategist Adam Parkhomenko, writing in Los Angeles magazine recently, suggested that Trump’s ever more shocking rhetoric these days — about abandoning the Constitution, taking vengeance on those who have opposed him, acting as a dictator on Day One of a new term — is all both intentional and dangerous. He is, Parkhomenko warned, “conditioning and reconditioning” Americans to the authoritarian presidency that he promises if he wins in November. Sadly, Americans are increasingly unbothered by it all. “Each time he speaks of eroding the norms of American governance, our national and individual alarm bells ring a little quieter than the time before,” Parkhomenko wrote. “Numbness permeates about the grave danger he represents.”

It's like the desensitization of an audience that has grown accustomed to repeatedly watching a horror movie, he noted: “The villain does not change, but the viewer’s response calms dramatically.”²

Since we’ve seen the horror of the Trump show on the political stage for almost a decade now, the movie’s plot strikes us as less worrisome, and its premise a bit old — except to the MAGA millions who still thrill to Trump’s promise that in the next scene, the blood of those who cross him will be shed (perhaps only figuratively). There’s precedent, certainly, for the perseverance of campy horror tales: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is still in limited release 48 years after its premiere. Cult classics tend to outlast the societal trends that gave rise to their creation, and Trump, the most successful cult leader in American history, is in many ways a throwback to the 1980s. That was the Reagan-era Decade of Greed, when Trump emerged as a player in Gotham gossip columns and shady real estate deals.

But he must have learned something about showbiz when he was a reality TV star. Just when you think this franchise can’t possibly sell another show, he delivers a sequel. Half the nation wants to watch it; the other half won’t even check the box office, because they’ve been numbed to these plot turns. So they turn away from the horror.

In individuals who have experienced trauma, numbness is a typical and even defensible response. Psychologists tell us that the brain often protects us from pain by shutting down our usual emotions. Many of us have coped with tragedy by turning away from its reality and the chance that more pain might follow, in the process developing a coolness to any emotional commitment.³

That short-term survival strategy, however, can lead over a longer period to a deeper detachment that impedes individual growth and risks permanent harm. We’ve become familiar with the sad stories of military veterans whose experience in combat has led to post-traumatic stress disorder, disabling them from maintaining healthy relationships, and sometimes leading to serious mental illness.⁴

Trauma plays out in different ways, so various therapies have been developed to help people overcome the emotional detachment that threatens to leave their lives in shambles. But there are no accepted therapeutic strategies for helping a whole society cope with shared trauma that affects 340 million Americans; no psychiatrists, counselors or life coaches specialize in helping the United States of America overcome its PTSD.

Certainly the nation confronted plenty of trauma in those years just before Donald Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his candidacy before a crowd of people paid 50 bucks each to cheer and wave signs. In this century alone, we had endured the 9/11 attacks, disastrous wars based on dubious premises in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, unimaginable gun violence and an increasingly unresponsive political system — the latter wrought in no small part by an opportunistic right-wing assault on government led by ambitious politicians like Newt Gingrich and encouraged by cynical Fox News personalities and talk radio hosts.

And since the rise of hyper-partisanship in the 1990s, the anti-majoritarian structures in our governing system have stymied efforts to deliver policies backed by voters. A majority of Americans, for example, support abortion rights, sensible gun control, action on climate change, and equal treatment for people regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. Those agendas, though, are stymied by Constitutional structures that give extra weight to small and rural states, which tend these days to elect conservatives determined to block the majority’s will.

Into this potent stew, then, came a malignant narcissist who viewed the world’s most important job as mostly a vehicle for personal aggrandizement, and whose approach to critical domestic and international challenges was unabashedly careless. Donald Trump has given us quite a show.

Most Americans now have a rosier view of Trump’s presidency than they did when he left office. They forget its disasters: Two impeachments, one of them arising from an attempt to extort a political favor from a foreign leader, the other from encouraging a violent attack on Congress by his followers; the abuse of the “bully pulpit” by a constant stream of lies; the politicization of the Justice Department and abuse of the power to pardon; the attacks on whistleblowers and truth-tellers; the profit for the Trump Organization from his tenure that likely violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause; the filling of key government positions with fringe-minded players, some of whom flagrantly disregarded the law; the encouragement of racists, Christian nationalists and other radical groups; the weakening of the Western alliance at a time when Russia, China and others are eager to step in to take America’s place as the key player on the global stage. And then came a coronavirus that the president initially pretended would quickly vanish, and later suggested might respond to ingestion of a countertop cleanser. Scientists say the Trump administration’s incompetent response to Covid-19 led to a mortality rate 40 percent higher than the average of the other wealthy countries, meaning that hundreds of thousands of American lives were lost needlessly.

All of that — and, incredibly, much more — was dutifully reported by capable journalists; indeed, if it weren’t for honest reporters, we wouldn’t know many of the abuses of power of the Trump tenure. But the very frequency of that coverage, and the repeated invoking of “unprecedented” to accurately describe official behavior, inured many Americans to facts that ought to horrify us. Trump was eager to discourage people from believing what the independent press reported, memorably describing the people who covered him as “enemies of the people” — a phrase that, to be fair, he probably didn’t realize was Joseph Stalin’s, since he isn’t much of a student of history. (To be fair.)

So the reporting on Trump’s current campaign sounds a lot like what we’ve heard before, striking many of us — even those who follow the news closely — as just so much white noise. Meanwhile, a growing share of Americans have become what’s known as “news avoiders,” simply turning away from what’s going on beyond their own view. This is the existential threat to every news organization today, visible in such metrics as the declining engagement with news sites and the drop in donations to public media. Election years usually yield big audiences for news organizations, but that’s not happening in 2024. In the current issue of Columbia Journalism Review, Brian Stelter, the former CNN reporter, noting this year’s lower TV ratings and reduced traffic to news sites, observed, “The overarching emotion among voters is apathy and even burnout.”⁵

To treat emotional numbness in an individual patient, a number of therapies might be tried by a counselor or a therapist — starting, perhaps, with urging the patient to minimize stressful situations, get more rest and engage in physical activity, and then suggesting mindfulness exercises, maybe, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Of course, we can imagine the patient resisting: My behavior works for me, he may say; I’m just comfortably numb.⁶

But comfort, the patient might be reminded, comes from being at ease and content; numbness, in contrast, implies emptiness and indifference. And in the context of a numb society — and the comfort that so many may take from not engaging with the news and the reality of the Trump Show — there’s a real danger: A disengaged society doesn’t address the real problems that confront our communities. It turns away from economic disparities, the existential challenge of climate change, unmet human needs, support for threatened and striving people around the world. Solving those problems requires an engaged society, not a numbed populace.

Just as individuals don’t heal from trauma by embracing apathy and avoiding reality, America’s divisions won’t be solved by turning away from engagement with the challenges that this political season presents. We can’t allow ourselves, or encourage others, to embrace the apathy that seems to have swept over so many of us.

This is the time to channel the anger of Bob Dole: Where’s the outrage? Where, indeed. We ought to be feeling outrage whenever we witness the denigration of our political norms and the threats to our democratic institutions that emerge daily from the ex-president. Outrage is, in fact, the exactly appropriate response. We don’t have the luxury of settling into numbness or apathy.

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/10/26/a-seething-dole-intensifies-attack/118a9747-19ba-4106-881a-52c5a0745c5f/

2. Thanks to Tom Edsall’s always illuminating column in The New York Times for drawing this to our attention.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/opinion/trump-biden-democrats-strategy.html

3. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/09/trauma-can-leave-us-emotionally-numb-each-step-towards-reconnection-is-a-win

4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jts.22087

5. https://www.cjr.org/covering_the_election/least-important-election-fatigue-apathy-trump-biden-favreau-burnham.php

6. https://www.verywellmind.com/emotional-numbing-symptoms-2797372

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NEWSCLIPS FROM THE UPSTATES

Dispatches from our common ground *

Wherein each week we look around what we call the nation’s Upstates — those places just a bit removed from the center of things — to find illuminating news and intriguing viewpoints, which you might not otherwise see.

This week, we share reporting published here:

• Green Bay, Wisc. (Green Bay Press-Gazette, greenbaypressgazette.com)

• New Bedford, Mass. (The Standard-Times, southcoasttoday.com)

• Austin, Tex. (Austin American-Statesman, caller.com)

• Montgomery, Ala. (Montgomery Advertiser, montgomeryadvertiser.com)

NOTE: The complete “Newsclips from the Upstates” section, and The Upstate American Midweek Extra Edition, which is sent to email boxes on some Wednesdays, are available only to paid subscribers. Thanks for your support!

WISCONSIN

Tiny Homes for veterans may be a housing model

Despite the opposition of neighbors, a nonprofit in Green Bay has won city approval to build a cluster of tiny homes for veterans, in an effort that may be a model for attacking the nationwide problems of homelessness and limited affordable housing options. Jeff Bollier reports in the Green Bay Press-Gazette that a “cottage court” of 21 prefabricated tiny homes is targeting the dozens of homeless military veterans and hundreds more who struggle to find affordable housing in Green Bay. The city council’s 8-4 vote was delayed for months while advocates tried to resolve complaints raised by nearby residents, which are similar to those confronting such initiatives everywhere — notably, that other sites would be more appropriate and that promised services for substance abuse or mental health needs may not be provided.

MASSACHUSETTS

Giant rooster sculpture targets consumerist culture

Using 880 pounds of garbage, a Portuguese street artist has fashioned a 15-foot-tall “Plastic Rooster” sculpture that now has a place of honor in downtown New Bedford. Lurdes C. da Silva reports in The Standard-Times that the artist known as Bordalo II has created a series of sculptures around the country with the intent of drawing attention to consumer habits, with the latest being unveiled Friday in New Bedford. “The idea is to build images of the victims, of the animals, with what destroys them — contamination, pollution, waste,” Bordalo II told the reporter. “It’s almost as if we were making portraits of children who die in war with empty bullets.” The materials used in the sculpture include broken garbage cans, car bumpers, shopping carts, tires, construction helmets and cones, fruit boxes and parts from a boat.

TEXAS

Officials warn of potential for evening power outages

There are more power outages in Texas than any other state — a result of a combination of factors: the extreme weather in various seasons, a lack of state investment in alternative power sources and the status of Texas as the only state with its own power grid. (Texas resisted a New Deal law allowing federal oversight of interstate power transactions, and set up its own grid to avoid selling to or purchasing power from other states — giving the state, in effect, freedom to fail if it didn’t provide enough power for its citizens.) Now the Electric Reliability Council of Texas warns that the greatest risk of summertime power outages is likely to come on August evenings, according to reporting by John C. Moritz in the Austin American-Statesman. The most vulnerable hour, an ERCOT report warns, is from 8 to 9 p.m., when there’s still heavy demand but solar power isn’t available.

ALABAMA

State seeks OK for controversial execution technique

Alabama is preparing to carry out the execution of one of four teenagers convicted of a brutal murder 30 years ago — but the method of carrying out the death penalty has drawn concern. Marty Roney reports in the Montgomery Advertiser that the state attorney general has asked the Alabama Supreme Court for permission to kill Carey Dale Grayson, now 49, by nitrogen hypoxia — which has only been used once before in the nation, in Alabama, with results that opponents claimed was torture. Nitrogen hypoxia uses a face mask to force the condemned to breathe pure nitrogen, which displaces the oxygen that keeps us alive. When it was used by Alabama in January, prisoner Kenneth Eugene Smith writhed and convulsed for four minutes while strapped to a gurney, drawing international protest, including from the Vatican. The state correction commissioner called the execution “textbook” and said Alabama is now ready to move forward with nitrogen hypoxia again. Grayson has said that he would prefer the gas to execution by either the electric chair or lethal injection, the other two alternatives he might choose, under Alabama state law.

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IF YOU’RE A READER who wants to hear more of Rex Smith’s views, check www.wamc.org for his weekly on-air commentary aired by Northeast Public Radio. Here’s a link to the latest essay. And if your interest is specific to American media, you can download the podcast of The Media Project, the 30-minute nationally-syndicated discussion that Rex leads each week on current issues in journalism. In the states where Northeast Public Radio is heard, the program airs at 3 p.m. each Friday, and is rebroadcast at 6 p.m. Sunday. You can tune in live, too, at www.wamc.org. It has been called “a half-hour of talk about finding and telling the truth.” It’s often worth your time!

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THANK YOU for reading The Upstate American, and for joining us in the conversation about *our common ground, this great country.

-REX SMITH