{"id":87764,"date":"2017-03-06T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=87764"},"modified":"2017-02-28T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T20:04:11","slug":"the-predatory-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/the-predatory-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"The Predatory Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent executive orders reveal the Trump White House as a ruthless predator set to prey upon the most vulnerable among us.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>

In the Galapagos Islands, the racer snakes get ready to launch. (Photo: BBC)<\/p><\/div>\n

27 Feb 2017 – <\/em>The season premiere<\/a> of BBC America\u2019s Planet Earth II includes remarkable footage from the desolate Galapagos Islands. In one striking scene, baby marine iguanas race across the sand, desperately trying to elude dozens of snakes eager for their next meal. Although such stark life-or-death struggles are difficult to watch, it helps to remember that they reflect nature\u2019s dynamic balance.<\/p>\n

Far more disturbing\u2014and unnatural\u2014are the Trump Administration\u2019s similarly ruthless predator-like attacks on whatever groups it chooses as its prey. Adding to their repugnance, several of these assaults over the past month\u2014through a series of executive orders\u2014are inherently racist, seemingly propelled by the ugly 14-word credo of white nationalists<\/a> everywhere: \u201cWe must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three White House orders stand out. First<\/a>, there\u2019s the determined pursuit of a Muslim travel ban, one that will prevent thousands of tempest-tossed and despairing refugees from entering the country. Second<\/a>, there\u2019s the heartless stalking of undocumented Hispanic immigrants, including the near indiscriminate roundup, detention, and deportation of law-abiding men, women, and children. And third<\/a>, there\u2019s the early blueprint for a \u201ctough on crime\u201d law enforcement crackdown, an onslaught that will inevitably and predominantly disrupt and besiege Black communities and activists.<\/p>\n

These three groups, all non-white, have been selected as the initial targets for aggressive and oppressive government action (there will undoubtedly be others). To be sure, this isn\u2019t entirely new. As Langston Hughes wrote<\/a> 80 years ago, \u201cAmerica never was America to me.\u201d But along with Trump himself, influential White House strategists Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller of the \u201calt-right<\/a>\u201d and new Attorney General Jeff Sessions have especially troubling histories<\/a> of outright hostility and scornful indifference toward those who don\u2019t share their skin color.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also seen that predators in the wild aren\u2019t the only ones to use trickery, deception, and stealth as complements to brute force. Disguising the real impetus behind these executive orders, the Trump White House turns to sky-is-falling psychological mind games<\/a>, warning us that these steps are necessary to protect the public from dire threats. The Islamophobia-nurturing Muslim travel ban is deceitfully presented as an essential counter-terrorism<\/a> measure. ICE raids are defended with the fiction that millions of Hispanic immigrants are \u201cbad hombres\u201d and the rest are a drain<\/a> on limited public resources. And repressive steps against African Americans are justified through bogus tales of a nationwide crime wave<\/a> and \u201ccarnage in our inner cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The purpose of these appeals is simple: to short-circuit the public\u2019s critical reasoning; overwhelm us with emotions of fear and dread; and thereby garner either our active support or acquiescence. Once a crisis environment is created, once we begin to catastrophize and imagine the worst possible outcomes, then even the most extreme measures can begin to seem prudent. This is proven snake oil that\u2019s stood the test of time. Recall that Nazi propagandist Herman Goering acknowledged as much when, during the Nuremberg trials after World War II, he explained<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.<\/p>\n

But once we recognize these manipulative psychological ploys for what they are, the path forward becomes increasingly clear. First, whenever possible, we must expose and condemn the racist falsehoods of the President and his cronies. Second, we should counter and undermine the constant fearmongering they use to advance their agenda of intolerance. And third, we need to do whatever we can to help protect the individuals, families, and communities most immediately at risk of ambush and assault.<\/p>\n

This may sound like a daunting challenge. Fortunately, however, the mass protests<\/a> and daily acts of civil resistance throughout the country over the past several weeks have already demonstrated our resolve. They\u2019ve also revealed our capacity to expand our \u201ccircle of moral concern<\/a>,\u201d so that it extends well beyond those we hold most dear or consider most similar to us.<\/p>\n

In nature, potential prey instinctually use a wide range of strategies to ward off attacks\u2014from camouflage to traveling in groups to alarm signals to communal defense based on strength in numbers\u2014and they rarely succumb without a fight. With the merciless predators from the White House now on the prowl, surely we must be prepared to do the same.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent executive orders reveal the Trump White House as a ruthless predator set to prey upon the most vulnerable among us. In nature, potential prey instinctually use a wide range of strategies to ward off attacks\u2014from camouflage to traveling in groups to alarm signals to communal defense based on strength in numbers\u2014and they rarely succumb without a fight. Surely we must be prepared to do the same. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}