Amygdalae are beginning to wake up, and it terrifies the Establishment:
As he fell further behind in polls and battled allegations of sexual misconduct in recent days, Donald Trump moved to darker corners. He sketched out conspiracies involving global bankers, casually threatened to jail his political opponent, and warned in increasingly specific terms that a loss by him would spell the end of civilization.
The distrust of U.S. institutions that Trump has nurtured among his core supporters is readily apparent.
One North Carolina man predicted in an interview that the military would probably assassinate Hillary Clinton if she’s elected president. A woman at an Iowa town hall for Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, offered to join a revolution if Clinton prevails. Another man at an Ocala, Fla., rally was certain Trump would fire the FBI and scores of other federal bureaucrats in a housecleaning if he wins.
Many who have watched Trump’s campaign warn that the spread of such ideas may be only the beginning. The scorched-earth strategy Trump has adopted risks creating a lasting and bitter divide in American society, they say.
“It is going to have consequences,” said Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host in Wisconsin who has raised alarms about the Republican Party’s identity crisis. “Somebody referred to this as civic vandalism: the paranoia, the injection of the conspiracy theories that there are dark forces that somehow are going to rob him of this election.”
Donald is creating quite an amygdala pathway that hates the corrupt establishment. A part of me wonders if this is just part one of his plan, and he intends to use this for some rhetorical Judo as the election approaches. When his enemy attacks now, each blow must be diverted or distracted from. It is a very labor intensive way to fight.
If Donald can turn each attack into more evidence that the Establishment is terrified of him and more evidence of how he will upend their entire crooked applecart, then each attack will only ally him more with the people, in the establishment vs the people battle he is setting up now. Right now a clear majority feel the country is on the wrong track. That is directly related to the crooked establishment’s exploitation of the country – and everyone is beginning to see it.
If Donald can make it so that each attack activated neural pathways linking Donald with his fighting against the crooked establishment, then each attack on him would reinforce those pathways, and cement an image of Donald’s election as a blow everyone is landing against the establishment.
Each allegation would be seen as more evidence that Donald is the guy fighting with the establishment. Be it the House, the Senate, the government, or just politicians in general, all exhibit approval ratings in the teens or single digits. Everybody hates them, and would enjoy seeing them outraged. Each thing Donald outrages them over would suddenly become a reason to support Donald. Each negative could suddenly emerge in people’s minds as a positive.
There is a place you could reach using that technique, if you could ignite enough hatred of the Establishment, where that cognitive manipulation would allow Donald to do anything. At that point, the more outrageous his transgression, the more it would be seen as an even more effective blow against the establishment to elect him. “Screw over America this badly? Well now we’ve elected a guy who purposely set Bob Schieffer’s house on fire, and pissed on Cokie Robert’s skirt at a funeral, and we elected him just for fun.” Get the people into that frame of mind, and the more up in arms the establishment is, the better.
I am approaching that point, where an establishment-hated candidate could literally do anything, and I would elect him just for spite, and I suspect much of the country is getting there as well. It is a dangerous state, because Donald is the responsible way to give vent to those emotions. He would actually make things better if elected.
If that desire to lash out continues to grow, the risk becomes we will literally elect anyone, and the choice will be made based on who is the most revolting to the powers that be. The last time I remember that happening, German citizens were revolting against the post-WWI German elites who were screwing Germany in behalf of the European powers.
That ended badly for a lot of K-strategists from all over the globe.
