There’s a difference between real monsters and imaginary ones. A recent essay in Lincoln Square made that point–and the further, not-so-obvious point that expending our energies fighting fictitious ones may be less unproductive than we think.
The essay began with the author explaining that he’d gotten a little girl to sleep by pretending to overpower the monsters that–in her imagination–populated her closet. As he wrote, politics works similarly. The monsters may not be real, but they’ll control the process until someone confronts them.
Every election cycle has its own bedtime story. This last one, the 2024 showdown between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, was no different. It was a close race, and Trump won it on the margins — those tight, swingy counties where a few thousand votes make democracy feel like a coin toss.
And once again, MAGA’s favorite bedtime story was about the monster in the closet. This time, it wasn’t immigrants or caravans or Critical Race Theory — it was transgender Americans.
Anti-transgender political ads flooded the airwaves, built on the same fear-based architecture Republicans have been refining since Nixon. Trump’s campaign made them a centerpiece, hammering the claim that trans athletes were destroying women’s sports and sneaking into bathrooms to terrorize little girls.
The Democrats didn’t waste much time and effort on pushing back, because the party’s polling suggested that relatively few Americans were swayed by these attacks. But as the author noted, Trump didn’t need very many. He didn’t even need 51%. He needed just enough voters to enable him to flip three counties.
As the author wrote, “That’s the Southern Strategy 2.0: Rebrand hate as “common sense,” then sell it as protection.”
In our digital age, lies can become immortal. As some wag has put it, a lie will go halfway around the world while truth is still putting on its pants. In the Wild West that is our current information environment, truth is increasingly irrelevant; repetition is what matters. In the 2024 election, those millions of dollars in targeted anti-trans messaging weren’t intended to move a majority — “just enough voters in just the right ZIP codes.”
The essay puts this strategy in historical context, finding its roots in Nixon’s Southern Strategy. That strategy has now evolved. As the author put it, the dog whistles have become baked into our reflexes. He quoted the strategy’s “prime mover,” Lee Atwater:
“You start out in 1954 by saying n****, n*****, n*****,”* he said. “By 1968, you can’t say n**** — that hurts you. It backfires. So you start saying stuff like ‘forced busing,’ ‘states’ rights,’ and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract now that you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and the byproduct of them is that Blacks get hurt worse than whites.”*
That wasn’t a slip. It was a strategy. The racism didn’t disappear; it just learned better grammar.
If America’s current political polarization proves anything, it reminds us of the human tribal reflex to divide the world into us and them. Political strategists know that in today’s environment, the use of certain words will trigger predictable responses, and those responses aren’t reasoned — they’re conditioned. “Once fear bonds a group together, logic doesn’t even get a seat at the table.”
The essay argues that Democrats haven’t figured out how to respond to that reality, haven’t recognized that they need to confront political fears, no matter how ridiculous or imaginary those fears may seem, before they metastasize. The monster in the closet doesn’t disappear when you ignore him.
I find that argument persuasive.
What the essay doesn’t tell us, however, is just how the Democrats–and others who see the strategic use of “Othering” for what it is–are supposed to defeat it. In our current information environment, those most likely to be convinced that the monsters are real typically get their “news” from sources that confirm the existence of the monsters in the closet and the threat they pose. In order to evaluate the validity of a proposition, citizens need to hear contending perspectives–and we inhabit a world where millions of people have purposely insulated themselves against evidence that is contrary to their preferred beliefs.
There will always be some percentage of voters who feel the need for someone or something to blame for life’s disappointments, and those voters are perfect targets for the political strategists trying to convince them of the existential threat posed by the monsters in the closet.
I don’t know how we counter that, but we really need to figure it out.
people have purposely insulated themselves against evidence that is contrary to their prefered beliefs.. Being holed up in these four walls built around NoDak/SoDak since 1988 and watching the people change. getting out on the road and coming back every few weeks for decades. i see/felt the changes. social media started and ran with jokes until conservative,(thats con,right) news showered the area i AM news, (with RUSH!)that was at one time useful for market news and top 40 music while plowin or sowin. I took note when KNX went full tilt red. Sen Dashel was a co writer of the farm bill(guess what,you got thune now and noem) that kept corp access out,banks at bay and lending from distroying the family farm.. fast foreward. now its the family farm that supports its own demise. they arent stupid, they are just led by this news and false representations. with no other answres, its all someones fault. try themselves. and of course witha little help from billionaire owned media and whos now running this creepshow in DC.. the demos might as well join. they havent shown a word in otherwise..
Liberals can spend their time trying to win over that percentage of voters whose life approach is to blame others for their disappointments, or they can work diligently to inform and persuade the majority of voters out there that the liberal approach to government is the best way forward. This will require honesty, integrety, resolve, and a kind of self sacrifice missing in today’s politics. It can begin with the oldest generation of Democrats in office now stepping away from their positions in order to allow the younger generation to take the lead.
If every registered Democrat voter actually showed up at the polls, this would all be settled decisively. Why they choose to not vote, which is a vote in its own right, is the question that the Democrats need to answer.
Theresa, right on! Time for a change.
I see plenty of “other” targets for Democrats. MAGAs are easy pickin’s. Start with Mike Johnson. Talk about monsters … Except Johnson is also a puppet. Why not create these monsters in a better reality? After all, pictures of a drooling, leering, red-eyed Stephen Miller should invoke screams of horror from any sentient being.
I agree that Democrats should use the “monster card” much more. As I said, there are plenty of monsters available. Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Ted Cruz … The list just keeps growing.
After all, Halloween in just a week away. Boo.
You want to know why one half of the uniparty doesn’t hold the other half accountable when they are behaving exactly as they are paid to do.
Both parties support genocide, so neither of them has a “high road” to take. They were all paid to support the murder of women and children. The post-Charlie Kirk environment has woken up Americans to the sway Zionist Israel has over our government and media. Zionist ownership of TikTok’s algorithm and Bari Weiss with editorial control over CBS News, they are attempting to flood the country with pro-Israel propaganda because they are losing the fight. The evidence mounting to show Israel’s motives in the Kirk assassination is doing significant harm.
Also, the Republican Party is now a far-right-wing fascist party with a cult member following. Has the Democratic Party moved further to the left to combat the populists and align itself with the sentiment of the No Kings protesters?
Nope.
They have shifted to the right—a trend that began with Bill Clinton in the 1990s and continued with Obama. Wall Street captains of industry (oligarchs) own them so that they will act accordingly. They won’t go after the oligarchs or the fascist union of monied interests in our government because it would offend the donor class. Speaking of donors, the MIC and Israel also run the uniparty. The billions sent to Israel are used to buy weapons to keep the MIC satisfied. Israel is just a host for MIC money, just like Ukraine. They are a pass-through.
Don’t expect change from the monied interests and their puppets — in fact, I would expect a doubling down on propaganda coming our way.
p.s. What is Trump converting the White House (the people’s house) into? The comparison to Versailles is all over social media. Trump lied about “not touching the East Wing) as demolition started yesterday. The White House is 55,000 square feet, and the proposed Ballroom is 80,000. The opulent addition will dwarf the existing People’s House, and Trump and other oligarchs are footing the bill, so who do you think will be using it?
#oligarchy #Fascism #GildedAge2.0
Theresa, I agree the old guard must eventually (soon) hand over the reigns to younger people. Yet, not all young people are sensible, fair-minded, and competent; just look at the Naughtzee-loving, not so Young Republicans, recently in the news for their racist and obnoxious texts. We need to be specific about which younger people we elect. Iʻve been leaving messages with Schumer and Jeffries to support candidates like Zoran Mamdani, who in addition to his youth, his emphasis about solving basic needs such as affordable housing, etc., resonate with more than just young folks.
From a Facebook post by Paul Eisenstein: I’ve seldom seen anyone so succinctly identify what Trump’s appeal is to so many Americans. His niece summed up the fact that the Incontinent Autocrat hasn’t a single redeeming human value. Here Robert Lee White nails the fact that this is precisely why he won two elections and, the worse his rule the more his appeal to millions of Americans.
I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and this second time in 2024 given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I no longer do. I actually think he won, for that precise reason. Because he had at least one fucked-up part to mirror the fucked-up parts of millions.
If you are a racist, you found your guy. If you are a misogynist, you found your guy. If all you care about is money, you found your guy. If you have an emotionally armored heart, you found your guy. If you make fun of disabled people, you found your guy. If you hate intelligent people, you found your guy. If you are a rapist, you found your guy. If you like golden showers with Russian sex-workers, you found your guy. If you have not done a stitch of work on your emotional issues, you found your guy. If you are a serial cheater, you found your guy. If you are a perpetual bankrupt, you found your guy. If you don’t pay people for their honest work, you found your guy. If you are a hustler and a conman, you found your guy. If you mock people’s physical appearances, you found your guy. If you long for a toxic Daddy, you found your guy. If you are dissociated and disembodied, you found your guy. If you are unconscionable in all your economic dealings, you found your guy. If you lie day and night, you found your guy. If you have never eaten green vegetables, you found your guy. If you are a white supremacist, you found your guy. If you have a hole in your ego so big that not even the presidency could fill it, you found your guy. If you are a sociopath, and care not one iota about other humans, you found your guy. If you…
If he only had two of these issues, he never would have won. It was the fact that he had hundreds of them, that made him the winner. Because millions of humans are toxic. So they could relate to him, in one form or another.
It’s never been about trump. It’s always been about the people who finally have their twisted feelings about others validated. trump has given “those people” permission to disparage and hate their fellow human beings.
trump is only symptomatic of a much larger issue of a collective toxicity. If there is a single sentence that characterizes trump it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
That may be what is so terrifying. Who knew that so many tens of millions of Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans?
Who knew that tens of millions men felt so emasculated by women and challenged by minorities? Who knew that after years of seeming progress on race and gender, tens of millions of white Americans lived in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to arrive who would legitimize their worst selves and channel them into political power?
Perhaps we had been living in a fool’s paradise.
Now we aren’t.
John, I think you have found your metre. He is all those things wrapped up in one Malignant Narcissistic package. And, now, he’s chewing away at the WH just as he’s been chewing away at democracy.
Nixon, and all he stood for, have long been antithetical to the foundations of the country, and far too many mouthpieces have taken up his perspective. The pre-country landowners pushed the poor whites to the fringes of the colonies, to protect them from the indigenous peoples, and “othering” has simply taken on a life of its own.
I think one of the biggest things we could do is ensure our kids attend school with every kind of person in their area. There should not be private schools that insulate people from other people’s struggles or pain or success. How are we all in it together when some of us buy our way out?
John Street:
thanks. i need words like ammo to the magat bunch here in NoDak. im not one whos tail is between my legs. i confront in conversation with blue collars in construction and heavy industry in No dak. i dont run outta topics.fact is, everyone will deny and say its a liberal something,while were tryin to save thier drowning ass. I hope you dont mind if i pass a few copies of your essay. i wont use your name or where, but sign it anonymous..
best wishes, and a cold beer,,
In any contest, there is an offense and a defense, and each contributes to the other, and together they define the game. The offense looks for holes in the defensive game and vice versa.
When Putin invaded Ukraine, the world initially assumed that Zelenski was left with only a defense. Still, Ukrainians were smart enough to turn the tables with offensive drones and noble purpose, and the courage that it instills.
The same is true here and now. The Project 2025 offense is defining the game as it unfolds. MAGA is now solely responsible for the country’s failures in serving the electorate. Democrats are limited to defense, as seen in the current government shutdown, which is the only power left to them. The only offense the Reds have, and will predictably rely on, is blaming every failure on the current shutdown.
Blue has come to realize that living without a government is preferable to being under a tyrannical one.
John Street,
Excellent! Great perspective. Thank you.
As I read the blog I kept thinking about the song,”Harder and Harder to Breathe.”
” Like the little girl cries in her bed at the monsters who live in her dreams. Is there anyone out there cause it’s getting harder and harder to breathe? ” If there are any Democrats out there, that little girl needs you to stand up and fight the monsters.
How do we do that? Start with the fact that there is a lot that we don’t know about human sexuality. From there move to what we do know, about genetic differences that can cause sexual dysphoria. Explain that a child who has one or more of those genetic differences should be allowed to have gender affirming surgery. Let the children be heard,since it’s their life.
It ain’t rocket science, but it is SCIENCE., and it deserves some credit. It’s a lot easier to sell hate than science, but we have to try.
How to reach MAGAtes and like-minded Rumpers who watch/read only in the propaganda space? It is futile to try reachng them by media they’re conditioned to hate. One possibility is roadside billboards. Examples:
— With a photo of a glowering Rump: “Why does he hate most Americans?”
— A series headed “What the GOP wants ” followed by
“MEDICARE sold to a profit- making company”
“SOCIAL SECURITY given to profit-making companies”
“MORE MONEY from taxpayers’ pockets”
“RICH WHITE MEN control everything”
Below pictures of The Rump, JD Vance, and RFKJr at their groatiest,
“Would you buy a used car from one of these people?”
Etc. I’m sure the readers can come up with many zingers.
Issues with this proposal might include MAGAte billboard owners, billboards being blown or shot up by The Rump’s brownshirts, and cost.
But the Dems have got to go on the attack. The norms are broken. It is time to Go Savage against the biggest threat to liberal democracies since The Flood.
John Street: Excellent summary, but here’s the thing … Those ugly, anti-social, anti-humanistic sorts have always been there. The permission slip Trump gave them included the motivation to VOTE. Meanwhile, the so-called responsible citizens stayed home and clutched their pearls justifying their civic sloth with nostrums like “We’re not ready for a woman president.” Or “The Democrats don’t have a plan.”
To those 81 million registered voters who failed to do their duty, I say: “You must be so proud of your inaction. Did marching in the streets assuage your guilt from you civic irresponsibility?” And here we are really and symbolically tearing down the House for a f***ing ballroom that nobody but the elites will use. I’ll bet those 81 million non-voters never imagined that their sloth and utter stupidity would lead to such a rapid destruction of our country.
AND … so Steve O’Bannon announced yesterday, artificial intelligence should be banned. Hmmm. Is that why Trump was seen packing his bags. 🫠
I had to share, Vernon, this classic from Jennifer Rubin. Her entire short article is perfect:
“Trump promised this sort of desecration would not occur. But, as we know too well, the lifespan of his promises is a nanosecond. A leaked memo telling employees not to release damaging images is the sort of internal rebellion that a White House literally falling apart must dread.
The physical destruction of the White House is about as giant a metaphor as one can get. If suggested in a movie script, the demolition of the People’s House—an architectural symbol of our democracy—so that it can incorporate an ostentatious, disproportionate, gaudy ballroom designed by a tasteless real estate developer bent on transforming the presidency into an autocracy would be dismissed as clumsy, preposterous, and improbable. But it is pure Trump, as is the garish faux gold ornamentation he has plastered all over the Oval Office.”
http://contrarian.substack.com/p/demolishing-the-presidency?
When I read that Contrarian Substack piece this morning, Todd, I had the same reaction. I read it aloud to my wife and declared it a great piece of writing; your description of “perfect” fits well.
Now I have to re-read and send out the makes-sense, covers-it-all conclusion of John Street. I love-hated it for its comprehensive disgusting veracity, if that makes sense. It has been a long time coming, demonstrated so well in the documentary Bad Faith (watched it on TUBI). No wonder we are in this expanding dystopia here in America; trump took the lid off the smoldering witches brew and it stinks worse every day, with all of those who hate compassion, empathy, love, beauty, goodness lawfulness free to do whatever they want.
Best No Kings Day signage:
No Faux King Way
Without benefit of psychiatric language, Maya Angelou describe Trump perfectly, on pg. 284 of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:”
“In order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities: either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric. He must believe that for his ends to be served things and people can be justifiably shifted about, or that he is the center not only of his own world but of the worlds which others inhabit.” Or both.
First, the comments on today’s post are excellent. Lots of good stuff, great insights.
So, personally, I think anyone who spends one second trying to figure out how to convert MAGA people is absolutely wasting their time. They not only avoid evidence against their bigotries, they’ve been trained to disregard it. Worse, it only hardens their resolve. The answer is to overwhelm them with better-thinking voters. It’s critical to focus on the groups that _really_ matter: the apathetic voters, the independents, the young, etc. We–the good guys–win by building our coalition and improving voter turnout. If they lose elections, they lose power, and they will begin to dwindle.
The second–and related–key is that when the Dems are next in power, they _must_ address the disparities and problems within the existing government structures that advantage the right-wing bigots. It’s not a matter of being unfair to them; it’s being fair to all, as much as possible.
Dems need to be clearer in their messaging. Take Schumer’s recent video about the leaked chats. He basically says “look at all these terrible things they say! look how terrible they are!” and that is simply inadequate. Worse, it’s a waste. The people he’s speaking to already know this. Be specific about how these views harm people, how they transform to actions and cause real damage. It’s frustrating to me because Bernie Sanders and AOC know–seemingly instinctually–how to talk about these issues, but the party leadership is constantly sidelining them. For Dems to really consolidate and build, the Sanders/AOC wing of the party must take centre stage. They can sway the groups that must be swayed, and build the necessary voter turnout.
Or, you can continue with the same inadequate Dem leadership, stagnate, wave hands ineffectually, and the rest of the world can sadly watch the empire crumble.
Time for a dash of contrarianism (although I don’t seem to be alone in this).
The “monsters” are one side of the coin, but the other side follows this syllogism:
Hawks have wings;
Hummingbirds have wings;
Therefore, hawks are hummingbirds.
I have seen this in academia and politics. We recognize that certain minorities have been discriminated against and try to correct it. We recognize that women have been discriminated against and try to correct it. The same for the LGBTQ+ community, but we assume that every white person is, ipso facto, rich and powerful. There seems to be no recognition for those who feel powerless, but don’t fit into one of the classes we try to help.
Democrats have not been speaking about those “white folks” who aren’t part of the power elite and thus, they feel ignored. I’ve heard the same from rural Democrats. FDR had enduring popularity because his programs seemed to be helping everyone.
Simple things could make a difference. In the ’60s, my brother ran for University of Michigan Reagent. He had a simple proposal: Keep the Affirmative Action scholarships, but add more needs-based scholarships as well, which would likely have aided a mostly poor, white, population (based on simple demographics).
That idea was ignored, and so has the party gone since RFK was murdered.
The country doesn’t have to stop supporting the redress of past wrongs while assuming that everyone else is just fine. We are big enough and strong enough (if we find a spine) to be certain that everyone feels heard. The party leaders just need to speak to this issue.