By the time this column is published in the Duluth Reader and also around the world, the mid-term election of 2018 will be over. So, whether there is a blue wave or not, I have decided to update – and actually shorten (!) - a 2016 column that will make important points that might help make sense for future voters, whether they will feel relieved, triumphant, sad or angry - or not. The electorate still needs to understand what really motivates divisive or tyrannical politicians that have sought power and wealth no matter the era or nation. Please read it carefully.

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A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.

 

A narcissistis person who has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, sexual gratification, applause and a lack of empathy for others.

 

Aegomaniacis a pathological egotist, someone with a psychological disorder who exhibits symptoms like delusions of grandeur and an obsession with greatness, power or wealth.

 

A xenophobe is aperson who is fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or of people from different countries or cultures.

 

A demagogue is a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.

 

Once upon a time, there was a egomaniacal, sociopathic, narcissistic and xenophobic national leader who was attempting to rise to political power in his politically-divided, post-war nation. This deeply flawed demagogue, who was worshipped by millions of rabble-rousing, beer-swilling, racist, sexist, gun-toting, anti-Semitic, flag-waving, uber-nationalist, xenophobic, white supremacists, professed that his goal in running for national office was to make his supposedly weak, supposedly under-militarized country great again.

 

This charismatic leader despised democracy and he was campaigning to become the sole ruler of his democratic nation. He was one of the richest men in his country (because of a block-buster book deal) but was still despised by many clear-thinking voters. He was often joked about by comedians of his era. The candidate was often ridiculed, but he did impress those that attended his frequent campaign rallies by dramatically flying in on his private airplane.

 

This leader often used inflammatory and hate-filled language in his speeches which often incited violence against minority groups from his followers. He was widely covered by the press as an aberration in the struggling, once-civilized, democratic nation that seemed to be in need of new leadership.

 

This wannabe leader had amassed a devoted coalition of angry, under-employed, xenophobic white supremacists, especially from among the millions of physically and psychologically-wounded combat veterans from the last war who were easily recruited to participate in street-fighting for the cause. His followers exuberantly pledged allegiance to the nation’s flag, which many of them regarded as sacred.

 

This leader’s nation had lost its last war, which had morally and financially bankrupted the nation. The lost war had been stupidly started by an out-of-touch, over-privileged, ultra-wealthy, right-wing, pro-corporate, militarist, all-male leadership that was controlled by the nation’s war-profiteering bankers, industrialists and politicians that were “owned” by the members of those elite groups. Each of those groups knew that wars had huge economic benefits via interest-paying bank loans for war or by pillaging the resources of the involved nations, especially oil and minerals.

 

The competitor nations that had been targeted by the nation’s predatory banks and corporations in the last war were technically not military adversaries. Therefore, in order to start the war, the political and military leaders of the nation had secretly conspired to orchestrate a false flag operation that alarmed the nation into war-readiness and the willingness to kill their fellowman.

 

Like most wars, the next one, the candidate understood, would also have to also be started by a false flag operation. The leader’s nation’s corporate-controlled media virtually never questioned any of the many deceptions that came down from the so-called ruling elites, and so the newly-demonized – and soon-to-be-unjustly-invaded - nation could easily be accused of provoking the upcoming conflict;  and the brain-washed, mis-informed, distracted, historically-illiterate, easily duped electorate could be counted upon to endorse the invasion.

 

This particular egomaniacal political leader intended to purge or co-opt most of the old establishment types from his adopted right-wing political party as soon as he achieved power. He had seemingly come out of nowhere and gained political notoriety from his best-selling book and his political aspirations had achieved momentum after a world-wide economic collapse and the subsequent recession which had been fostered by powerful financial institutions and greedy investors.

 

The leader cunningly refused to blame recent troubles on the guilty 1%, the uber-wealthy corporations, the war-hawks and assorted traitors that had actually been behind the loss of jobs and lack of economic security.

 

Instead, he blamed the leftists, the liberals, the socialists and the democracy-embracing political party members who had taken on the impossible task of solving the severe economic issues, the excessive military spending and the unemployment that they had not been entirely responsible for in the first place.

 

The nation’s economic crash had tanked the world economy and led to planetary chaos. But the economic crash had been ignited by the reckless actions of criminally-wealthy, manipulative multimillionaires, who escaped the punishment they deserved because they were too big to criticize, too big to fail and too important to have their reputations besmirched in public.

 

This egomaniac and many of his cult followers were citizens of one of the most advanced, cultured, literate and highly Christianized nations that the world had ever known. Unfortunately, the reigning religious leaders, totally contrary to the doctrines of Jesus of Nazareth and the original form of Christianity, professed a belief in a punitive god that rewarded excess wealth and was a vengeful, violent and angry god rather than a merciful, all-loving, forgiving and nonviolent one as had been the belief of Jesus and his apostles.

 

This nation was also highly militarized. It had had a long military tradition that was universally feared (as opposed to “respected”) by the rest of the world and revered by most sectors of the demagogue’s nation, even though the officers and soldiers were frequently guilty of actions that were considered war crimes or crimes against humanity.

 

This nation’s police and military had possessed the best military intelligence, the best spies and the most lethal weapons systems that the world had ever known – all at crippling economic costs to the tax-paying population and little or no return on investment (unless the wars had been won and the post-war pillaging had been done efficiently).

 

The child-rearing tactics that the candidate had experienced in his childhood were famously punitive. His essentially absent, but quite successful-in-business father had embraced the spare the rod/spoil the child tactic, which in the case of the candidate, resulted in a lot of fear of the parent but also resentment and actual disobedience. Nation-wide, the punitive child-rearing of the candidate’s nation did result in obedient future soldiers and policemen who did not question the orders of their superior officers – even if ordered to torture enemy non-combatants, for example. Thus, the nation’s soldiers quite easily became willing executioners in times of war and societal chaos.

 

The followers of the demagogue were led to believe that their nation had been weakened by traitorous domestic and foreign enemies but would soon, if the leader was elected, be made great again. Many of the followers truly believed that their punitive Christian “god” would bless the leader’s mission and thus enable the religion to have dominion over all the other nations of the world, even if the methods to be used were anti-Christian in the extreme.

 

Because the followers thought that their efforts were blessed by god, they naturally thought that aggressive action against any dissenters or strangers among them could be justified, even to the point of banishment, imprisonment, impoverishment, starvation, deportation, execution and torture. In other words, the followers of this obvious sociopathic demagogue – who had a history of being a serial liar with a desire to increase his already significant wealth and power – abandoned all logic and truly believed that the leader could actually make their country – and their religion - great again.

 

In order to convince a plurality of voters to vote for him, the candidate fostered a paranoia among his followers that was intended to cause irrational fears (and therefore hatred) of non-citizens, the poor, the non-white, the non-Christian, the refugee, the asylum-seeker or the immigrant yearning to be free. Many refugees were fleeing from the consequences of wars, exploitation and economic chaos that the nation’s own giant financial institutions, multinational corporations, national security apparatus and economic hitmen had been responsible for in the first place.

 

The egomaniacal, sociopathic, narcissistic and xenophobic national leader/fuehrer described above was Adolf Hitler, but could have been any wannabe fascist dictator in the history of the world. The militarized and economically-distressed Christian nation was Germany, and the war that had financially and morally bankrupted Germany was the First World War. I have devised the story to be identical with what is known about Donald Trump and his idea of America.

 

The revered flag mentioned was the swastika, and the right-wing political party that hated liberals, progressives, socialists and foreigners so vehemently was the Nazi Party, but it is understandable why anyone would think “Stars & Stripes” and the “Trumpian Republican Party” as they read the story.

 

And, of course, the targeted minorities were German Jews, aboriginal gypsies, non-Aryans, emancipated German women, gays and lesbians, all of which happen to be among the same targets that Americans are currently being primed to discriminate against.

 

The false flag operation that gave Hitler a plausible reason to start World War II was Operation Himmler, not 9/11 (the documented false flag operation that has been consistently used to justify America’s global military exploits and perpetual war agenda). (Google “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth” and watch an hour’s worth of their videos for the unassailable proof of the assertion that 9/11 was a false flat op.)

 

But the historical similarities between what I call Friendly American Fascism and the distinctly less friendly German variety do indeed exist, and it is not just the fault of Donald Trump. Indeed, Donald Trump probably has never taken the time to study ANY history books, much less writings about the root causes and conduct of what led up to World War II, so one cannot claim that he is actually following the historical playbook of fascist dictators of the past. History, as they say, doesn’t replicate itself exactly, but it often does rhyme.

 

(One caveat about Trump’s never reading historical books: His ex-wife Ivana reported that Trump kept a copy of Adolf Hitler’s speeches at his bedside. His staff also said that Trump had “plenty of copies of Mein Kampf”.)

 

Donald Trump’s “Making America Great Again” political campaign does indeed rhyme with the campaigns of many other dictators or wannabe dictators throughout history. Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Salazar, Mao, Pinochet, etc also proclaimed that they wanted greatness for their respective nations. But sociopathic, narcissistic, egomaniacal, xenophobic and demagogic leaders will say and do anything to gain and secure power and wealth.

 

And the historical similarities between the psychological aberrancies of the fascist/fuehrer Hitler and far too many political and economic leaders in the world today do exist. Please go to http://duluthreader.com/articles/categories/200_Duty_to_Warn for many articles about American Friendly Fascism.

 

The column that I feel is most important is the psychological evaluations of Donald Trump and other power-seeking politicians or the corporations from which they derived their economic power. One does not need a medical degree to look at the criteria for personality disorders and judge if any given candidate (or corporation) qualifies for a diagnosis of a personality disorder. The particular column can be found at: http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/11/02/8231_a_psychological_evaluation_contrasting_the

 

Recall that neither sociopaths, narcissists, egomaniacs, xenophobes or fascists are to be trusted with political power, economic power or power over the military services. Sociopaths consistently lie and deceive but usually never acknowledge that they are lying and deceiving.

 

It is really important to understand that, for all intents and purposes, sociopaths and fascists (or their corporate counterparts) are incurable and need to be isolated from society.

 

In 2017, when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were still in the running to be on the ballot in  the presidential election of 2016, I wrote an article evaluating the three candidates as to their likelihood of having a sociopathic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder or paranoid personality disorder. The link to the article is: http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/11/02/8231_a_psychological_evaluation_contrasting_the.

Readers can draw their own conclusions.

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