What is Donald Trump? Is he a prosperity gospel preacher? A Platonic tyrant?
To delve into this question, religion-oriented analysis can be useful. After all, politics isn't just about policy. It's about identity, community, meaning, and belief.
Trump has powered his campaign by playing on the fears of sinister threats. He has backed anti-vaxxers and engaged in nativist fantasies Trump's most popular policies are based on fears of contagion; defined as "the communication of disease by direct or indirect contact."
To many in Trump's base, drummed-up fears of people that are deemed to be "other" have been extremely powerful motivating factors, in part accounting for the maintenance of their support of Trump and approval of his policies. His rhetoric both creates and ratchets up anxiety and fear on a daily basis. In the human brain, these visceral emotions, when continually stoked, bypass reason and logic altogether.
James Frazer, a Scottish anthropologist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, analyzed anthropological and classical literature to speculate on the origin of magic and religion. According to Frazer, throughout history illusionists appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings because of their ability to deceive and manipulate the masses.
In The Golden Bough, he wrote that the best of them "perceive how easy it is to dupe their weaker brother and to play on his superstition for their own advantage." They were often sincerely convinced that they "really possessed those wonderful powers which the credulity of his fellows ascribes to (them)."
The savviest illusionist-king, in other words, tells the people what they want to hear, and truly believes that he is the best, the greatest, fantastic, unbelievable.
Frazer argued that society should be wary of these political illusionists, because they subvert democracy. They shift "the balance of power from the many to the one."
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