The Necromancer of Id [View all]

[H2O Man]

While I was watching a clip of Trump's talk last week, about his opposition to violence and white nationalism, I remembered something from long ago. I was in a training in Rome, NY, for forensic social workers, being presented by J. Reid Meloy, the psychologist who was widely recognized as our country's leading expert on sociopaths. Dr. Meloy was the top student of Dr. Robert Hare, who had devised the Hare Checklist for identifying sociopaths.

Each day of the training, Dr. Meloy spoke about the sociopath's ability “to know the words, but not the tune.” In other words, a sociopath can utter words in an attempt to feign empathy, etc, but it falls flat. In this case, Trump didn't even know the words – he was merely trying to read what someone else had composed for the teleprompter. His tone in delivering the message was devoid of any human emotion. The word “flat” does not fully capture the emptiness of his tone.

Now, this is not in and of itself one of the diagnostic traits found on Hare's Checklist. But it certainly blends in with a number of traits found on that checklist that Trump exhibits. There are twenty traits assessed on the Hare checklist, and the more traits one has, the higher they rank on the scale for sociopathy. For a quick review, let's consider those that one might associate with Trump: glib; grandiose; need for stimulation; pathological lying; manipulative; lack of remorse or guilt; lack of empathy; parasitic lifestyle; poor behavioral controls; promiscuity; early behavior problems; impulsive; irresponsibility and refusal to accept responsibility.

Among these are a cluster that are closely related for the potential for cruelty. The lack of the human traits of empathy, or remorse, combined with the refusal to take responsibility, can make for a cold and cruel specimen. The type that enjoys separating little children from their families. The type that takes pleasure in keeping children in metal cages. That orders ICE to separate parents from their children on the very day he goes to El Paso, to send the message that if you don't like children in cages, he'll leave them alone on the streets of America instead.

What might this mean in the context of the effort to impeach Trump and/or the 2020 presidential election? Let's apply the first lesson on campaigns ….there are three groups: those who will always vote for you, those who will always vote against you, and those who are either undecided or not firmly committed. No Democrat who watched Trump's reading of a speech last week is going to think, “Boy, that came straight from the heart. He isn't so bad.” And no white nationalist is going to think for a second that Trump meant a word of it. That leaves the third group, which is those who generally decide an election.

Now, it's important to remember that a presidential election is actually fifty state elections. While the popular vote should determine the outcome, it doesn't. Thus, it is essential that we focus on state polls, rather than becoming overconfident due to national polls. Still, with this in mind, it is evident that we can use Trump's obscene level of cruelty to our advantage. For but one example, there are enough film clips of him displaying his toxic filth that our party can highlight it in hundreds of commercials aimed at the undecided voters – as well as those who opted to not vote in 2016.

We know that Trump has a fragile, underdeveloped ego. When confronted, his id takes the reins. We saw that when Nancy and Chuck confronted him about the potential “Trump shutdown.” He reacted by taking ownership of what became a cruel, unpopular failure. That is his essence. Likewise, he hates to be the butt of jokes, and can be counted on to immediately go on the attack. We need to use these things ot only against him, but against every republican in DC who outright supports him, or who remains silent.