By
Robert Reich
Donald
Trump has just finished the last of his nine post-election “thank you tour”
rallies. Why did he do them? And why is he planning further rallies after
he becomes president?
One
clue is that Trump conducted them only in the states he won. And most attendees
appeared to have voted for him – overwhelmingly white, and many wearing Trump
hats and T-shirts.
When
warm-up speakers asked how many had previously attended a Trump rally, most
hands went up.
A
second clue is that rather than urge followers to bury the hatchet, Trump wound
them up. “It’s a movement,” he said in Mobile, playfully telling the crowd that in the
run-up to the election,
“You
people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall?’ ‘We want the
wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison!’ ‘Prison!’ ‘Lock her up!’ I mean, you were going
crazy. You were nasty and mean and vicious.” He called his followers “wild
beasts.”
A third clue: Rather than shift from campaigning to governing, Trump’s post-election rallies were almost identical to the rallies he held when he was a candidate – the same format, identical pledges (“We will build a great wall!”), and same condemnations of the “dishonest” media.
They
also elicited many of the same audience responses, such as “Lock her up! Lock
her up!”
And
rather than use the rallies to forgive those who criticized him during the
campaign, he employed them to settle scores — criticizing politicians who
opposed his candidacy, like Ohio Governor John Kasich; blasting media
personalities who predicted he would lose, such as CNN’s John King; and mocking
opponents, such as Evan McMullin, the Republican who campaigned against him as
an independent in Utah.
Trump
vows to continue these rallies after he becomes president. As he told the crowd in Mobile, “They’re saying, ‘As
president, he shouldn’t be doing rallies.’ But I think we should, right? We’ve
done everything else the opposite. This is the way you get an honest word out.”
“Get
an honest word out?” There’s the real tipoff.
Like
his non-stop tweets, Trump’s purpose in holding these rallies is to
connect directly with a large and enthusiastic base of followers who will
believe what he says – and thereby reject facts from mainstream media, policy
analysts, government agencies that collect data, and the scientific community.
During
his just-completed “thank-you tour,” Trump repeatedly claimed, for
example, that the murder rate in the United States is the largest it’s been in
45 years. In fact, it’s near a 50-year low, according to the FBI.
He
also repeatedly said he won the election by a “landslide,” when in fact he lost the popular vote by
2.8 million votes – over five times Al Gore’s margin over George W. Bush in
2000.
And
he repeatedly asserted that the election was marred by “massive voting fraud,” when in fact there has been no evidence of voting fraud at all (unless you
consider the possibility that Russia hacked into our voting systems – which
Trump dismisses).
A
democracy depends on truth.
Trump’s
claims that the murder rate is soaring may elicit support for policies such as
harsher policing and sentencing – the opposite of what we need.
His
assertions that he won by a landslide may give him a mandate he doesn’t
deserve.
His
claims of “massive voter fraud” could legitimize further efforts to suppress
votes through rigid ID and other requirements.
If
repeatedly told Muslims are the enemy, the public may support efforts to
monitor them and their places of worship inside America, or even to confine
them.
If
told that tide of undocumented immigrants is rising (in fact, it’s been
falling), the public could get behind draconian policies to keep them out.
If
told to ignore scientific evidence of climate change, the public may reject
efforts to reverse it.
If
told to disregard CIA reports of Russian tampering with our elections, the
public could become less vigilant about future tampering.
In
short, the rallies and tweets give Trump an unprecedented platform for telling
Big Lies without fear of contradiction – and therefore for advancing whatever
agenda he wishes.
It’s
no coincidence that Trump continues to denigrate the media, and hasn’t held a
news conference since July.
A
president intent on developing a base of enthusiastic supporters who believe
boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy.
This is how tyranny
begins.
ROBERT
B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations,"
and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving
Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect
magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR
ALL.