Traditions and the law frame who we are as Americans. Both are under assault from Trump and the GOP
Destroying traditions and law, equates to destroying America
TAT readers,
First and foremost, I hope that we will all celebrate our last Friday and weekend of relative peace, prior to Trump’s war on America, come Monday.
Trump’s toddler tantrum regarding the flag at half-staff on inauguration day, and his party’s sycophantic subservience in tossing aside tradition, is not just one of their typical, intentional provocations, it represents a strong indicator of their sustained, decade-long intent to dissemble, who we are as Americans. For thousands of years, dictatorial leaders have used the same tactics to undermine the very identity of conquered nations, therefore controlling and dominating them Trump and his MAGA GOP are no different.
Nations, like people, have unique identities built on unlimited cultural factors that define who they are. Two of the most important factors are their traditions and the law. Our federal law is built on the foundation of our constitution called the USC or US Code. Section 4 of the USC defines the rules for all US flag issues. As that the US flag represents our nation, by default it represents our identity. Our identity, like the unique identity of any nation, is the backbone of what we consider our patriotic traditions. In the case of our flag at half-staff for 30 days honoring our deceased presidents, we have codified that tradition in our law. Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and the entire GOP, have decided to conscientiously and clearly say, “they don’t give a damn.”
Those who know me well have heard the following expression from me countless times; “people and organizations, are what they do, not what they say.” Of course, Maya Angelou was far more eloquent in expressing a closely related sentiment when she said; “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Both quotes should warn every honest American that the threat to our constitutional republic, is severe under Trump and his GOP lemmings.
In the past 30 or so years, the GOP has been working hard on a strategy to undermine both our laws and the traditions they protect. Such types of “indoctrination” are for the express purpose of creating a controllable identity via influence operations. The Soviets and now Russians call this, “Active Measures” and Reflexive Control is the point. Reflexive Control is represented in the GOP by their voters’ lemming-like subservience to Trump and his minions. Yes, Russian cooperation with the GOP, wittingly and unwittingly played a large role in the conversion of conservatives into The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence.
"Reflexive control is a “uniquely Russian” concept based on maskirovka, an old Soviet notion in which one “conveys to an opponent specifically prepared information to incline him/her to voluntarily make the predetermined decision desired by the initiator of the action”.[ii] That is, reflexive control is a sustained campaign that feeds an opponent select information so that the opponent makes the decisions that one wants him/her to. Methods of reflexive control include spreading false information, leaking partial information at opportune moments, and projecting a different posture of oneself than what may actually be the case.[iii] The goal of reflexive control is to ‘control’ the ‘reflex’ of the opponent by creating a certain model of behavior in the system it seeks to control.[iv] The most fundamental way to do this is to locate the weak link in the system and exploit it through moral arguments, psychological tactics, or appeals to specific leaders’ character.[v]" - Reflexive Control, Perception Management & The MAP - Cornell - RJB - 02 May 2021
They do this no differently than did Hitler, the Soviet Union, the Taliban, Iran under the Ayatollahs, MAO with his “Cultural Revolution” or even the Confederacy during our own Civil War. Rome during their heyday, used the same tactics and strategies as have the nations of the west, when colonizing much of the world. None of this is anything new or earth shattering to understand, as that these types of historical examples are familiar to anyone who has experienced a couple of history classes in middle school or high school. To make this more easily understood, the incessant culture wars from the GOP are nothing more than topics that assist, sustain and continue rebranding the identity of the party.
The only exception is when it comes to US political parties who have for 250 years, sought to establish their own unique identities for power and control of our government. In modern days, marketers might call establishing this unique identity, “branding or more accurately, rebranding.” It’s more than this but close enough for the purpose of this essay. For those last 30 years, the GOP has rebranded itself from having a conservative identity, to having an un-American, authoritarian, oligarchical embraced and White Christian Nationalist identity, with political violence in the Trump era as their means for suppressing the GOP’s original conservative identity. The most succinct description of the rebranded GOP is, “God, Guns and Trump." None of this has any real roots in American patriotic traditions but the success of the three
Over the years, that constitutionally safe, “principled conservatism” that stayed between our constitutional guardrails, has slowly evolved into a far-right, unconstitutionally focused, anti-American political party. This my friends, is the core threat I am addressing with this vignette regarding changing the flag code, to accommodate Trump’s charismatic malignant narcissism. For the most part, FOX News has been the primary propaganda outlet over the past thirty years, that has conditioned their GOP audiences, to subconsciously accept and identify with, the MAGA GOP we see today. In other words, even without Trump, today’s GOP would still be rebranding FOX News style and again, expressly for controlling their audiences via rebranding.
Such so-called branding efforts are really what influence professionals call, “Narrative Warfare,” the specialty of our Think Tank, Narrative Strategies, where I am the Vice President.
Trump’s malignant narcissism contributes substantially to rebranding what it means to be the type of American that embraces our traditions as branded by our founders, not subsequent politicians and their parties. Charismatic leaders throughout history often reshape the malleable identities of their followers. This is often due to vulnerabilities in their existing identities. When adversarial influencers use influence operations to “reflexively control” their audiences, they also wield influence operations to create and then exploit those vulnerabilities. This is far from a reliable tactic, unless wielded by professionals in the influence professions.
When it comes to NW or rather Narrative Warfare, the key factor is understanding your audience’s identity. Only a handful within the US national security community understand the criticality of understanding identity. In my professional opinion, there are only two ways to understand identity; 1. know how to analyze for it via narrative principles, or to build it into your audiences over time. The latter takes years and in fact, more like decades. Let us remember that FOX and similar far-right, media outlets have been strategically shaping the right’s identity for three decades via programming. The majority of FOX viewers have been subjected to having their identities reshaped to fit the current fake American values, we now see in most Republican voters. Their patriotism, though believed deeply, is nothing more than a thirty-year-old conspiracy theory that handed over their souls to fake American values, and hence, fake patriotism.
For our own sake and that of our nation’s future, we must recognize the underlying threats from charismatic malignant narcissists like Trump, in order to keep them from their insatiable desires and destructive aggression. To be clear, I have no license or other specific training to diagnose Trump, but I do have a lifetime of operational experience that requires deep understanding, of many aspects of psychology. Trump’s case is one of those aspects. My profession is protecting our nation from adversarial influence, which includes the sadistic, dictatorial obsessions, found in most of our most serious, national security threats. Domestically, our most pervasive and dangerous threat is a combination of Trumpian/ MAGA GOP influence campaigning in conjunction with Russian state influence operations. A malignant narcissist is uniquely suited to lead such campaigns. Below, a bit about malignant narcissism.
To keep things simple and as easily understood as possible, I will add below, excerpts from a favorite source, SimplyPsycology.org. Yes, there are mountains of medical and social science journals that cover these topics in-depth but for the purpose of communicating clearly, Simply Psycology.org is a very helpful source.
The term “malignant narcissist” is not an official psychiatric diagnosis as it is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). However, this psychological concept is considered a severe form of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), used to characterize individuals who exhibit extreme narcissistic traits with particularly harmful or malicious intentions. Erich Fromm called malignant narcissism “the quintessence of evil.” - Malignant Narcissist: How to Spot Them and How to Cope - SimplyPsycology.org - By Anna Drescher - Updated on January 23, 2024 - Reviewed by Saul McLeod, PhD & Julia Simkus
The quotes below from the linked article highlight just why, we should all be motivated to resist his attempts to satisfy his incurable personal desires. To be clear, Trump is a much a slave to his malignant narcissistic desires as his followers are to his.
Researchers and psychologists have recognized malignant narcissism in Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong. They also described the evil stepmothers in Snow White and Cinderella as examples of “classical malignant narcissists.” "To ensure they are always the center of attention, they can be loud and dramatic. They expect others to admire and submit to them and will demand and extort special treatment and obedience even if the other is reluctant." "To ensure they are always the center of attention, they can be loud and dramatic. They expect others to admire and submit to them and will demand and extort special treatment and obedience even if the other is reluctant." "A key feature of malignant narcissism is sadism – the disposition to derive pleasure from inflicting pain or suffering onto others. They may engage in emotional, verbal, or physical abuse, relishing in the control they exert over their victims. They might fantasize about hurting other people or causing others psychological pain. Some may engage in consensual or nonconsensual sadistic sexual activities. Malignant narcissists view their sadistic tendencies positively and believe they have the right to hurt people." "To the malignant narcissist, the world is a hostile place. Malignant narcissists are paranoid individuals, constantly interpreting other people’s intentions as malevolent or suspicious. They believe everyone around them is either an idiot or an enemy, and they persecute them relentlessly. They will idealize a few people — usually those who satisfy their narcissistic needs — and despise everyone else." - Malignant Narcissist: How to Spot Them and How to Cope - SimplyPsycology.org - By Anna Drescher - Updated on January 23, 2024 - Reviewed by Saul McLeod, PhD & Julia Simkus
There is a great deal to chew on, in today’s essay, so I will not beleaguer these points any further, in order to give folks a chance to digest the depth and depravity of Trump and MAGA’s intentions regarding our republic. The threats are real and severe. I want to reemphasis here that neither Trump nor our GOP friends and family will change without professional resistance to theirs and Russia’s NW campaigns. Tragically, NW is so poorly understood in our national security communities and with no intentions of ever becoming proficient.
Not only is “narrative” a buzzword that defense contractors throw around to gain highly paid defense industry contracts, but most of the community absurdly believes that there is a combination of tech and AI that can save us. Nepotistic defense contracting like the new fraudulent, National Center for Narrative Intelligence at Ole Miss and underpinned by a deceitful tech company called Edge Theory, is incapable of helping, but exclusive focus on tech rather than understanding human influence, will give our adversaries additional, unchallenged time to subject more Americans to NW.
My friends, it is up to us to engage our fellow citizens in public forums and argue for real American values as evidenced in our founding documents that the GOP purposely misinterprets for their audiences. In this case the old adage, “you can’t win if you don’t play,” is the operative phrase.
Okay, okay, I promised that I’d wrap this up and that’s what I’m doing right now. Please, ponder today’s essay deeply. Trump’s actions, come Monday morning will seriously undermine our national security and even worse, the republic itself if they use the Project 2025 180-day, transition playbook. Let’s not get ourselves so involved in the daily culture wars that the GOP uses as a diversion from their most nefarious activities.
Until Trump and the MAGA GOP are gone… my flag will be upside down.
Now… I offer my warmest and most heartfelt wishes for your weekend. Let’s not make it the last weekend of our republic as we know it. I don’t fight today’s MAGA movement for a political party. I write these essays because I am duly sworn to, “protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” We can save the republic together, if we act. I’m all in.
Paul
For additional reading on today’s essay:
Conned, the conversion of the GOP conservatives into right-wing extremists
The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Violence
What is Christian Nationalism and why it is a threat to democracy?