Playing at politician, candidate has adopted an old — and dangerous — trick
There is a technique politicians have used over time to gain favor from the masses, and it’s pure evil and morally bankrupt.
It can also be lethal.
It’s called the Karpman Drama Triangle.
Here’s the gist of it: You, the politician, create an enemy that will, you declare, endanger the very people who’s support you are seeking. You then position yourself as the savior, the person who has not only identified that enemy, but is also best equipped to deal with them and keep the helpless, frightened populace safe.
Hitler did a masterful job of this. So did Ronald Reagan (evil empire anyone?).
Donald Trump is trying, but he’s a mess. He sees enemies everywhere — Mexicans, blacks and now Muslims.
My Facebook page has been quite divided on this subject, and that both surprises and bothers me.
I disagree with Trump’s suggestion of “Bombing the Shit out of ISIS.” Don’t get me wrong, I find what ISIS is doing sickening. I find religious extremism disgusting — but not just the Muslim brand, the Christian brand as well.
But you can’t bomb an ideology. There are innocent civilians there, and they don’t deserve to have the shit bombed out of them.
Hearing people cheer at Trump’s comments gave me chills — the bad kind.
Do y’all not see the ridiculous hypocrisy at work here? The whole constitutional “Freedom of Religion” thing means everyone’s religion, not just yours.
It’s not a violation of religious freedom when you want to ban Muslims from a business or force them to wear a marking of some kind, but it’s religious persecution when Christians are inconvenienced in some way?
The same rules should apply to all. We are not a Christian nation. Our Constitution forbids the establishment of any religion.
Trump says stuff like some jerk 13-year-old kid. He’s all reaction and bravado with no thought for the consequences.
Those that cheer him are like the mindless followers in middle school that echoed the venomous comments of the 13-year-old brat. I don’t want that kind of person in the White House.
Another example of this “Unholy Trinity” is the opposition to HERO — the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. Once again, religious bullies painted transgender women as the enemy, and only these so-called religious leaders had the solution to “saving” women and children from attack in spaces where they seem most vulnerable.
Forget the fact that this just doesn’t happen.
On the other hand police officer Daniel Holtzclaw in Oklahoma City has been sentenced to 263 years in prison for using his authority as a cop to rape and sexually abuse and humiliate women. It’s just the latest example of abuse of authority.
Last month, an Associated Press investigation found that, between 2009 and 2014, nearly 1,000 police officers nationwide were either decertified or lost their badges for crimes like rape, sexual shakedowns and possession of child pornography.
So yeah, tell me again how trans women put other women and children in danger by using the bathroom.
These lies hurt people. How can church leaders preach the gospel on Sunday and lie like vermin the rest of the week and not see the hypocrisy? How can they deny safety to refugees based solely on their religion and then take a tax exemption for their church and lobby so hard for their own “religious freedom?”
How can they not see this? Or maybe they just don’t care.
I am against extremism in any form. My mom used to remind me often, “Everything in moderation.”
As for Mr. Trump, I am in a state of utter disbelief that any rational person takes him or anything he says seriously. Five lousy minutes on the Internet found a cornucopia of sites that fact-check the sewage that spews forth from his mouth.
One so-called “stat” the Trumpmeister tweeted recently was that 81 percent of murders of white people were committed by blacks. The organization he sourced doesn’t exist. Another agency — one you may have heard of called the Federal Bureau of Investigation — said the number is closer to 15 percent.
This is just hate mongering on Trump’s part, and it needs to stop.
There is plenty wrong with America that is real and can be verified. There is no need to make stuff up. But what Trump is doing is worse than just lying; he is ginning up hate and manufacturing enemies that don’t exist.
Trump isn’t anyone’s savior. He is an egotistical loudmouth who says the first thing that pops into his head. He panders to a dangerous base of people with no respect for the truth, who are seemingly ready to grab a pitchfork and a torch and hurl themselves against some refugee from a third world country because they worship a different version of the same God.
Really?
We are less than a year away from electing our next president. When we cast our vote, we are telling the rest of the world what kind of country we are. I’m hoping that the answer is that we are a country that is compassionate yet strong, respectful of all — a country that understands that freedom for one means freedom for all.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 25, 2015.