THE DISPLACED MYTHOLOGY OF THE GOP. When we invest our identity in a “tribe” we are the tribe and the tribe is us. The tribe gives us place and meaning…To go against the tribe is to go against my very self. Value politics is tribal politics, and the end of compromising democracy. Your Tribe becomes the One without a second. There is no council of tribes, just domination of one tribe over the others so its values will have no threat.
Both parties are identity polices. The GOP has a. unified “family values” absolute, which. excludes all those values that don’t fit theres. The Dems are unified in including all the values the GOP excludes. So you have the Value of the ONE against the Values of the Many special value groups. The One versus the Many.
However, Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into the GOP value machine because Trumps value is what’s good for Trump Power, not GOP power. This throws the GOP into a double-bind because what’s Valuable for Trump is not valuable for their reelection/power.
Another factor here is that mythic thinking or worldview (a stage in collective consciousness) used to be in the province of religion. But mythic thinking was secularized in the GOP so the GOP president (not the Democratic President) becomes the mythic savior, and all GOP values are engraved in the Bible. The Liberals have always functioned in the field of rational pragmatism. The GOP functions in mythic absolutes. These two world views are incompatible. The game can’t be played on two different fields with different rules for each field.
The reason a base won’t give up Trump is because he is their lamp. What good is a base without a light bulb?
What we have in the Trump Base is mythic displacement. Instead of God being transcendent, he has descended to earth and taken the form of Trump. This, of course, is madness. The stuff cults are made of.
Trump would say to his rally: Let my voice be your voice….which in effect says, Restore America, restore Me, restore you….The many is the One through Me. This will end with Trump. He will take this world with him. When the cult leader dies, the cult goes with him because He as a charismatic personality is its center. The GOP’s old center was principles, abstract values and talking points every conservative repeated in unison. Trump has displaced that center….This is a good thing. The 40 years log jam may be breaking up, but it is hard to see when standing on the logs.
A better word is Mythic Displacement. Myth is story that gives us meaning, purpose and a place in the world, a reason to be here. As long as myth remains personal, a discovery by me that changes my life, we are on good ground. But when the myth becomes collective, you have the Chosen People, and when the myth becomes secular, you have the Chosen Political Party. Now all hell breaks loose.
The mythic mind displaces its own power into authority or savior, and then makes prayers to the false idol to alleviate suffering. Mythic mind projects its own power into a false center and then takes shelter under that tent.
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