THE POLITICS OF DENIAL MAY BE THE OPERATIVE FORCE DURING THE TRUMP YEARS

Michael A. Milburn & Sheree D. Conrad, Raised to Rage: The Politics of Anger and the Roots of Authoritarianism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: The MIT Press, 2016), originally published as The Politics of Denial (1996) (From "Introduction to the 2016 Edition": "Twenty years ago . . . we presented our initial search supporting what we now call 'affect displacement theory.' Our results suggest that attitudes toward some political issues might be determined, in part, by emotion rather than reason. We found, specifically, that men with a history of being brutalized in childhood seemed to both deny the pain of their own experience and their anger at the perpetrators, while simultaneously displacing that anger onto political issues that involve an element of punishment--the death penalty, the use of military force, punitive policies towards women seeking abortions, attitude with a large symbolic component of power, toughness, and retribution. Of course, not all conservatives who hold the attitudes have a history of childhood mistreatment, and not all conservative issues attract the same degree of emotion--it is particularly those issues that offer a perceived opportunity for retribution against those seen as transgressing social norms and moral imperatives." "The glorification of toughness is typical of individuals who held the views and displays the traits of authoritarianism, a personality type first identified by researchers studding anti-Semitism following World War II. Authoritarianism develops from rigid, punitive childbearing and involves denial of the reality of harsh, even terrifying parents and of one's own anger toward them coupled with displacement of the anger one disputed minorities in the society. The unforgiving rage toward out-groups grows in times of heightened stress form real social and economic instability." Out model helps to explain a paradox in U.S. public policy: although prevention worlds much better than punitiveness does in solving problems, punitive policies have generally succeed at the polls for the last thirty years. The displacement of anger, in some cases triggered by real economic and social instability, influences public support for punitive policies, and we have seen many politicians who have been willing to exploit punitiveness in their campaign rhetoric and policies, using scapegoating an exaggeration of danger, and leading to support of punitive public policies such as mandatory sentencing, three strikes and you're out, carpet bombing the Middle East, and the targeted killing of the families of terrorists--a war crime." Id. at xi-xii (citations omitted).).