Again, Haslam and his co-authors quote Trump speaking at his January 6 rally:
Together, we will drain the swamps of Washington and we will clean up corruption in our nation’s capital. We’ve done a great job on it, but you think it’s easy. It’s a dirty business. It’s a dirty business. You have a lot of bad people out there.
Crucially, the 12 scholars wrote, Trump “did not give them clear instructions on what to do,” noting that “he did not tell anyone to break into the fence, enter the speaker’s office, or attack police and security guards.” Instead, Trump “invoked the values of strength, determination, and willingness to fight for justice (using the word “struggle” 20 times)” without specifying who or how they should fight, ‘set targets for his supporters’ to ensure that the election results were unconfirmed and thus to ‘prevent theft’ without specifying how to achieve that goal.
To Trump supporters, they continued,
Not a day of shame and disgrace, this is a day of vindication, empowerment and glory. The reason for this is that they were able to play a meaningful role in establishing a shared social identity and to do so in a way that allowed them to channel their emotional analysis and vision. leadership into a material reality.
Leaders gain influence, Haslam and his collaborators argue,
by defining the parameters of action in a way that frames the agency of their followers but leaves room for creativity in how to accomplish collective goals. On the contrary, subordinates demonstrate their loyalty and attachment to the leader by trying to be effective in advancing these goals, thereby empowering and empowering the leader with self-determination. .
In the case of January 6, 2021, they write:
Donald Trump exhorted his supporters that they should “fight” to “stop the theft” of the 2020 election, followed by an attack on the US Capitol. We argue that it is Trump’s willingness to participate in this joint identification process, not any guidelines in his speech, that should be the basis for assessing influence and accountability. his for the attack.
In conclusion, they argued:
It is important to realize that Trump is no puppet master and that his followers are more than puppets. Instead, he is the one who unifies, activates, and supports his followers during the dark events of January 6, 2021. As such, instead of overshadowing or sublimating his agency them, he framed it and released it.
They claim that the power of Trump’s speech
lies in providing an “ethical” framework that motivates his audience to work creatively to “stop stealing” – fostering a dynamic that ultimately leads to rebellion. The lack of timing for Trump to instruct his supporters to attack Capitol Hill makes the attack on Capitol Hill no less than his responsibility. The crimes committed by followers on behalf of the group are necessarily also crimes of the leader.
On January 7, 2021, 30 hours after the attack on the Capitol began, Trump condemn the assault in the videotaped comment: “I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the United States Capitol. Like all Americans, I resent violence, lawlessness, and chaos,” he said, adding, “To those who engage in acts of violence and destruction, the you do not represent our country. And with those who break the law, you will pay the price.”
However, in a CNN town hall in May, Trump call “a fine day” on January 6 and stated that he “tends to forgive” many rioters.
In a January article, “The origins of public opinion of electoral denialism” Charles Stewart IIIProfessor of political science at MIT, argues that Trump has unleashed deeply anti-democratic forces not only within the ranks of the Republican Party but also among an independent electorate:
The most asserted Republican denialists believe that great forces of evil are at work in world events, racial minorities are too much respected by society, and the destiny of America is the destiny of Christianity. Among independents, the most affirmed denialists are Christian nationalists, who resent what they see as the favored position of minorities. racial number.
Stewart continued:
The belief that Donald Trump was denied entry to the White House in 2020 because of Democratic Party fraud is arguably the biggest challenge to the legitimacy of the federal government since the Civil War, if not in US history. It’s hard to think of a time when nearly two-fifths of Americans seem to honestly believe that the man who entered the White House there was due to theft.
It is not yet known whether Trump will be charged in connection with his refusal to comply with all legal requirements of democratic electoral competition. Even so, no indictment can capture the magnitude of the damage Trump has inflicted on American politicians with his bad faith, gruff personality, and basically immorality.
