Culture

Comrade Trump and the Truth

Jan 3, 2017 Chris Patten

When US President-elect Donald Trump takes office this month, Americans will be more divided than they have been in years. Never before has an American presidential inauguration been met with so many hosannas from the country’s oldest foe, Russia, and with such nervous anguish from its closest allies.

OXFORD – When US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, Americans will be more divided than they have been in years. Never before has an American presidential inauguration been met with so many hosannas from the United States’ oldest foe, Russia, and with such nervous anguish from its closest allies.

And never before has a US president been elected with such a popular-vote deficit: 2.8 million and counting. The leader of a government that is supposed to be of, by, and for the people has been elected by a clear minority of those people. It is fitting that only the Kremlin shares this idea of democracy.

Of course, educated observers know that US presidential elections are not decided by the popular vote, but by the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers created this system as a compromise between the popular vote and a vote by Congress, to balance the influence of each state. Alexander Hamilton reckoned that the Electoral College would prevent unqualified candidates with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from being elected. This rather confirms my view that the men who drafted the US Constitution had a sense of irony.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 26 Comments on this article

John Doyle Jan 8, 2017

Chris, truth is a casualty that Trump did not invent. He's more shameless but lies are bread and butter in politics today. Look at the efforts to undermine Trump, the Russian scandal, touted without evidence only a belief. Frankly we all fly blind as no one really knows the Truth, even if you were there. Maybe we understand this better as Trump has made it front and centre of his statements, but Obama lied too and probably everyone has to today. It's a bad sign, but its reality.
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William Cash Jan 8, 2017

The people in charge are Steve Bannon and the Robert Mercer family. Trump is simply the show out front diverting the press with his showmanship. Bannon and the Mercers love the shadows and they want to take the government apart. Bannon will use his Government Accountability Institute to dig up dirt on everyone. Soon no one will be able to say no to him.
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Andrew Baldwin Jan 8, 2017

Comrade Trump? Just when does bitterness over the War Party's candidate losing the election despite the endorsement of virtually the entire chattering class stray into the realm of mental derangement? The criminal Clintons have been denied a third term and people should be celebrating. Happy new year, Chris Patten!
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Wim Nusselder Jan 6, 2017

Yes, in Augustine's time truth may have been like a lion, or more to than now.
In the age of truthy Trump it may have turned into a chameleon, however, once we open its cage.
Social media have increased the performative strength of language and replaced truth as basis of power (pen as mightier than sword) with power as basis of truth (money empowering the word
Reality and the role of truth in it have changed and we will have to adapt, to obey and use to our advantage the social media rules.
If Trump can redefine reality and govern by tweet, we can learn to do so.
In the end trust & altruism will overcome fear & greed, because of our and everyone's ideals.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
j. von Hettlingen Jan 4, 2017

Ahead of upcoming elections this year in France, Germany, the Netherlands and possibly Italy, Chris Patten advises us to "open the lion's cage," in reference to Saint Augustine's wisdom: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose, and it will defend itself.”
It is all the more important to fend off the crusade of fake news and malicious propaganda that had sought to discredit respectable and responsible journalism in 2016, and helped Trump win the November election. Alexander Hamilton, one of the America's Founding Fathers would be turning in his grave, because he must see in Trump as someone with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity.”
In order to prevent Europe from propelling Trumpist populists to power, "each of us, as citizens, must campaign for truth and against prejudice and humbug, because if we lose the truth, democracy will be next." To start with, we have to single out politicians who lie and deny them the votes they deserve. Trump is a pathological liar. We, critics in Europe are fed up with the lies he told from the start of his campaign to his election. We have to prove ourselves more capable of being rational and critical. Many say they don't trust mainstream media, but they are legitimate outlets and often have a good reputation for serious journalism, even if we don't always agree.
Many of Trump's voters can't define their boundaries of belief and lack the mental ability to doubt the credibility of stories spread online. An example for their gullibility is the "Pizzagate" shooting - a conspiracy theory that purported to involve a child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton. A poll of 1,224 registered voters in late September found that 14% of Trump supporters believed it to be true. A significant 32% of respondents were “not sure.”
Today many people conclude that the outcome of the presidential election was influenced by Russian meddling - the release of hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's inner circle by WikiLeaks and a widespread belief in fake news among Trump voters. That same poll found that 73% of them thought the billionaire financier George Soros paid protesters to disrupt Trump's rallies – a piece of fake news that Trump later repeated himself. Another piece of fake news was that Democratic senators wanted to impose sharia law in Florida. It was repeated by Michael Flynn, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser.
Fake news is completely made up, manipulated to imitate credible journalism and deceive the public. They seek sensation and maximum attention for the sake of profit - advertising revenue. Patten's advice for coping with "the dark days ahead" - not to "allow lies to crowd out the truth in public discourse and debate. If social media are full of falsehoods, counter them with facts." It is important to prevent irresponsible people from "repeating fake-news headlines or ignorant, prejudiced claims" and take them to task. He encourages us to be active and challenge media outlets - "television or radio news programs" - publicly, that are "distorting the truth" by telling them and "their advertisers" what we think. "And ask your pastors and other community leaders to roll up their sleeves and do the same." I hope the US election will serve as a wakeup call. We need to get our act together and can't let fake news aggressors and propagandists insult our intelligence.
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John Landrum Jan 4, 2017

Anytime I read something by a leftist British academic, I get some good laughs. Chris did not disappoint with this leftist screed. He offered laugh line after laugh line. “Undocumented migrants” – how about illegal immigrants who are in the US in violation of existing US law? “Torture militants and target their families” – Where did this idiotic comment originate from? “Concluded that Russia hacked both Democrats and Republicans, but only leaked Democrats emails” – helps the left attempt to discredit a legitimate election win of the choice of the American electorate, as American elections are designed. That is by Electors, not by popular vote. “Pres. Barack Obama has now responded with……sanctions against Russian intelligence agencies” – only after he told Putin “to cut it out” in September 2016. “Cut it out”? Our President, the Community Organizer in Chief; the Buffoon from the Faculty Lounge tells the former KGB agent to “cut it out”. What could have been more clownish for a chief of state to say? And, of course, no sanctions when Obama “knew” there was a problem in September 2016. Only sanctions when it might help him along with the American and European left to discredit this election. Very, very convenient sanctions.

Now for the Electoral College and the popular vote. Hillary won the popular vote by 2,864,974 votes. She won California and New York combined by 6,002,850 votes. Take out California and New York and Trump wins the popular vote by 3,137,876 votes. Take out New York City and Los Angeles County and Trump wins the popular vote. California and New York are big welfare states where “handouts” influence voters to vote Democratic. Democrats continue to try to create more entitlements – more food stamp eligibility, more rent subsidies, more tax credits to individuals, free education, free health insurance, Obama phones, etc. The Democrats are trying to implement all of the European welfare state practices, which we know are failing miserably. The Founding Fathers designed the Electoral College to prevent the large population states (New York, Massachusettes and Pennsylvania at the time) from dominating Presidential politics by “block voting” their candidate into office. It worked perfectly as designed in this 2016 election. And it worked to the great dismay of the American and European left! Thank you, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison for your brilliance. And thank you, Chris, for the good laughs.
- Wim Nusselder Jan 6, 2017
  
  Yes, in Augustine's time truth may have been like a lion, or more to than now.
  In the age of truthy Trump it may have turned into a chameleon, however, once we open its cage.
  Social media have increased the performative strength of language and replaced truth as basis of power (pen as mightier than sword) with power as basis of truth (money empowering the word
  Reality and the role of truth in it have changed and we will have to adapt, to obey and use to our advantage the social media rules.
  If Trump can redefine reality and govern by tweet, we can learn to do so.
  In the end trust & altruism will overcome fear & greed, because of our and everyone's ideals.
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
- Ted Smith Jan 6, 2017
  
  1. Patten was a Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister, not a "leftist" and more than Trump is a conservative.
  
  2. Torture militants? Trump Ohio rally, June 2016, Trump renewed his praise of waterboarding (banned by the Bush administration in 2006 as both potentially illegal and ineffective): “What do you think about waterboarding?.... I like it a lot. I don’t think it’s tough enough.”
  
  3. "helps the left attempt to discredit a legitimate election win". What exactly are the CIA, FBI etc expected to do? Sit on the evidence?! Say nothing? Why did Obama do nothing before the election - because he only wanted bipartisan support (which he could not get on the Hill) for any actions against Russia, absent which he feared the appearance of politicisation of the intelligence agencies, in such a contentious election atmosphere. Other than burying the awkward truth about Russia and its interventions, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
  
  4. "cut it out" was used by Obama as the means to warn China about industrial espionage and it had some positive impact - isn't it amazing that some international diplomacy isn't conducted via public tweets.
  
  5. You're entitled, of course, to dislike pro-welfare policies in some European states, but at least have the honesty to recognise that Corporate Welfare and crony capitalism (case study: US banking) is the American alternative. As to the failure or success of European policies, suggest you look at one simple graph in the Martin Wolf article in today's FT showing US mortality rates since 1990.
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- Walter Gingery Jan 4, 2017
  
  "The Democrats are trying to implement all of the European welfare state practices, which we know are failing miserably."
  
  Actually, we don't know anything of the kind. Indeed, the truth is just the opposite. It is the US's LACK of a welfare state that is failing miserably .To take just one example out of many: despite many American's notions of the American Dream, the unequal funding of primary and secondary education in the US means that social mobility is actually lower in the US than it is in the Nordic countries.
  
  (Taxes per person in Sweden are also lower. Check the figures from the OECD.)
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ishaq yusuf Jan 4, 2017

When the wish of the minority is allowed over the wish of the majority then America has no moral basis to teach the world about democracy. The electoral college is then likens to a cult system in a democracy. Globalisation is at a cross road, a critical juncture with ramifications in Mid East, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa. Trump, you are welcome.
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Shi Jin Jan 4, 2017

"the author of this article should focus on the problems in his own backyard and leave Trump and the US alone. " thats a stupid argument. By this logic the estate mogul should have left politics alone, the citizen should leave the police alone, the poor man should leave the rich alone, the healthy should leave the sick alone.
We are all humans, and seeing how massive the US is intruding on foreign soil and their governments (wich allies as much as with foes) we should all be concerned with a orange demagogue as the leader as one of the most powerful (thankfully rapidly declining) forces there is.
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Petey Bee Jan 3, 2017

Eh, the US's oldest foe is the UK, but who's counting ? ;-)

Given the unhappy outcome of the electoral college system, US voters would do well to agitate for reform. A constitutional amendment is not realistic, but individual states have the power to determine how they apportion electors. This year, one state, Maine, passed a referendum to switch from winner-take-all for that state's electors, to dividing them in proportion to the popular vote within the state. If enough states do this, the problem goes away. If Democrats care about this issue, as they should, that is the thing to press for.

Other things to note are comparing the US election to the one in Austria. In Austria, the Freedom party won a plurality of support, but was simultaneously opposed by the majority. Their runoff election system successfully processed this common situation. Something like that would help the US as well, I think.

More than a few people, including me, repeatedly observed that Clinton was, in terms of national popular appeal, the weakest candidate the Dem party could have put forward in this anti-establishment climate, but unfortunately it was "her turn". Reforming the party nomination process to be less vulnerable to manipulation by insiders[*], so that more competitive candidates can be nominated, would be wise. If we want to avoid future Trump's. [ * note: as confirmed by the Podesta archives released on Wikileaks - a big thank you to whoever did that!].

I have many severe fears about a Trump administration (expecting a revival of GW Bush follies), but it saddens me even more deeply to see the mainstream "opposition" to Trump joining him in the fake-news twitter-age freedom-fries mode of rhetoric. They piss away not only their own credibility, but the future of the country. If they do a bad enough job (as they are on track to do at the moment), a 60-vote Republican supermajority in the Senate may come in 2018.
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M M Jan 3, 2017

The author of this article should focus on the problems in his own backyard and leave Trump and the US alone. At least in the US there is a democracy (and not a life peer, etc.). If Trump does not deliver, his own party that hates him so much will be out in a couple of years time, and he shall follow them 2 years later, unlike the ones in the UK with jobs for life....
- M M Jan 6, 2017
  
  Ted, I usually ignore people that like to make fools of themselves and who live in their own cocoons. Your comments below and above, are utter rubbish, if you feel there is real democracy in the UK, good like to you.
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- Ted Smith Jan 6, 2017
  
  I guess you mean the House of Lords? They are an advisory legislature only. We vote in and out our primary legislators too.
  
  Perhaps make something more than a whataboutery argument next time?
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John Brian Shannon Jan 3, 2017

Hi Chris,

"So, what can we do in the dark days ahead? For starters, we must not allow lies to crowd out the truth in public discourse and debate. If social media are full of falsehoods, counter them with facts. If co-workers are repeating fake-news headlines or ignorant, prejudiced claims, challenge them on it. If television or radio news programs are distorting the truth, pick up the phone and tell them and their advertisers what you think. And ask your pastors and other community leaders to roll up their sleeves and do the same.

Each of us, as citizens, must campaign for truth and against prejudice and humbug, because if we lose the truth, democracy will be next." -- Chris Patten

Of course, it applies to all sides, to the Republicans, the Democrats, the media, and to the elites.

The enemy of democracy is apathy. Almost everything else strengthens a democracy, but apathy kills it.

Happy New Year to you, Chris! JBS
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Curtis Carpenter Jan 3, 2017

On the other hand, it may be that Mr. Sierakowski in his article on "The Five Lessons of Populist Rule" here on Project Syndicate today, may be right -- that the only way to meet the vulgarity, lies and misrepresentations of the Trump people is with counter-vulgarity, counter-lies and counter-misinterpretations.

If so, then we are well and truly on our descent into the Hobbesian hell that Donald Trump and his more enthusiastic followers seem to long for.
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Peter Schneider Jan 3, 2017

If you call your own opinion "truth" and your opponent's opinion "prejudice", "hate" and "humbug" then you have already lost democracy.
- Peter Schneider Jan 4, 2017
  
  @Paul/JBS:
  So then, please name the institution that distinguishes truth from falsehood (or orthodoxy from heresy).
  What is referred to as "truth" in this article rather seems to be a political program that has lost its broad popular support due to its desastrous effects.
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- John Brian Shannon Jan 3, 2017
  
  Hi Peter and Paul,
  
  "People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts."
  
  As long as citizens keep reminding politicians, the media, and the elites of that view -- it will serve as a check and balance on the worst of it. (I hope)
  
  Best regards, JBS
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- Paul Ross Jan 3, 2017
  
  A "truth" is not an opinion... A statement that is objectively false should be called out as such and challenged, and when the speaker of the falsehood continues to repeat it, they should be called a "liar".
  
  Excusing falsehoods as "opinions" is the intellectual equivalent of a participation trophy.
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Ariel Tejera Jan 3, 2017

There are unique traits of Trump campaign, relevant to the matter of this article, but seldom mentioned:
First: Trump is a master entertainer and acute reader of his public's passions. This last item is the main source of his presidential agenda, formed and embraced in a theatrical stage.
Second: He flies solo. No need for a party, electoral and media consultants, geopolitical pundits, Washington D.C. connections, central bank grand-masters. Nothing. He's stand-alone all the way.
Third: He was elected precisely because of all of the above.
Mercy on us.
- Marc Laventurier Jan 3, 2017
  
  Put another way, "It's the (targeted voters') stupidity, stupid!"
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