Why do you support him? I asked. "He's shaking Washington up," was the typical response.
I mentioned his lies. "He's telling it like it is," several told me. "He speaks his mind."
I talked about his attacks on democracy. "Every other politician is on the take," they said. "He isn't. He doesn't need their money."
I asked about his campaign's possible collusion with Russia. They told me they didn't believe a word of it. "It's a plot to get rid of him."
By making himself the center of an intensifying conflict, Trump grabs all the attention and fuels even greater passions on both sides.
It's what he did in the 2016 election, but on a far larger scale. Then, he sucked all the oxygen out of the race by making himself its biggest story. Now, he's sucking all the oxygen out of America by making himself our national obsession.
Trump received more coverage in the 2016 election than any presidential candidate in American history. Hillary Clinton got far less, and what she got was almost all about her emails.
Schooled in reality television and New York tabloids, Trump knows how to keep both sides stirred up: Vilify, disparage, denounce, defame, and accuse the other side of conspiring against America. Do it continuously. Dominate every news cycle.
Fox News is his propaganda arm, magnifying his tweets, rallies, and lies. The rest of the media also plays into Trump's strategy by making him the defining controversy of America. Every particular dispute -- DACA, the "wall," North Korea, Mueller's investigation, and so on -- becomes another aspect of the larger national war over Trump.
It's the divide-and-conquer strategy of a tyrant.
Democracies require sufficient social trust that citizens regard the views of those they disagree with as worthy of equal consideration to their own. That way, they'll accept political outcomes they dislike.
Trump's divide-and-conquer strategy is to destroy that trust.
So if Mueller finds Trump colluded with Russia, or Trump fires Mueller before Mueller makes such a finding, the pro-Trumps will block any consequential challenge to his authority.
Nothing could be more dangerous to our democracy and society.
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