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There is nothing funny about Donald Trump. Like other autocrats and political thugs he thrives on being underestimated. Last week there was another example of this error by Donald Trump's detractors and others who oppose him.
On Twitter, his favorite means of communication, Donald Trump proclaimed last week:
When referring to the USA, I will always capitalize the word Country!
Trump was mocked by comedians on late night television. Other prominent voices pointed to Trump's "misspelling" as further proof that he is a dolt and a fool. By implication, his constituents are fools and dolts as well. This version of liberal Schadenfreude is a feature in the Age of Trump.
It is small comfort which ignores the fact that Donald Trump 's grammatical errors and odd spelling are – as admitted by White House insiders some months ago – "Folksy" and "Authentic. Trump's false-populist appeal depends on their ability to relate to their fans by sharing their grievances and hostility toward those liberals and progressive they perceive as looking down on "real Americans."
To understand Donald Trump, one must begin with the fact that he is an American fascist – an autocrat and authoritarian by instinct, behavior, and values. This is the nucleus of his being. This is the prism through which to understand Donald Trump.
I asked several leading experts on fascism and authoritarianism to help me understand Trump's conversion of "Country" into a proper noun.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, author of the forthcoming book "Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall," and featured commentator in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9":
Trump's statement that he'll capitalize on the word "country" and "moral", "just" and "politically" and "above all, racially acceptable." It is a technique used by every authoritarian leader, often with success. Trump language can be anything but accidental, including his capitalization strategies.
Richard Frankel, Professor of Modern German History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, an expert on the rise of Nazism in Germany, whose work has been featured in Newsweek and on the History News Network:
I see it as another way of saying "America First." He's putting the emphasis on the country, on the nation, on America before anything else. He's contrasting himself and his followers with those who see America in the world, in which cooperation, not confrontation, is what is what's best for everyone. Those who see it are the "real Americans." Those who are not the enemy. It's the pitting of "America Firsters" against the dreaded "Globalists." It's another way to divide the country – inclusion through exclusion.
Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of "How Propaganda Works" and the new book "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them":
Via linguistic style and repetition, Trump is inculcating his followers with an ethic of authoritarian nationalism. Organized religion is a local authoritarian structure; The authority of God is signaled linguistically, by capitalizing "God" or not completely spelling out the word. According to Trump, like "God," "Country" should be capitalized. This is a linguistic means of signalizing the quasi-religious authority of the nation. And since the nation is not a person, or a person-like figure, that religious authority should be transferred to its leader, Donald Trump.
It (again) reminded me of this quotation from Victor Klemperer's "Language of the Third Reich": "Nazism permeated the flesh and blood of the people by the single words, idioms and sentence structures which were imposed on them in a million repetitions and taken on board mechanically and unconsciously … language does not just write and think for me, it also dictates my feelings and governs my entire spiritual being unquestioningly and unconsciously I abandon myself to it. "
Several days after Trump made his statement about the correct spelling of our "Country," he said that he was a proud "nationalist." Because Trump is a racial authoritarian – and a student of "alt-right" Steve Bannon guru White House adviser Stephen Miller, principal architect of his nativist immigration policy – his brand of nationalism is in no sense "neutral." It is in reality white nationalism, which is called by that name or not. Donald Trump may evade or deflect from that fact. But it is true nonetheless. This is evident through repeated hostility to nonwhites and Muslims.
An embrace of nationalism by Donald Trump fits neatly within his logic for capitalizing the word "Country" when referring to the United States of America.
Benjamin Hett, Professor of History at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of "Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery" and "The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise" to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic ":
This is language I do not remember hearing from any other president. And this is where the significance of "Country" comes in. Trump the "nationalist" with his capital C in "Country" uses "globalist" as a pejorative. He is step by step dismantling the international infrastructure which the United States created after the Second World War to maintain a democratic and prosperous global order. Just in the process of breaking down the INF treaty with Russia, another horrifically dangerous step. This is all reminiscent of the nationalism of the German administrations of the early 1930s, up to and including Hitler – turn away from the world, turn away from crucial international connections, turn away from peace and democracy. We know, or should know, that this can not be done anywhere else.
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Some people laugh when they are terrified. It is not that the situation is funny; rather, their brains existential process dread through the physical act of laughter. This is why we are laughing at Donald Trump's Gaffes and Misspellings, and his other crude and boorish behavior. Donald Trump's America is a real thing. We are stuck in it and we still can not believe it. In the final analysis, laughter provides some short-term relief during the walk to the political gallows. The laughter feels good. The noose is still waiting.
