There's a monologue from the movie “V For Vendetta” that I always found powerful, and right, but now seems even more salient (at least part of it – I'm less convinced about people being held accountable):
How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.
This has parallels in America's current position (and our recent history) and the media atmosphere we live within. News stories of violence and death get over hyped to seem as if this is happening everywhere – the “invasion at the border”, “foreign gangs”, and the “violent immigrants” stories and “migrants are taking your jobs”, and instilling fear of being replaced by minorities; stories that have been pushed – primarily by the right-wing media – despite them not being truthful (or entirely truthful), but commented on by all media, giving the original stories credibility. The stage is set.
Along comes a candidate, who is all to happy to play up these fears, who has no issues with lying constantly about what he believes, or what he wants; he's been lying his whole life, and the world has bought into it. A business mogul, his name synonymous with gilding. Donald Trump promises that only he can fix things, put the country back on track. No one can make deals the way he can (which ... seems like it might be true; just not as he intended it).
He promised to make America great, and people ate up his lies, his empty promises. The only promises he's kept are the ones that harm people.
And, at least at this point, plenty of people still support him ... he's been hurting the people they don't like, so they're still satisfied.
I keep wondering if there's a line that can be crossed. If his actions are no hurting his supporters, will they finally see reason and turn against him. I think that, unfortunately, there is no line – as long as he's hurting “the others” (immigrants, minorities, women, the LGBTIA+ community, etc.) then they're willing to shoulder the burden as well.
There may be many reasons that people bought into the lies he spat, but I think the core of those reasons comes back to fear. A fear continually stoked by Trump's campaign, but a fear that was instilled in people for decades by the targeted fearmongering of talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh, and Rupert Murdoch's Fox News (“news” ;) ), bringing their grievances into the mainstream and making them palatable for the larger public – don't keep your racist feelings to yourself for fear of being shamed, fly our racist flag proudly!
The groundwork laid, the demagogue slides in.
Will there be consequences? For the lies, the deaths caused by his actions (and inaction), the lives destroyed, the theft of public resources and services, the grifting, the cons, the sexual harassment and assault? Either for him or those he's put in charge of various destructive projects?
I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath. My fear is that this continues as the new normal, the abject corruption and destruction will last beyond my lifetime.