Resumen de Politics of fear and attention-based politics promote Donald Trump and other right-wing autocrats

David L. Altheide, Norbert Merkovity

• español

  Any society runs on fundamental assumptions about rights, liberty, justice, and routine social processes that are implicitly and explicitly communicated. While these have often been problematic for minority group members, they are now less certain for many Americans and citizens in numerous democratic countries since Donald Trump refused to accept losing the 2020 presidential election and then incited an insurrection against the Congress of the United States on January 6, 2021, just weeks before his term ended. This shift is mainly due to policy changes, such as abolishing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Fairness Doctrine in 1987 that facilitated right-wing news organizations like Fox News (Honig, 2019), along with the rise of digital media that altered the communications ecology and promoted disinformation for profit (Benkler; Faris and Roberts, 2018; Benkler et al, 2017; Bennett and Livingston, 2018). These changes were the foundation for President Trump’s weaponizing of fear, especially his rhetoric about murderous illegal immigrants and the pursuit of a multi-billion border wall to keep Americans safe and keep his supporters fearful. Propaganda and false claims about immigrant criminality contribute to Republican supporters’ anger, but most anger is based on deep-seated fears and misinformation.

• English

  La sociedad suele basarse en preconceptos acerca de los derechos individuales, la libertad, la justicia y los procesos que hacen a la vida rutinaria. Los estadounidenses aceptan sin crítica alguna, ciertas ideas base aun cuando estas sean discriminatorias o invasivas para ciertos colectivos minoritarios. Todo ello es ciertamente desastroso para la democracia legitimando a largo plazo las políticas iniciadas por Donald Trump y su administración. Por medio de la manipulación política del temor, Trump supo imponer una retórica discriminatoria basada en la peligrosidad de los inmigrantes ilegales como así también en la necesidad de construir un muro en la frontera con México con el fin superior de proteger a los estadounidenses. Por medio de noticias falsas, y una propaganda espuria, sus políticas recibieron el apoyo del partido Republicano recordando que el resentimiento se nutre de fuerzas profundas como el temor y la desinformación.