Tariffs, storytelling and the cult of personality
Is there a lesson about public discourse we can wrest from our current moment of intransigent bullheaded politics?
While trying to decide between an American lager or dive into my limited stockpile of Mexican Tequila to make a Paloma, I began to wonder what, exactly, I was being “liberated” from with the Trump Administration’s avalanche of new tariffs.
I decided on making the Paloma because I’m a supposedly evil globalist who revels in using foreign products. Also, beer simply wasn’t going to be strong enough for me to cope with the equally large avalanche of sycophantic cheerleaders ready to defend the idea of taxing Americans into protectionist glory.
But I don’t want to spend this essay whinging about the largest tax increase in American history being imposed unilaterally by a single man hellbent on misunderstanding the value of international trade. Others are covering that topic comprehensively elsewhere (Reason.com is always a good read) and this pokey little corner of the internet isn’t really the place for me to add my take to the mix. (Although, I will likely be publishing a column elsewhere on the topic — so maybe I’ll share a link at a later date.)
Instead, I want to see if there might be a lesson about public discourse we can wrest from our current moment of intransigent bullheaded politics.
As stocks crashed and experts from (literally) all sides of the political spectrum decried the launch of an international trade war last week, one would think at least a few diehard Trump loyalists would ask themselves, “gee, did we miss something here?” Indeed, much of the vocal opposition to Trump’s tariffs isn’t coming from the “socialist” boogeymen who Trump’s base easily ignores — it’s coming from the right. Experts and leaders who are otherwise generally allies of Republican economic policy have shown outrage over how dramatically these tariffs depart from the sort of “free trade” policies that used to define the party.
And yet, not a glimmer of hesitation, trepidation or self-reflection appears imminent among the Trumpist wing of the Party — including “thought leaders” who used to champion free markets in the pre-Trump era.
In fact, such criticism seems to fuel the drive with which the loyalists in Trump’s circle are pushing forward. The more outrage there is — regardless of who’s providing it — the more Trump’s true believers seem convinced he alone is doing god’s work by setting fire to a system that had previously been held sacred.
They even seem to believe it when they themselves aren’t capable of explaining how enervating our trade networks will deliver us to utopia.
Watching the president’s most ardent supporters attempt to counter the plethora of concerns being expressed is reminiscent of those YouTube videos where “flat earthers” discount any and all evidence we live on a giant globe floating in space. Show them a picture of earth from space, they will say it is Photoshopped. Provide first-hand testimony of manned spaceflight, and they will accuse the testimony of being fabricated. Conduct an experiment using the very curvature of the earth itself, and they will disregard it as being the result of “magnetic interference” or some other convenient phenomenon.
Such stubborn dogmatic adherence to any individual belief is bad enough, but today’s politics isn’t really even about beliefs — it’s about personality.
Much of politics is (and probably always has been) little more than a vacuous cult of personality dressed up as ideological movements. And, unlike ideas or principles, those personalities belong to people who are inherently hypocritical, flawed and (often) wrong — which means loyalty in such a system demands an equal measure of all three from supporters.
It’s for this reason that much of the debate occurring online, on cable TV and within the editorial pages of our newspapers looks more like a conspiracy theorist proselytizing than it does some reasoned explanation of one’s worldview — to the point where it becomes obvious no evidence, testimony or even first-hand experience will shake someone from their partisan stupor.
But how do people get to such a point? Surely, Reagan-loving Republicans who relentlessly championed free trade up until about 30 seconds ago would see the hypocrisy in their newfound love for taxing imports and have at least a brief “Mitchell and Webb” moment:
“Are we the baddies?”
The reason such introspection isn’t terribly prominent within the Trump wing of the GOP is due to the story they have crafted for themselves (and for Trump). As I evangelize incessantly: understanding the stories we choose to believe — and why we believe them — is a powerful tool for maintaining intellectual and ideological honesty about our biases and prejudices.
We harness stories as a way to understand and interpret the world around us — and never is it quite so obvious as in politics. Like any story we tell, there must be:
A conflict — A problem the main protagonist must overcome or conquer.
Values — The reason this problem or conflict matters to the character or the audience.
A Vision — A glimpse at what the world will look like when this conflict is resolved.
The stories being peddled today — on all sides of the political spectrum — are stories primarily built on contempt, resentment and hatred for our political others. That’s the “value” driving the narrative.
In Trump’s story, the conflict isn’t merely that America could be better than it currently is (maybe even “great”), it’s that his political others are on a deliberate mission to ruin the nation and the lives of patriotic Americans. Therefore, the only thing that really matters is defeating such forces, and his chaotically fierce leadership is the only thing capable of doing so.
Fiction? Absolutely. More worryingly, however, is that such a narrative frees him of any limitations in the eyes of those who champion his efforts. So long as it “feels” like he’s moving them along in the plot, it must be the right thing to do.
Or, to put it another way: It’s all about the “vibes.” Tariffs provide his folks with the sense that he’s sticking it to those evildoers who want to ruin America, so to hell with what economists, former Republicans or literally any major business leader has to say about the matter.
And it’s not just Trump and his fans.
Keep in mind that “vibes” were pretty much the only fucking thing Kamala Harris offered the nation during her run for president — largely because she was such a vapid shell of a candidate there was nothing of substance to offer otherwise. She didn’t have charisma, a track record of success, ambitious detailed policy proposals or even a presentably authentic personality to offer the nation. No wonder her team hoped “vibes” would be enough to keep the orange man out of power — which it clearly wasn’t.
Indeed, the entire Democratic playbook at the current moment seems to be built on the hope that Trump’s toxicity is enough for voters to give an equally divided and ungrounded Democratic Party a chance to run things. (And if Trump keeps things up, he might just prove their strategy successful.)
The problem with stories so divorced from actual ideological principles, however, is that it quickly becomes more of a religion than a reasoned argument. Support for an individual becomes a core part of who someone is, rather than something they just happen to do. Supporters don’t merely vote Republican or Democrat, they embody what they believe it means to be Republican or Democrat. Supporters don’t merely agree with some candidate on most issues, they consider that candidate to be their own personal champion.
In other words, their personal story becomes intrinsically tied to the contemptable and exploitative stories used by the unscrupulous to gain power. In this sense, Trumpism is a symptom of what ails American politics — he’s not the cause of it.
In the story being told (and accepted) by certain partisan zealots, traditional principles such as free trade, constitutionalism and character simply aren’t the values that matter. This is why Biden supporters were unconcerned by attempts to hide his cognitive decline from the public, and Trump loyalists have been largely unfazed by his disturbingly monarchical protectionist policies.
Changing such a phenomenon isn’t going to be easy. Like any economic, social or cultural “problem,” the stubborn cultlike nature of modern politics simply won’t be fixed from the top down. It’s not going to be fixed by having “the right” candidate run for office or finding the right spokesperson to tell the right story to the right voters.
Instead, cultural change will depend entirely on individuals deciding to take a critical look at the narratives through which we view the world. And yes, that is a ridiculously scary thought considering how few people currently flirt with real self-reflection nowadays.
But truth be told, we don’t need to worry about everyone else. We need only tend to ourselves. As Marcus Aurelius reflected, “You have power over your mind — not outside events.”
So go make a drink (even if it requires imported spirits) and reflect on the stories that drive our worldviews. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll uncover quite a few that are fictions we could easily do without.
Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He is also a regular opinion columnist.
Great essay, Michael.