Most of us tend to think of narcissism as an individual trait affecting only the afflicted. Often, we see narcissists as odd but benign people who are simply “full of themselves.” In extreme cases, we consider such people to be mentally ill, desperately needing help coping with a reality that includes others outside their own skins. But narcissists can often be seen holding court at cocktail parties, corporate events, and political fundraisers. Sometimes they even rise to the highest levels of power. So what is the attraction?
We want to believe in people who claim they can easily solve our deepest and most intractable problems, and we are often willing to forfeit our own agency in the process. Sometimes we even confuse a narcissistic leader with deity and effectively (if unconsciously) redirect the old religious maxim: “Let Go and Let God.”
At our core we might secretly doubt the claims of narcissistic leaders, but we tend to ignore magical thinking in such leaders when it is hidden behind extreme confidence. When we become convinced (often by the leader himself) that we face a crisis and are then confidently handed a simple solution, we are tempted to go with it. When a presidential candidate says, “I alone can fix it” or “Mexico will pay for it,” we ignore the absurdity of these assertions and hand over our power. When that same candidate later leads chants of “Lock her up!” or mocks a disabled reporter or blatantly disrespects a Gold Star family, or incites an insurrection, we shrug our shoulders and continue on. We are so desperate for certainty that we slip into blind servitude.
Narcissism is not just a benign individual affliction. Today, over half of one political party in the United States seems to believe that our duly elected president is illegitimate. Why? Because the previous president declared, well before the 2020 election, that if he were to lose, it could only be due to widespread voter fraud. A national crisis was seeded at that moment, and it was a direct result of Donald J. Trump’s deep narcissism. In his inwardly focused mind, an actual loss was probably unthinkable. As the clearly superior being, he could only win. Any other result would be false and would ultimately be seen as such. His certainty about this was absolute, and the strength of his conviction has now convinced millions of people, against all real evidence, that our electoral system is fatally flawed. Last week, Trump stated that the 2020 election will be overturned and that he will be reinstated as the legitimate president by August of this year. He also suggested that defeated Republican lawmakers will regain their seats along with him. In making these statements, Trump has seeded the next level of crisis.
Ironically, it might now be true that “only he can fix it.” If Trump were finally to concede, and admit he was wrong about electoral fraud, our nation might pull out of its apparent nosedive into irrational conspiracy theories and authoritarianism. But of course Trump will never concede. Being seen as a “loser” is the deep fear fueling his narcissism.
Failing a turnaround from Trump, what can be done to heal our nation and put us back on a rational political track? We appear to be in the midst of a circular crisis which can only be solved from within. The circle looks something like this: Trump sows doubt about an upcoming election and later creates lies about its outcome; right-wing news outlets pick this up and amplify it; the Republican electorate hears the news and many believe it; Republican lawmakers, wanting to stay in power, claim that their constituents “are concerned about irregularities;” Trump hears this and further amplifies the news, claiming things like “everyone knows what’s going on;” the electorate hears Trump’s new assertions and becomes even more convinced; the cycle repeats.
Breaking this cycle requires one or more of its components to drop out or, better still, to actively reverse course. Unfortunately, each component has a vested interest in maintaining the cycle. Trump himself craves the attention, news outlets want to expand their viewership, lawmakers fear alienating their constituents and losing power, and the constituents themselves are faced with something that increasingly feels to them like a national existential crisis.
Even so, it might be that local Republican lawmakers have already sown the seeds of their own demise and might therefore be unwitting contributors to the cycle’s death. Seeing the opportunity to restrict voting among people of color, the poor and the young (and thereby increase Republican chances), they have initiated several voting “audits,” the most notorious of which is the one in Maricopa County, Arizona. The stated purpose of these audits is to increase voter confidence in the system by rooting out fraud. In fact, the idea is to decrease confidence so that support grows for new voter suppression laws aimed at keeping right-wing Republicans in power. So why might these audits work against them?
I admit that the key word above is “might.” Cyclic conspiracy theories are highly resilient in the face of facts. Still, simple embarrassment might be the key. Melanie Mason of the LA Times this morning reported on staunchly conservative radio talk show host, Mike Broomhead, who has been a strong supporter of the Arizona audit. He no longer is. This was his warning to officials overseeing the Arizona audit: “You’re turning this into the clown show that you’ve been accused of… You’re turning this into the side show at the state fair.” The article goes on to state, “An increasingly vocal share of Arizona Republicans see the recount as an act of self-sabotage, creating an albatross for statewide candidates in the run-up to a pivotal election year.”
Admittedly, even if this particular cycle is broken from within, others will almost certainly arise. Fear of displacement, loss of identity, and longing for a comfortable but largely fictitious past, will continue to enable such things. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s inevitable failure to be reinstated in August will contribute to the embarrassment of his party or whether his deep narcissism will once again kickstart a destructive cycle.