It is an awesome experience to watch the great American spin machine at work. It is not so much that its message -- "vote for Hillary; Trump is deeply flawed" -- is incorrect, although it is scarcely presented in a manner that is precise, nuanced or in any way illuminating. Rather, what is striking is that beneath that lies another message, the real one, which is: do not think, do not analyze, go along with the group, our side is the greatest, USA, USA.
The New York Times this morning has eight front-page articles explaining that Donald Trump is a moron, racist, fat-shamer, misogynist -- you name it. This is not overkill; it is group think. It's very similar to what goes on in junior high schools, and it has a different purpose than merely convincing us about Trump.
Consider that this great spin machine, this huge apparatus for producing consent, did not begin with Trump as its target but rather with Sanders. Its purpose was to define what was acceptable politics and what was not. Think about Krugman, the martinet of the liberal minions, who tried to destroy Sanders with graduate school technicalities in economic theory. The underlying point was not to hurt Sanders but to defend a supposed expertise, which is to say a whole system of authority and power.
Once the Sanders threat was dispelled, unanimity against Trump became all the more compelling. The issues associated with Sanders -- illegitimate power of wealth -- and those associated with Trump -- the white poor, relations with Russia -- were all swept away. Who but a bigot would deal with Putin?
When have we seen this kind of group think before? Most obviously after 9/11. "People of good will" all agreed that 9/11 was terrible, terrible. Anyone who tried to think in a more complex way -- Susan Sontag, Mary Beard -- was not only wrong, they were bad. We know what 9/11 led to. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has produced more refugees than any action since World War Two, and no end in sight.
Another example is anti-Communism. Communism was equated with Nazism, domestic reform was stymied, and the U.S. declared itself the arbiter for every political question anywhere in the world -- a position known as "American exceptionalism." Critics often wound up in jail.
9/11 was terrible; Communism was wrong; Trump is highly problematic. That is not the point. The point is that group-think destroys critical thought. Of course, my critics will say "now is the time to unite against the terrible Trump danger -- later, after Hillary wins, will be the time to argue about American foreign policy or the power of the banks." But this is wrong. It asks us to surrender at the beginning of a takeover, without even waiting for the end.
If one simply assents to the anti-Trump verities today, one will later find oneself powerless to resist the new wars, the new power grabs and the new forms of debt-bondage, which follow inevitably in Clinton's wake. The sad fate of Bernie Sanders makes this clear. Resist now or you will forever lose your voice.