There is no difference between Barack Obama and Donald Trump. To be more precise: there is no difference between our motivations for voting for Obama in 2008 and for Trump now.
It’s 2008. The Great Recession. Global financial system teetering. Al Qaeda. Wars. Katrina. Unemployment. Fear. Chronic struggle and feeling of mediocrity. A palpable sentiment that we need someone who can save us from the abyss -- we need Abraham Lincoln. Enter Barack Obama. “Save us!” we cry. “Use your Harvard Law degree and experience as a successful law partner to work your magic. Use your amazingly articulate and resonant oratory skills to inspire us like Martin Luther King, Jr. Use your superior intelligence to solve our problems. What? You’re also African American? We can realize MLK’s dream and the promise of America and our individual potential by voting for the first African American president? Perfect!”
Barack Obama was idealized in many ways, and when we identified with him we unconsciously idealized ourselves. Barack Obama won largely because of our self-worth.
Flash forward to today. Aftermath of the Great Recession. Zero accountability for credit crisis. 1% get richer. ISIS. Islamophobia. Fear. Congress clearly stuck and cannot work. A palpable helplessness to change the corrupt and broken systems. Struggle and mediocrity? Still there. It’s almost as if we need one of the super-rich on our side to move mountains -- a man of action: Superman. Enter Donald Trump. “Save us!” we cry. “Use your Wharton education and business expertise to negotiate us out of this. Use your apparent power and strength to vanquish, belittle, and fire the people who need to go. Use the language of winners and losers, us and them to simplify the game of leadership and speak truth. Use the absence of ulterior motives resulting from your incredible wealth to remain untouchable and impenetrable from those who would try to corrupt and influence you. Hold on. You’re also white? We can return home if we vote for you? Perfect!”
As with Barack Obama, Donald Trump embodies certain ideals. A part of us unconsciously wants to believe the myth and identify with him. Yes, there are policies, issues, and our general discernment that also motivate us on the conscious, rational end of the spectrum, and these conscious/unconscious motives may even conflict. Many factors determine which gets expressed, but often times our unconscious motives win out.
The mechanism driving our actions is the unconscious maintenance of our personal, life-sustaining equilibrium. The problem is that we [the ego minds] unconsciously confuse and conflate preserving our idealized self or sense of “perfection” [ego, or 100% form identity] with preserving safety and equilibrium. We do this largely because of how we learned, from birth, to be in relationship with self and others.
So, when we experience “imperfection” or diminishment (of ego), our threat-conditioned tendency is to act by what I call “flipping” it, putting down others or ourselves so we, in whole or in part, are “perfect” again and a sense of equilibrium, even though false (i.e., supremacy), is restored temporarily. This process works together with neuro-biological factors (e.g., genes, autonomic nervous system, temperament, etc).
In other words, ego tries to sustain equilibrium. Ego just gets it wrong and confuses everything because it is a product of shame and shame evokes confusion -- it intercedes and creates what it thinks is an equilibrium state as defined by its own survival. Essence lets go and gradually takes ego to zero, thereby uncovering the unconditional equilibrium of natural life processes already present as a result of Earth's perfect proximity to the intense energy of the sun. This is the paradox of the false "perfection equilibrium" because it denies the natural equilibrium that already exists based on our perfect place in the solar system. So, when we are in a reactive state, we can see it as ego trying to get to its "perfection equilibrium" state, we can know the ego's equilibrium state is qualitatively different from that of essence, and we can choose which place we want to go: essence or ego "equilibrium."
So, when we experience “imperfection” or diminishment (of ego), our threat-conditioned tendency is to act by what I call “flipping” it, putting down others or ourselves so we, in whole or in part, are “perfect” again and a sense of equilibrium, even though false (i.e., supremacy), is restored temporarily. This process works together with neuro-biological factors (e.g., genes, autonomic nervous system, temperament, etc).
In other words, ego tries to sustain equilibrium. Ego just gets it wrong and confuses everything because it is a product of shame and shame evokes confusion -- it intercedes and creates what it thinks is an equilibrium state as defined by its own survival. Essence lets go and gradually takes ego to zero, thereby uncovering the unconditional equilibrium of natural life processes already present as a result of Earth's perfect proximity to the intense energy of the sun. This is the paradox of the false "perfection equilibrium" because it denies the natural equilibrium that already exists based on our perfect place in the solar system. So, when we are in a reactive state, we can see it as ego trying to get to its "perfection equilibrium" state, we can know the ego's equilibrium state is qualitatively different from that of essence, and we can choose which place we want to go: essence or ego "equilibrium."
The meaning of “perfection” may lie on a continuum ranging from pleasing or not upsetting anyone to dominion and purity to absolute control. Anything associated with perfection in our minds means worth and life -- anything counter, like disrespect, subservience, incompetence, contamination, or weakness, means imperfection and, ultimately, death. Paradoxically, “perfection” may seem human and have a real, concrete quality -- one can see how we could believe this myth. Themes of ascendency, unlimited possibility, freedom, safety, mastery, and independence in the American Dream echo elements of “perfection”. However, the chronic shame of not reaching these supposedly universally achievable goals inevitably leads to “flipping”. Our leaders or potential leaders may even use this connection to their advantage.
Hillary Clinton’s “make America whole again” directly, if unwittingly, speaks to the psychic dynamics here. It is precisely because our sense of self is fragmented that we use and put down others to attain “perfection” and false equilibrium. We do this with others because we learned to do it within ourselves. This is our understanding of what it means to be in relationship. We behave as if we are not one entity, a whole person. We behave as if we are not all inter-connected, a whole community.
“Flipping” happens universally, in small and large ways both subtle and obvious. So, it is an opportunity for compassion for self and others -- those who identify with Trump are operating in the same way as those who identified with Obama. We are all one, individually and collectively, and I hope understanding this will help us to make clearer choices.
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