Under Trump, the ‘Outlaw Spirit’ Is Raging Across the US

Americans are known for being barely civilized ‘cowboys.’

Yet, Americans are also known for being puritanical.

Americans are known for being boorish, loud, and self-centered.

Americans are known for their admiration of prolific, successful outlaws.

Americans are known for being individualistic to the point of being antisocial.

Americans in general are quite… bizarre.

 

Some of these human qualities seem opposite to each other — such as being both lawless ‘cowboys’ and ‘puritanical.’ But in truth, they’re not. There is a nasty common thread that connects these ‘opposite’ aspects of our American character — and that’s patriarchal ‘dominator psychology.’

The thing is, the US was founded and settled primarily by outcasts and outlaws. It was founded by people fleeing persecution — both political and religious domination… who then tragically ended up following the persecutor-dominator path themselves.

The US was created and built on a foundation of persecution and genocide: the almost total extermination of Native American peoples. It was also built on the evil foundation of chattel slavery: the intentional subjugation of dark-skinned Africans kidnapped from their homelands, perpetrated mainly by White traders enmeshed in dominator thinking and values. Then, generation after generation of Black children were born into slavery, abuse, and total bondage.

The US grew from, and was based on, genocide, persecution, slavery, and other crimes against humanity. Is it any wonder, really, that today’s ‘advanced’ US is still deeply enmeshed in these destructive, oppressive modes of thinking and acting — and continues to be a deeply wounded, struggling society?

Is it really any wonder that the US is still very much an ‘outlaw nation’ — and a nation of outlaws?

The accelerating emergence of rightwing outlaws

Once upon a time — several decades ago — the US was on its way to becoming a truly civilized country. Voting rights had been expanded and protected, women’s rights and freedoms were also expanding, and LGBTQ+ folks were moving toward full equality and protection under the law as well. Even our natural environment was being acknowledged and somewhat protected.

It’s almost unimaginable now, but the US pioneered the environmental movement in the 1970s!

But then, Barack Obama was elected our first Black president in 2008. And the White-centric, dominator culture in this country went crazy. At the time, my wife (who grew up in southern Texas) said there was NO WAY America’s power structure and political ‘representatives’ would let him accomplish anything — and she was totally correct.

During his entire eight years in office, he was faced with relentless, implacable opposition. The White-centric power structure went all-out to crush and destroy him, his administration, and any and all policies they enacted or promoted.

Now, Trump 2.0 is upon us, and Trump is openly committed to undoing every legacy of both the Obama and Biden administrations. Recall the endless, ongoing attempts to gut or repeal so-called ‘Obamacare’ — more than 70! — that continue to this day.

Even worse, Trump is determined to repeal all aspects of healthy liberal democracy — including civil rights advances made under LBJ and agencies such as the EPA, which was created by Nixon (a Republican) and supported by earlier GOP presidents.

 

The ugly roots of ‘Trumpism’ and MAGA

Widespread GOP hatred of Obama was just the start of a tremendous rightwing dominator/patriarchal backlash. It was sparked by racism, but then exploded out of control. A fierce, aggressive ‘conservative’ counterattack quickly accelerated and relentlessly pursued so-called ‘culture war’ issues.

The unstated, real objective? To undo and reverse all signs of social progress that afforded more rights and freedom to Blacks, women, Hispanics, immigrants, gays, and other ‘undesirables.’

Of course, just getting rid of the outward signs and symbols of progress wasn’t nearly enough. No, progress had to be actively thrown into reverse.That called for new restrictions and new oppressive policies targeting minorities, immigrants, women, and LGBTQ+ citizens.

Then, just as night follows day, came the rapid ascent of Donald Trump and his White-centric Make America Great Again movement — which threw jet fuel on the fiery dominator backlash that was already well underway.

Of course, MAGA is based on the idea that America’s glory days are long past — and occurred when Whites were fully in control and before all those uppity Blacks (and women and gays!) gained more freedom and power. The MAGA movement is unapologetically racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and patriarchal. It appeals to Americans’ veryworst dominator instincts.

Mass shootings and the oppression of the LGBTQ+ community

Just last week, there was another horrific mass shooting in the US — this time, at a Catholic school in Minnesota. The shooter attacked a crowd of young children attending a worship service, killed two, and wounded 17+ others. The shooter then killed himself.

Except the shooter was no longer a ‘he.’ This unhappy, angry person was transgender and had transitioned from ‘Robert’ to ‘Robin’ in 2020. She apparently sought fame and notoriety, and possibly revenge (she had attended that Catholic school when younger).

Plus, it’s surely not an unrelated ‘coincidence’ that Trump, MAGA, and many rightwing influencers have been harassing and persecuting the transgender community. Today, trans folks are under severe threat in the US. Their fear and deep anxiety keep intensifying as vicious legal and social attacks on them and their families keep ramping up.

The sickening truth in today’s US: it’s far easier to get a gun and go around shooting people — and Robin got her guns legally — than it is to feel safe, nurtured, and adequately protected in our ‘free’ country. Here, ‘gun rights’ trump both personal and social safety, every time. In the aftermath of these endless mass shootings, we always express public sorrow and offer heartfelt ‘thoughts and prayers’ — but in practice, we’re not willing to change anything or limit ‘gun rights’ in any way.

That’s because the US is essentially an outlaw nation where the ‘outlaw spirit’ rules.

It gets weirder

The GOP has long supported unfettered ‘gun rights,’ yet simultaneously paints itself as ‘the law and order party.’ Sorry, but these two outlooks are deeply antithetical. And now, under Trump and MAGA, the inherent lawlessness of the American ‘outlaw spirit’ has been set free and is running amok. Under Trump, the violent, antisocial tendencies and tactics of our dominator culture are revered and even worshipped. And the rule of law itself is under fierce, sustained attack.

Suddenly, it’s ‘heroic’ to attack judges and our judicial system and ‘patriotic’ to condemn and refuse to follow court rulings. The ‘law and order’ party, huh? What a crock of unadulterated shit!

Yes, we Americans love our strongmen, oligarchs, and imperious CEOs. We often glorify intense competition and ruthless domination. It’s clear, by now, that we really do worship these things — and resist any reasonable limits on our hateful, gun-addicted, violence-prone ‘freedoms.’

 

The rapid militarization of American society

Yet, our destructive ‘gun culture’ is just the tip of the iceberg of dominator violence and oppression. In the last few months, Trump began deploying the military — the National Guard, and sometimes active-duty Army or Marine units — to ‘fight crime’ in Democrat-led cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and soon Chicago, Baltimore, and perhaps New Orleans.

Trump insists his illegal actions (remember the Posse Comitatus Act?) are ethical and necessary. But in every instance, almost all local politicians and leaders do not want or condone any federal intervention — and certainly don’t want troops, troop carriers, and tanks filling their city streets.

Trump says his actions are ‘not at all political’ — but the on-the-ground facts reveal they are highly political as well as super-aggressive and racist. So far, he is only going after Democratic cities led by — you guessed it — Black mayors. The truly horrifying thing is that, despite new court decisions undercutting and removing any legal basis for his military takeover of policing, he has no intention of stopping or toning down his actions.

In fact, Trump constantly shows us he is just fine with ignoring court decisions and legal orders. As the saying goes, “When people show you who they really are — believe them!”

He is clearly intent on militarizing US society, and quite rapidly. He is normalizing a heavy military presence in large, populous Democratic cities, and he doesn’t care whether it’s legal or not. Trump truly embodies the lawless, arrogant ‘outlaw spirit’ that has corrupted our American ideals right from the start.

In other words, under the pretense of supporting ‘law and order,’ Trump is doing the opposite. He is undermining the law, local autonomy, and states’ rights, and is constantly arrogating more and more power to himself. He doesn’t care one bit about ‘stopping crime’ — but he cares deeply about grabbing more power, using our military as his personal army and police force, and establishing himself as a true strongman and autocratic tyrant.

In effect, Trump is saying, “I AM the law — and I’m going to do whatever I please, whenever I please, to whomever I please.” This is how a teetering representative democracy collapses and fails — to be replaced by a lawless, heartless authoritarian regime.

The ‘outlaw spirit’ of our dominator culture has seized power

I could cite many more examples, but I think I’ve made my point. The lawless, manipulative ‘outlaw spirit’ has gained total control in Washington and much of the US and is on a major crusade now. It’s in the driver’s seat and will not just gracefully disappear. As noted, the US was founded on oppressive dominator culture, and our current lawless president and his amoral lackies fully embody these beliefs and all their ‘bad energy.’

Across the US, our entire society has been sucked into the far right’s desperate (mainly successful) attempts to reinforce patriarchal ‘dominator psychology.’ We’ve been sucked into their devastating scheme to applaud and expand our aggressive dominator culture. (Witness Trump’s endless insistence that the US should take over Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, etc. — by force if necessary.)

It’s become glaringly obvious (if it wasn’t before) that rightwing elements within the US deeply hate our transition toward being a fairer, more humane, and multicultural society. Thus, they — and their ‘dear leader,’ Donald Trump — are now working overtime to turn back the clock on everything. They are working feverishly to reinstate and grow our former White-centric, male-dominated, and openly violent and punitive culture.

Today, Trump and MAGA embody the essence of our revitalized and heavily oppressive ‘dominator culture.’ Their arrogant beliefs and lawless actions reveal just how prevalent and powerful our violence-prone American ‘outlaw spirit’ still is — even in our supposedly ‘civilized’ and ‘democratic’ nation.