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The most important reason I find Trump’s candidacy disconcerting is that his popularity seems founded not on the substance of this policy initiatives – of which he has generated very few – but, rather, on the style and tone of his arguments.
Trump has conducted a campaign of attack, innuendo, name-calling, and downright and incessant racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and misogynistic bullying. I would not find this as troubling if he had not positively resonated with a significant segment of the electorate.
Donald Trump, arguably the more prominent of the so-called “birthers,” continually accuses President Obama of illegitimacy as Commander in Chief by arguing that he was born outside the United States, even well after the President released his official birth certificate. This along with his supposed investigations into Mr. Obama’s time spent in Indonesia as a child, and inquiries into his African roots on his father’s side coexist as not-so-veiled xenophobic and racist threats.
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The ways Donald Trump treats people that he does not like directly equates to how my peers treated me in my early schooling.
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Trump called Rosie O’Donnell “a fat pig”; attacked Megan Kelly by saying that “blood was coming out of her eyes, blood was coming out of her…whatever”; called undocumented Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals, and rapists; said he would impose bans on Muslims entering the U.S. The 2016 GOP Presidential Platform validates Trump’s bigotry by referring to undocumented people as “illegal aliens” as if they were invaders from a distant planet in deep space bent on torching the country.
He excused his staff for producing a blatantly anti-Semitic poster by depicting Hillary Clinton surrounded by $100. bills and a Star of David; mocked a disabled journalist; used the f*ck word in a press conference; argued that he could randomly shoot someone in Times Square and not lose a voter; told a rally audience that he would pay the legal expenses of anyone who punched out a protester. Now he’s actually advising Russia to hack Hillary’s emails.
In addition, he refers to anyone who disagrees or opposes him in demeaning terms: “lyin’ Ted,” “little Marco,” “low energy Jeb,” “crooked Hillary,” Biden’s “not a very bright guy,” and the list goes on.
Throughout elementary school, other students continually called me derisive names: “Woron the moron,” eagle beak” (referring to my nose), “little girl,” “fag,” “cry baby,” and so many others.
The ways Donald Trump treats people that he does not like directly equates to how my peers treated me in my early schooling.
The American Medical Association defines “bullying” as a specific type of aggression in which the behavior is meant to harm or disturb, it occurs repeatedly over time, and where there is an imbalance of power with a more powerful individual or group attacking a less powerful one. This can occur face-to-face, through gossip or innuendo, or over the media, including social media.
In a 2014 National Civility Survey by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate, with KRC Research, found that about 66% of U.S. citizens believe that we have “a major civility problem” in our country, and 70% believe that “civility has eroded over the past few years.”
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Young people, through the process of social learning, often acquire bullying and harassing attitudes and behaviors, and they also often learn the socially sanctioned targets for their aggression.
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While studying a number of bullying prevention programs, I find that, while providing good overall theoretical and conceptual foundations and strategies for prevention and reduction of incidents, some crucial components are still missing. We must also discuss and examine the social and cultural contexts where bullying attitudes and behaviors often stem. We must find ways not only to understand, but to actually engage in correcting these larger social and cultural environments.
We must not view bullying and harassment as simply youth problems and behaviors, but rather, investigate the contexts in which bullying “trickles down” from the larger society and is reproduced within the schools. Young people, through the process of social learning, often acquire bullying and harassing attitudes and behaviors, and they also often learn the socially sanctioned targets for their aggression.
The developmental and educational psychologist, Albert Bandura, proposed that young people learn primarily through observation, and that one’s culture transmits social mores and what Bandura called “complex competencies” through social modeling. As he noted, the root meaning of the word “teach” is “to show.”
Society presents many role models, from very positive and affirming to very negative, biased, aggressive, & destructive. Modeling, he asserted, is composed of more than concrete actions, which he referred to as “response mimicry,” but also involves abstract concepts, “abstract modeling,” such as following rules, taking on values and beliefs, making moral and ethical judgments.
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So, what affect does Trump’s behavior as a so-called “leader” have on the attitudes and behaviors of other adults and on young people?
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As young people observe negative role modeling in the society, at home, in the media, at school, and other social sites, this can result in them taking on prejudicial judgments and aggressive and violent behaviors. Youth can learn behaviors, like verbal and physical aggression, by observing and imitating others even in the absence of behavioral reinforcements.
Bandura found that young people can be highly influenced by observing adult behavior, and perceive that such behavior is acceptable, while freeing their own aggressive inhibitions. They are then more likely to behave aggressively in future situations.
Those who bully, therefore, often fulfill the social “function” of establishing and reinforcing the norms stemming from their environment. They often justify their behaviors by blaming the targets of their attacks, and emphasizing that they somehow deserve the aggression because they in some ways deviate from established societal standards.
So, what affect does Trump’s behavior as a so-called “leader” have on the attitudes and behaviors of other adults and on young people? Furthermore, what are we all teaching young people, and do we truly understand our own complicity in the bullying we see in our schools?
Unless and until we grapple with the ways in which we as individuals and our larger society promotes and gives justification to such bullying, we will never truly solve the problems.
Donald Trump, take note!
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Photo: Getty Images