It’s quite simple—the human tendency to blame others.
Psychologists and sociologists have studied this for decades. People are often driven to blame others by mental shortcuts and emotional needs. It is a very common human tendency to shift blame onto others.
If things are not going right in your life, if your environment creates fear or is counter to your beliefs, you may seek others to blame.
In this current environment, that may be immigrants, non-white minorities, LGBTQ individuals, Muslims, our government, institutions and universities or the press, even other countries, and our voting system with unsubstantiated claims of cheating and rigged elections.
For some people, it’s simply the “wealthy,” they blame, but with Trump, there is quite a dichotomy. He is a billionaire who now uses his position to increase his personal and family wealth – at the same time many Americans absurdly think members of Congress routinely create their wealth through corruption – stealing taxpayer money – because they have been taught to distrust and blame others.
Along comes Trump with the perfect scapegoat strategy, with the right words and promises, but no actual policies, with the ability to manufacture a problem and then claim to solve it. With the skill to help people justify blaming others for their concerns.
Taking responsibility for a failure can be painful. It can damage a person’s self-esteem or sense of competence. By blaming someone else, the brain prevents that person from having to feel guilt, shame, or the need to change their own behavior.
When something goes wrong, finding a “scapegoat” provides a simple explanation. It gives people a sense of order—if there is a specific person to blame, it feels like the problem is solvable or at least identifiable, rather than just being a result of bad luck or complex systems—deport the illegal immigrants who are using my tax money, taking my job, making my life less safe, or famously “tainting our blood.” Do away with DEI because it offends my sensibilities.
It never occurs to some people that the problems they face may be the result of their own actions or inactions.
While blaming is a natural reflex, the most successful individuals and organizations tend to be those that practice accountability—looking at what they can control rather than who they can point to.
But that takes effort, work, and time.
Trump creates the illusion that he is a great negotiator, but his personality makes that impossible. He has no concept of a win-win, he has to be the sole winner – in his own mind. Hence he doesn’t understand or accept diplomacy. Instead, he bullies and coerces to get his way even plunging the world into war without regard to the impact on millions of lives around the world.
He wants to ignore the three branches of our government in favor of centralized authority he controls and tries to do so via executive orders.
Many people find the “git er done,” kick ass approach appealing. They may wish they could do it themselves, but they will come to regret it when the consequences become apparent.
Some people actually say “Trump was sent by God” convincing themselves to ignore his life-long personal and professional behavior even causing his father to send him to military school because of his behavior, including bullying younger children and verbally abusing teachers.
The phenomenon of Trump is not unique in history and MAGA followers might want to consider where those past experiences have taken the world.
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It is not “me-too-ism” to point out the fact that every recent politician has a scapegoat to try to explain away their mistakes or to justify their actions. Remember “Putin’s price hike”?
My point is that too many people get excised over the stupid stuff people say, and fail to recognize what they do and the harm (and sometimes benefit) that results.
How many Americans remember the evil that Harry Reid (D-NV) accomplished when he started fussing around with the Senate fillibuster? They complain about the court system, about the Senate’s failure to confirm Merrick Garland, but, they conveniently fail to recognize that this was a pit the Democratic Senate Majority Leader created.
Harry offers another great example of lying for political gain. Standing on the Senate floor, where he has immunity from being sued for libel, slander, defamation. Reid said: “So the word is out that he (Romney, then the Republican nominee for president) has not paid any taxes for ten years, …let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”
When challenged in 2015, after Romney announced he would retire, CNN suggested many categorized his comments as “McCarthyite”. Reid responded: “Well, they can call it whatever they want,” Reid said. “Romney didn’t win, did he?”
Once more, watch what people do, not so much what they say!
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We are getting off base. I am talking about people. A scapegoat is a person or group that is unfairly blamed for problems, mistakes, or bad outcomes. That’s the kind of scapegoating I refer to.
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Perhaps you have forgotten others and their scapegoat strategies. Remember, it was only a few years ago that someone mobilized Democratic legislators to combat the “big bad insurance companies” who denied people care, forced Americans into something they called “medical bankruptcy” and denied treatment to let babies and young children die.
Both sides no longer describe members of the other party as simply having different views, but, loudly claim that they are attempting to destroy democracy, embrace rapists, you name it.
Stop listening to what people say. Watch what people do (or fail to do)!
Do we have a health care system that was improved or worsened after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010? I would suggest worse, much worse. None of the changes have addressed the affordability issue that was obvious in 2010. Instead, we got a series of subsidies designed to reduce the number of uninsured – regardless of cost. Those Medicaid and public exchange subsidies, without any identified new source of funding, are a major factor why we have added $29 Trillion ($29 Trillion!) to the national debt over the past 16 years!!!!
Did we have a period of open borders during the Biden Administration, which enabled the idiot ass Trump to be reelected? Keep in mind that 9 years earlier, in 2015, the idiot ass Trump said: “… When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”
When absolutely vote buying crazy idiots like Barney Frank allowed Fannie and Freddie to keep securing home loans by people who were complete fraudsters, and resisted the Bush II administration’s attempts to curtail abuses, we got the Great Recession – and who was blamed, why President Bush II. Here’s my favorite Barney Frank quote, in 2003, as the financial storm clouds were gathering, despite significant warnings about the risks of continuing the status quo from members of the Treasury Department in the Bush II Administration: “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing”.
Or Bush II, when he identified the seniors of America as a group he needed for 2004 reelection, when he signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which gave us Medicare Part D. Not a problem with one exception, he failed to pass any new funding to pay for this. As a result, he ran ever increasing deficits, which allowed then candidate Senator Obama, who later added ~$10 Trillion to our national debt, to claim Bush II was unpatriotic. The quote was: “The problem is that the way Bush has done it in the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt… That’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic,”
Or, from President Clinton, to President Bush II, to President Obama, to President Trump I, to President Biden, to President Trump II – many have talked about Social Security and Medicare and their funding challenges, none have taken action. Here, the evil is a failure to act.
To repeat a famous quote about other political leaders:
The evil that men do lives on, the good is oft interred with their bones.
Again, ignore what they say (it is so much bullcrap and lies anyway)! Watch what they do!
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Yup Andrew Jackson was no saint either. You’re falling into the metooism trap. If Johnny cheats on his test and I get caught, Johnny is my excuse for my behavior.
None of what you sight is close to comparable to what we experience today. I hardly think attacking insurance companies is like arraying races and religions and of course Trump also attacks insurers. We won’t send money to those nasty insurance companies, we will send it to you, so you can “negotiate”with them.
As far as Obamacare care you know and I know there was no chance it would control or reduce costs, except the individual costs who gained coverage. The EHB helped raised premiums while lowering OOP costs. As you well know, you can’t have it both ways.
Nobody, even today, wants to talk about any real improvement in the way every American obtains and pays for health care.
Right now my wife is under treatment that since last November has cost about $9,000 a week using Medicare allowed fees. For that we paid taxes for 45 years and now over a $1,000 a month in total premiums, but we don’t have to worry about OOP costs. But, Of course, applying some form of that coverage universally is quickly labeled socialized medicine and people rather demand choice and complain about insurance companies and their premiums and multi thousand dollar deductibles
I have searched and searched and find no evidence that Biden actually had an open border policy or that there was any time when there were not stops and returns, but of course, more liberal approaches.
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Again, not what they say, but what they do.
For example, while President Biden may not have made an official announcement of an open border, his policies and actions confirm it was open.
To borrow and paraphrase another famous quote: ” An open border by any other name would smell just as bad.”
Yes, I am certain you paid a ton of income taxes over your working years. But no, it didn’t pay for your Medicare Part B and Part D benefits. Yes, I am certain you caused to be paid a ton of Medicare Part A FICA-Med taxes, by both your employer and your paycheck – much, much more for those of us who have been continuously employed since President Clinton took the wage cap off after 1993, and President Obama added various surcharges as part of PPACA. But no, your payments didn’t pay for your Medicare Hospital benefits.
Congress, through their actions, took your funds and mine from our 5+ decades of emplloyment and spent them elsewhere. Had they been properly invested and allowed to grow, had they not spent money they didn’t have to buy votes, you and I wouldn’t have concerns about Social Security and Medicare trust exhaustion in the 1930’s, and we wouldn’t need to be concerned about the ever increasing costs of PPACA subsidies, and Medicare Part B and D costs adding to our $1 – $2 Trillion annual deficits, and our $39+ Trillion of national debt.
Watch what people do, not what they say.
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