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The Atlantic - Il Donald
The president knows what Mussolini knew: Some audiences crave images that offer false reassurance and over-the-top displays of power.
October 6
For reasons that need no elucidation, I spent a few hours this morning watching Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945, performing in the old newsreel clips that now float around the internet.
It wasn’t the verbal content I was after, just the imagery. The staged entrances. The gesticulation, the posturing, the arms raised in salute. ...
The appeal of these things hasn’t disappeared or died out.
An American president, suffering from an infectious disease, breathing hard, covered in orange pancake makeup, speaking from a balcony against the backdrop of our elegant White House and our beautiful Washington Monument - this is a scene that seems absurd, grotesque, and even frightening to many.
But not to everyone. ...
Of course the scene was staged. Of course it is cynical. And of course it is dangerous to tell Americans to act as if a virus is an opponent in a wrestling match - “Don’t let it dominate you; don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it” - especially after your criminal carelessness has led to the infection of your closest colleagues, your Senate allies, your bodyguards, your wife.
But those staged pictures are what a lot of people want to see, and that false reassurance is what a lot of people want to hear.
Don’t underestimate their power.
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