Nixon Insider, John Dean Uses Social Science to Chronicle the Actions of Trump and His Followers
Author’s note: This article reflects my interview with John Dean about his and Bob Altemeyer’s book, Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers prior to the 2020 Presidential Election. John provides a deep analysis, particularly timely during the January 6th Select Committee Hearings. This article was originally published in 2020, prior to the Presidential Election.
Wendy Glavin, Founder & CEO,
I had the honor of speaking with John W. Dean, White House counsel during President Richard Nixon’s administration. His participation in the Watergate scandal led to Nixon’s resignation and Dean’s imprisonment for obstruction of justice.
In January 2020, The Hill reported that Dean’s lengthy statement was a devastating indictment of President Nixon. At the time, Senator Howard Baker wanted to prove Dean wrong and asked, “My primary thesis is still, what did the president know, and when did he know it?”
Now, with the Presidential Election on Tuesday, this same question, with logical corollaries, has been repeatedly posed to Trump about his last negative COVID-19 test. What did he know? When did he know it? Did he knowingly expose big money donors to the virus without warning them of the potential health risks? To date, there’s been no response.
On a broader scale, other questions include;1. Why was the CDC's request for contact tracing denied?2. Why was the virus spiking?3. Why was the advice from medical experts and public health officials ignored?4. Why have masks and social distancing become a political statement rather than safeguards?
Beyond COVID concerns John said, "There’s widespread social unrest, a sharp divide between whites and people of color and the panoply of frequently discussed issues that have characterized this presidency: healthcare, fake news, conspiracy theories, the economy, climate change and the future of democracy."
In Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers, Dean and Altemeyer analyze the social science behind authoritarianism to explain the President’s rise to power and what drives his actions. We also discussed why Trump’s base continues to be faithful despite egregious offenses.
I asked John if he thought his book would change people’s minds. "People are locked in. By and large, we’re not going to change their minds, but we want to inform people and urge them to get out and vote," he added.
Like clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, the authors analyze Trump’s moral upbringing, his schooling, personality, his business dealings, and his uniquely loyal supporters.
With decades of experience, Altemeyer is the author of The Authoritarians and Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism which covers the psychological makeup of authoritarian leaders. He developed the Right-Wing Authoritarian (RWA) test and scale in the 1980’s and is a leading expert in the field of social science. In 2020, his test was conducted with The Monmouth Polling Institute (used in Dean and Altemeyer’s new book).
Dean, of course, has first-hand experience about the inner workings of the White House, specifically during the Nixon presidency, the Watergate scandal and decades in politics which he covers in his books: Blind Ambition: The White House Years, Lost Honor: The Rest of the Story, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush and Conservatives Without Conscience.
Together, the authors’ combined expertise chronicles what motivates Trump’s base. Their research centers around three different types of authoritarian personalities:
Social Dominators who are determined to gain power
Authoritarian Followers who are fearful and blindly follow leaders who they believe will protect them
Double Highs, a combination of the most disturbing traits of dominators and followers
To more closely represent registered voters for the 2020 election, Dean, Altemeyer and the Monmouth University Polling Institute worked together in late 2019 to include questions in a nationwide survey of registered voters. The goal was to identify respondents with authoritarian tendencies including extreme conservative values, radical progressiveness, prejudices, religious fundamentalism, evangelism, and others.
The authors relied on social science findings and psychological diagnostic tools including the “Power Mad Scale” and the “Con Man Scale” as well as analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute. They uncover the attitudes and behaviors that characterize social dominators such as: opposition to authority, amoral tendencies, high prejudice, desire for personal power and behaviors that are manipulative, dishonest, intimidating and bullying.
Interestingly, the findings were assimilated in 2005 by Dean before he even knew of Trump. With the caveat that surveys can be biased or reveal overgeneralizations, Dean concluded that Trump’s followers tend to be people who lack critical thinking skills, possess compartmentalized thinking, use double standards and are ethnocentric, dogmatic, and militant in their views.
The first half of Trump’s presidency was dominated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election, which ended in 2019 when the Mueller Report was sent to General William Barr.
On April 26, 2019, Dean met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while he was well into analyzing Trump’s behavior for the project. He told Pelosi, "Madam Speaker, Donald Trump is a public version of the private Richard Nixon. These men are authoritarian personalities. You can count on Trump engaging in worse behavior than that which Mueller reported, and that behavior may call out for impeachment, which will be appropriate."
At that time, Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were allegedly involved in a scheme to extort the newly-elected President of Ukraine. Trump was, of course, acquitted by the Senate, with the vote predictably following party lines with the notable exception of Senator Mitt Romney.
This is only one example of the many scandals that have occurred. With the election fast approaching, the authors describe several possible tactics that Trump will likely use and continue to use in the final weeks of his re-election campaign:
Fear and loathing
Smearing Biden
Creating Democratic disarray
Targeting the undecideds
Suppressing voters
Undermining validity of mail-in voting
Dean said, "four more years of President Trump will see the destruction of the Constitution as the foundation of our country. He and his authoritarian supporters will have undercut and overpowered the protections against absolute rule that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other founders of the United States fought for."
He added, "it was the overriding goal to keep the country from ever having a king. Yet, a re-elected Donald Trump in 2021 would feel as powerful as James I, who believed he was appointed by God, or Louis XIV, who simply said, ‘I am the State.’"
The authors leave us with an urgent plea:
The Constitution, the rule of law and American democracy. America has not stood so clearly at a fork since the 1860s. The route laid out by our founders is clearly marked. The other road has dangerous signs of leading us in that direction. We all have a rendezvous with destiny once again to see if our government of the people, by the people, and for the people that will cherish from the earth.
About the Author:
Wendy Glavin is Founder and CEO of Wendy Glavin, a NYC full-service agency. Wendy is a 30-year veteran of corporate, agency, consulting and small business ownership. She specializes in B2B2C marketing communications, executive writing, PR and social media advisory. Her website is:
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