Funhouse Mirror

One of the highlights to any stop at the county fair is the fun-house mirror – the one with the warped surface that distorts the reflected image.  

When we look in this mirror, we may recognize ourselves, or at least parts of ourselves, but the proportions are all wrong – the face too fat, the neck to long for a stubby body, or the other way around.  It’s fun to move around and jump in front of it, and laugh at how the distortion moves from one part of our body to another.  

Even as we enjoy it, though, it can be disturbing.  Maybe it accentuates something we are already insecure about – or maybe it makes us aware of something we never noticed before.  The big double chin, or walnut-sized wart, is exaggerated all out of proportion; but mirror or not, it makes us face the reality that we have at least a bit of a double chin or a small wart.  Even a distorted reflection is still a reflection, and it can be haunting.  

In movies or on TV, this self-revelation has been used for dramatic effect.  At a point, a character looks in the distorted mirror and has a Twilight-Zone moment; running blindly from the funhouse – forever changed by the image.   

This year, Donald Trump is our nation’s carnival mirror – particularly for Republicans.  The topics he chooses are familiar; a stronger military, balanced budget, cuts to social programs, fear of immigrants, and the threat of global terrorism.  But when he talks about them … there is just something so exaggerated; so dumbed-down and simplistic.  He is so mean-spirited; we want to deny that his grotesque distorted plans are any kind of reflection of what we actually meant.    

The nice thing about a real funhouse mirror is that when you step away, it’s over, and we return to our normal reality.  For most of us, that’s easy; this man is just a sideshow distraction – a freakish oddity that keeps spouting easily-forgotten headlines.  For Republicans though, it’s different.  Though exaggerated and obnoxious, he is their creation.  He is just echoing back what Republican leaders have been saying—and Republican voters have been rewarding—for years; just slightly exaggerated.  The vitriol that mainstream Republicans direct at minorities and foreigners, he spews wildly in all directions, with no regard to consequences.  

These distortions didn't happen overnight.  The craven vacuousness of Trump and the success of his campaign is the inevitable result of a thirty-year downward spiral in civility and intelligent discussion within the national Republican Party – and the acclimation of their constituents.  For better or worse, what intelligent, decent people, who happen to be Republican, have to face with Donald Trump is this: as bizarre, distorted, and grotesque as is the caricature he reflects, a large constituency within their party's coalition—a coalition they must maintain if they hope to win—looks at this hideous image, they don’t want to turn away and run.  They don’t want to leave the fun-house, because, when they look at this freak-show, they like what they see.