Our Secret Lives

Nobel Laureate for Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote that we all live three lives: a public one, a private one, and a secret one.

Our public lives are those that we live in the public eye.

Our private lives are those that we live with family and close friends.

And our secret lives are those that we live within the recesses of our minds.

Garcia Marquez’s words rang true as I witnessed the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) last week at which Donald Trump was the key performer.

For decades the far right in the United States and elsewhere kept their secret lives secret given the global repudiation of the racism and hatred of the Nazi regime after World War II. 

Indeed, leftist regimes like China and autocratic regimes like Russia also practice the politics of hatred, but in many cases, these are imposed by the autocratic leadership rather than voted in by citizens. 

In democracies like the U.S., the United Kingdom, and others, however, these policies reflect the thinking of voters. We have seen this with the Trump phenomenon, and The Times reports that 20 per cent of incarcerated terrorists in the U.K. are of the white right-wing variety. The rise of the extreme right in Germany, Italy, and Spain reflects this tendency.

For decades, the Republican base kept their secret lives submerged beneath a veneer of tolerance.

This lasted until the 2010 mid-term U.S. elections when Tea Party activists attacked mainstream Republicans and opened the doors to current Republican behavior and thinking.

When Donald Trump emerged in 2015, he opened the door for many to bring their secret lives to the surface. 

Legitimizing their hatreds and bigotry, Trump gave the many on the radical right permission to espouse their innermost feelings and feel vindicated by the mob mentality that he encouraged and fed.

Last week, at the CPAC conclave, the world witnessed the formal metamorphoses of the Republican Party into a massive cult.

Wave upon wave of speakers trumpeted the lies and negativity that has become the hallmark of their leader. They even had a gold statue of Trump that evoked an almost biblical imagery that should have gone completely against the Judeo-Christian teachings against idol worship.

Trump viciously attacked the few Republicans who stand against him, and his public and their media heroes followed blindly.

In my view, the Republican Party has ceased to be a traditional political party and has become a movement reflective of the whims of one man.

Pandora´s box has been opened, and the demons allowed to escape. Can they be boxed once again, or is the damage permanent?

That is a question we all face, since many around the world are following this current behavior in their own political and social environments.

Can extremists win power at the polls?

In 2015 most of us dismissed a Trump victory as being impossible, Yet, through electoral sleight of hand he won, and the rest is history.

Now, tens of millions in the U.S. and abroad believe his lies about a compromised election, as do 85 per cent of Republicans.

The pandemic has created disenchantment among many, and these people are fodder for any conspiracy theorist who appears on the scene.

The fact that many extremist right-wing leaders, among them, senior Republicans, are legitimizing these conspiracies and that voters are believing them is cause for concern.

The fact that major media outlets like FOX NEWS and many social media groups actively drive them has turned the secret lives of many into political platforms. 

And this bodes poorly for the immediate future.

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Edición: Elsa Torres