Understanding T****/Musk ‘Shock and Awe’

 https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/understanding-trump-musk-shock-and-awe

HALLE, GERMANY - JANUARY 25: Tech billionaire Elon Musk speaks live via a video transmission during the election campaign launch rally of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party on January 25, 202...

The central point in my post yesterday was trying to balance two facts: First, voters made a decision last November to shut Democrats out of all but a series of powers on the margins within the federal government. There’s no hyper-exertion or Mike Pence “if he has courage” that undoes that fact. Second, an effective opposition needs to provide the public not only with some sense of “hope” but also the outlines of a plan. Given point one that plan doesn’t need to be and probably can’t be terribly detailed. But a basic sense of we are now here and we’re going to get there. And here are the tools we’re going to get from A to B. And we are going to get to B and it’s going to take all of us to get there. See yesterday’s post for more on this.

There’s a separate and pretty critical part of this equation I want to discuss.

Going into this storm incoming Trump administration officials were freely using “shock and awe” as their operative framework, slogan, metaphor for their first days in office. This has obviously been part of the public lexicon since the Gulf War, something everyone has free rhetorical access to as a general marker of flash-bang, balls-to-the-wall behavior. But we should actually remember what the meaning of that phrase is. “Shock and awe” is principally a psychological operation, the idea being to strike with a kind of overwhelming force that not only does direct damage but more importantly triggers a crisis of cohesion, operational ability and morale in an adversary. So, panic, factionalization, despair, paralysis. As you can see, it’s kind of working. When we see no clear or coherent response, infighting, dooming and more, those aren’t just bad things, certainly things no opposition has time for. They’re the specific intended effort of a particular kind of strategy.

This doesn’t justify a lackluster response from elected Democrats in Washington. And it of course doesn’t make any less damaging some people’s counsel of despair, which is to focus their energy on attacking other Democrats for either causing or not reacting properly to the current crisis. (One point here: it’s important to distinguish in this moment between constructive if harsh criticism and the high-octane, destructive acting out, though distinguishing them in the rush of the moment isn’t always easy.) The point is that you do “shock and awe” when you don’t actually have the power to pull the job off. You’re trying for a rapid-fire dramatic effect that gets your opponent to collapse or stand down. The psychological shock value is the additional weapon that fills the gap between your power and your intended goal. And understanding that is a critical, really the critical first step to combating it.

This stuff isn’t an illusion. It’s happening. It’s real. But you do “shock and awe” when you don’t actually have the power to make it stick. Otherwise there’s no need for the drama. You just do it. So recognizing that shock and confusion and not falling for it is essential to combating it.