New books on Waco and the KKK provide context for understanding Trump: review

The books are: “Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco” by Stephan Talty; and “A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over American and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan.

Along with favorably reviewing the new titles, Lueders offers them up as context for understanding Trump.

“Part of what makes these two books about terrible episodes in U.S. history relevant is the insight they offer on an important contemporary subject — namely, the persona and phenomenon of Donald Trump and other authoritarians who continue to find their way onto the world stage,” writes Lueders.

“Let me be clear, since there is an entire cottage industry of wags devoted to distorting comments like the one I just made: I do not think Donald Trump is exactly like David Koresh or D.C. Stephenson (a key figure in the KKK). Trump is obviously a racist, but I don’t think his heart is full of hatred for others based solely on the color of their skin. (I think that, on some level, he is a classic misanthrope, hating everyone but himself.) And I don’t think he is a cult leader so much as a 'cult of personality' leader.”

“But the parallels are worthy of attention. There is in human nature an appetite for obedience to figures like Koresh, or Stephenson, or Trump. (Even Mike Pence succumbs to it, despite Trump’s having “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day,” as he said in a room where no cameras were allowed.) And it is worth employing a brain cell or two trying to understand what this larger phenomenon is about. How can these men dupe their supporters so thoroughly? How can they command allegiance when all they offer in return is disrespect?”

Lueders offers this conclusion:

“Both of these compelling books arrive at a time when Trump is on the verge of two opposite and almost equally plausible outcomes: He might either get his comeuppance or return to power. His MAGA movement is not a revival of the KKK or Branch Davidians, to be sure, but it gets its charge from some of the same currents that animated those earlier movements, including the willingness of ordinary people to be subject to the authority of a deranged leader. All represent a dive into darkness, a retreat from democratic ideals and from rationality itself, a maladaptation that must be met with courageous opposition.”

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