New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie says President Donald Trump's administration relies on aggressive posturing that resembles a "cargo" — performing the trappings of an authoritarian regime without the concrete work needed to make one durable. Bouie made the comparison on a recent episode of The Bulwark podcast, produced by The Bulwark, a political news and commentary outlet.

On the show, host Tim Miller asked Bouie why he had used the term to compare supporters of Trump and his administration's leadership to the phenomenon. Historically, cargo cults were spiritual, political, and social movements that emerged among Indigenous Melanesian communities following contact with Western colonizers and Allied military forces in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the most widely documented cases, during World War II, some communities built imitation airstrips and control towers and staged military-style drills, hoping to bring back the cargo deliveries that had arrived with foreign forces — an image that captures Bouie's core point about copying the outward forms of power without the machinery behind them.

Bouie introduced the metaphor in a New York Times opinion piece about the administration's aggressive targeting of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, following the federal raid on her home.

"It's a useful metaphor when talking about the administration because they have an end in sight, which is a consolidated authoritarian regime, and they think they know how to get there," Bouie said. "But often, in my view, what it seems like they're doing is they're kind of — they are trying to summon the energy of that authoritarian consolidated state without actually doing the kind of concrete and practical things you would need to do to make that durable. And what that ends up looking like are these aggressive abuses of power that in the end tend to be a wash."

Bouie added that many of those employed under the Trump administration are "illegal" and "comically ridiculous and absurd."

"I use the cargo cult metaphor to kind of capture this thing where it's not that you should not discount the goal that they have. That's very serious... it's not that you should discount what they're doing, the actual concrete actions, but that there's a disconnect between one and the other," he said. "And that disconnect is both the place where, if you are an opponent or target, there's a lot of place for pushing back."

That disconnect, he argued, also explains why the administration has little to show for itself. "But also that disconnect is, I think, why after almost two years of this it's like they don't really have much to show for it other than this deeply unpopular administration which has done real damage and havoc to the American system but has not succeeded at its — I think — actual primary goal, which is this consolidated authoritarian state," he continued.

Miller agreed, noting that on his show he and his guests have explored how Trump is a comical figure who wants power. For Miller, the aim is getting listeners to balance two ideas: that the antics of Trump and his administration are obnoxious — and also dangerous.

Source: Alternet