Eros and Trumpism: A Marcusean Interpretation

Abstract:An explanation for Donald Trump’s political appeal is developed, drawing mainly on Herbert Marcuse’s study Eros and Civilization. Trump does not represent the authority of a strong father-leader so much as filial rebellion. His rebellion against the father-rule, now transmuted into an impersonal “rigged system,” permits and even encourages the explosive release of suppressed sexual and aggressive drives. However, this release does not constitute the liberation of Eros that Marcuse envisioned. Instead, Trumpism explodes suppressed sexuality within the institutions of the performance principle, gives sadistic expression to the sexual drive, conditions the abolition of sexual taboos on the creation of new objects of humiliation, and turns a collectivized sense of guilt “against those who do not belong to the whole, whose existence is its denial.” In sum, Trumpism was a betrayed revolution from the beginning; what it really represents is the political utilization of sex and aggression to reinforce social domination.