Understanding current American politics through Babylon 5, Part III: Exploiting xenophobia

Yes, I'm still doing this, and you're still reading. OK, then. When I left off with Part II, I addressed how society constantly changes its definition of "the other," and that manifests in Babylon 5 as Earth gets involved with other space-faring civilizations with fear and hatred of any non-Terran civilization. At the beginning of the series, you are introduced to a group called Homeguard, but they are basically a bunch of yahoos. Violent and dangerous yahoos, but yahoos nonetheless. They aren't the real threat. They are a manifestation of the underlying xenophobia which is the real threat, when exploited by someone truly dangerous. The xenophobic impulse may be there. It may always be there, but it only gets terrifying when it is channeled and exploited by politicians willing to do so, and those politicians are the ones who are the real threats.

In Babylon 5, that politician is Morgan Clark. At the beginning of the show, there is an election for the presidency. Of Earth. OK, fine. Luis Santiago versus Marie Crane. Santiago wins, with Morgan Clark as his VP. It is a background event, played as the kind of thing to give the show texture, and make it feel like it happens in a real place rather than a major plot point, but it is a major plot point. At the end of the first season, Santiago is assassinated by a group involved with Clark (and "the shadows"). The campaign didn't get any attention in the show, but immediately upon taking office, it becomes clear that Clark's sympathies are with those spouting Homeguard rhetoric. Preserve Earth cultures, blah, blah, blah. Laura Ingraham would love it.

By the end of the second season, Clark is turning Earth into a straight-up fascist state. Debates abound about the proper use of the term, "fascism," given its applications to Italy, Spain and Germany, but important to all three is a militant nationalism which is intrinsically exclusionary. Define an other, exclude it, turn militant, and that is the core. The more afraid people are of the other, the more exclusionary they become, and the more they are willing to submit to the authoritarian state. So, crank up the fear instead of tamping it down, if you are really, really vile.

That's what Clark and his people do. Why? Clark's goal is power, and while Clark is barely seen directly throughout the show (your POV is a space station light years away from Earth), the establishment of paranoia based on racial threats from some "other" is his main tactic for centralizing power. Gee, why am I writing this series of posts?

Anyway, recall that the potential to exploit the xenophobic impulse is always there. Babylon 5 starts a decade after humanity was almost annihilated by the Minbari. That could have turned everything towards isolationism, xenophobia and fascism. It didn't. Why not? The ten year period between the Minbari War and the start of the show isn't explored, but whoever was in power wasn't a racist demagog. Remember 9/11? How much worse could racial and ethnic demagoguery have been if Trump had been President? George W. Bush went out of his way not to stir up hatred against all muslims. At the time, that didn't seem like a high bar, but... For whatever else he did, think about that in the context of Trump now.

In Babylon 5, it wasn't until Clark that the impulses towards racism, xenophobia and authoritarianism were exploited because it takes someone like Clark and those around him to do it. It wasn't that there was a precipitating event, and there wasn't any great degree of "economic anxiety," or anything like that. Clark was just a power-hungry sociopath, willing to embrace xenophobic demagoguery if it brought him more power.

This is important to understand as we look throughout history. Changing definitions of "other" mean that there is always some impulse that can be exploited, and as we look at racial tensions now, during a booming economy, we need to get rid of this nonsense that this is about economic anxiety, or any other such bullshit. Power-hungry demagogues can exploit xenophobic impulses, if they so choose, whenever they so choose. What makes this so fascinating is that we might think about this in the context of European fascism arising in the wake of economic turmoil, giving comfort to those who make the "economic anxiety" argument about racial demagoguery masquerading as "populism." But, no. The economy is booming. Racial demagoguery is too. Why? Because someone is willing to exploit it for the sake of power. Could it have been exploited better years ago? Yes. George W. Bush could have turned up anti-muslim rhetoric after 9/11, or even cranked up sentiment against some minority group as the economy sank into the "Great Recession," which began formally in December of 2007. He didn't. In Babylon 5, human political leaders didn't crank up the xenophobia directly after the Minbari War either. Trump does it with a booming economy because he is a racist demagog who wants power, but those xenophobic impulses have been there all along, ready for exploitation by anyone sociopathic enough to do it.

Of course, Morgan Clark didn't do it alone. He... colluded. Oh, yeah. This series is going to get fun. I know, Babylon 5 had a lot of issues, but I do recommend watching it. Shhhh.... be vewy vewy quiet. We're hunting WITCHES!!! (Or at least "techno-mages," but that episode sucked, and don't get me started on Crusade!).