ABSTRACT
Dominance of internal over external reality appears in the way politician’s project qualities of their own character onto their opponents, insisting that their opponents tell lies or use their positions for personal gain when they themselves could with justification be convicted of the same transgressions. An important quality of contemporary political discourse is that real and important issues are replaced by the clash of personality and engagement with others not on the level of policy and its consequences but on a purely personal level. The Senator’s exchange with the three-year-old girl suggests how important anxiety about destructive feelings is in shaping contemporary politics. The relation between politician and audience organized around sounding the alarm reenacts the experience of the child with a parent who, rather than helping the child moderate emotional response, participates in the child’s impulse to accentuate that response.
