Donald Trump is considering a “call for unity” this week. The problem is, he doesn’t know the meaning of the word — at least not as it’s traditionally used in the United States.

This nation, which has the word “united” in its very name, included a motto on its Great Seal in 1782: E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.

But Trump’s idea of unity is backward. When he issues a call for unity, he means: “Do it my way — and if you don’t, I’ll use force to compel you.” (I’m nots sure his vocabulary is large enough to include the word “compel,” but you get the message.)

Trump won’t just force you into submission, but “dominate” you. It’s the kind of thing you hear Nandor the Relentless say on the vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows: “total domination” and “complete and total supplication.” It’s funny in that context; when Trump says it, it’s anything but. It represents an autocratic approach, as opposed to a democratic one, a de facto endorsement of force and violence to erase the only path to true unity: dialogue and understanding of our diversity as a nation. And it comes in response to a police officer kneeling on the neck of a black American citizen until he was dead. Now, Trump is kneeling on all our necks.  

From the top down

Trump’s brand of top-down unity has been gaining ground in this country subtly for decades, without most of us even realizing it. This is especially true in conservative circles, where Rush Limbaugh hit the airwaves decades ago, calling his radio followers “dittoheads.” They repeat his talking points and spread them, rather than creating their own.

The phenomenon goes beyond political talk shows, with sports talk host Jim Rome referring to his followers as “clones” — described by one CBS Radio affiliate as “a legion of fans ... who live and breathe for Jim Rome’s ‘take’ on the day’s larger issues of sports.”

No, sports talk radio isn’t a threat to democracy. But top-down edicts from political figures are. Increasingly, voters don’t tell party leaders what they want: lower taxes, better health care, higher wages, equality, etc. Instead, party leaders tell voters what they want, and demand their allegiance in order to obtain it. After all, the only other choice is to become a “traitor” and go over to the opposite team, right?

Abuse of power

This explains why men who once called Trump crazy and worse (Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, etc.) are now among his most vocal defenders. They’d rather be wrong — and hypocritical — than disloyal.

As you might imagine, this brand of top-down “unity,” when bolstered by blind loyalty from others in power, opens the door to all sorts of corruption. And that’s exactly what has played out before our eyes in the Trump administration.

What does Trump want? More power, first and foremost. But also to be excused for actions he’s accused of that would have gotten his predecessors thrown out of office: conspiring with foreign governments to skew elections, paying off a porn star, bragging about sexual harassment, renting out his name-brand organization’s properties for official U.S. business.

(Democratic party leaders, despite their calls for diversity, have shown some of the same tendencies, though they’re nowhere near as brazen. They demand party-line votes, too, and issue calls for “unity” — on their terms, shaming or marginalizing those who refuse to conform.)

Playing God

Whatever happened to “out of many, one”? It got replaced as the official U.S. model by “In God We Trust.”

Trump has seized on that concept to set himself up as both God’s spokesperson and his stand-in. From his messianic claim that “I alone can fix it” at the 2016 Republican National Convention to his protest-clearing, Bible-wielding photo-op in front of a D.C. Episcopal church, he’s followed this playbook to the letter. It’s classic behavior for a corrupt priest-kings throughout history: Claim to speak for God, then define the message and tailor it to your own purposes: money, power, impunity.

(Both Limbaugh and Trump started as entertainers, and that Trump chose to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the radio host. Limbaugh was calling people names, and getting away with it, long before Trump entered the political game.)

“E pluribus unum” was a guide for the young country to follow: Diversity comes before unity. It is only by understanding, accepting and working through our differences that we can truly unite. If we place unity first and attempt to impose it, we only create a false substitute that’s both illusory and temporary. A top-down unity, such as that which Trump seeks to impose through fear, “law and order” and military might turned on his own citizens, is bound to fail.

Shackled nation

That’s why this country threw off the shackles of a monarchy in the first place. And shackles they are. Now, the black community is seeking to free itself from shackles that were literally removed 150 years ago, but in practical terms, remain very much in place, reinforced from the top down by police brutality and a complicit political power structure led by Trump.

Trump’s idea of unity is that everyone else should conform to his wishes, and if they don’t want to, he’ll force them to do so. But more than half the nation doesn’t agree with this concept, and that’s what has brought us to where we are today: An unyielding chief executive, backed by a minority of followers who hold political power on the one hand, and the rest of us, who are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.

No wonder 80 percent of voters say things have spiraled out of control in the United States. That’s what happens with a wannabe dictator tries to impose his will on those who aren’t having it. We’ve seen this happen time and again in Third World countries. Now it’s happening here. We were never immune to it; we’d just never elected a leader willing to press the red button to blow up everything we stand for — to turn it on its head.

The American experiment, as they call it, was founded on the principle of “E pluribus unum.” Trump has abandoned that principle and set himself up as the voice of God.

In Trump we trust? If that becomes our mantra, heaven help us.