Political figures and movements seek to attract others to get them to support their movement. They seek to rally compliant followers to their political magnetic pole just as the poles of Gilbert’s magnets force compliant metal objects to align their electrons in the same direction. An effective political leader or movement persuades agreeable and susceptible people to align with their cause or interests.
When a strong, attractive political movement or leader is exposed to malleable people (like a strong magnet placed next to weakly magnetized iron filings), many malleable people will modify their thinking to align with the more potent political force. Conversely, when a political movement or leader is exposed to a non-receptive group (e.g., Russian President Putin broadcasts a speech to the people of Kyiv to ask them to let his army come for a visit), then the non-malleable group will be unaffected by the magnetism of a movement or leader.
Those who are most malleable or susceptible to political persuasion are typically economically, psychologically, or otherwise vulnerable in some way. While politicians may energize their political magnetism at any time, significant events or tragedies can strengthen their magnetic appeal. An explicit or implicit attack on the sacred cow of a magnetized group will boost the electrical charge of that group’s magnetic pull. Group leaders will sense their cause’s increased field strength and use modern media to amplify their magnetic appeal. Those predisposed to the group’s alignment will be more strongly aligned or magnetized. Even laid-back, unaligned people can be drawn to a politician or movement with a strong magnetic field.
The behaviors of the two extreme political poles are very similar. Far-left and far-right political movements play by the same general rules of human behavior. Each political pole exerts maximum attraction to control and aligns its malleable quarry. Even if they do not fully align those beyond their magnetic influence, they will attempt to partially attract loose independents and moderates to keep them from coming under the influence of their opposite pole.
Interestingly, political magnetism, like physical magnetism, often creates ATTRACTIVE forces to the opposite pole. How can this be? Is “opposites attract” a fact or just a trope or idiom? The American political universe has become so polarized that the opposite political poles are attracted to each other, to the detriment of non-polarized Americans. Tellingly, the political dialog almost always focuses on the activities of the opposite pole. Left-wing politicians focus on actions by those on the extreme right, while right-wingers concentrate on the extreme left. The cacophony and mudslinging of the extremists of the opposite party drown out discussions by moderate Democrats (e.g., Evan Bayh) and Republicans (e.g., John McCain.) When the dust settles, the fixation on the opposite political pole demonstrates how extremists focus on the opposite pole more than solving society’s problems through civil discussion and compromise, which is the preference for independents and moderates.
Likewise, as with physical magnetism, two strong political movements of the SAME pole can REPEL each other. This is puzzling, if true, for how can a political movement repel the people of a movement pointing to the same pole? History is filled with similar religious and political movements that gradually or suddenly find minor faults with each other and begin to repel each other. Political and religious schisms have and will undoubtedly continue to occur. Most religions have splintered and divided over objectively (if you can be objective about religion) minor issues. To cite a current political example, an insurgent group nominally in the Republican Party portrayed the “old guard” as “a Republican in name only.” This is like one lion walking up to another lion and exclaiming, “You are a lion in name only.” This is usually a coercive ploy by power-seeking extremists to force moderates to align with the extremist group’s goals or their egocentric leader.
Additionally, extremists typically declare that those who do not follow their extremist ideology are enemies of God and the State. Their enemies list includes “lions in name only,” extremists on the opposite magnetic pole, and all moderates.
The brightest humans often violate the laws of nature, God, and common sense when they become aligned with the most bizarre and often embarrassing personal, religious, or political entanglements. Instead of thinking through an issue outside their domain of experience, many “intelligent” people merely align themselves with the nearest, most potent magnetic force at a given point in their lives. Their susceptibility to these alluring magnetic forces will vary over time. The most powerful force is typically their family when the person is young. However, in adolescence, an attractive force might cause them to be repelled from the influence of their earlier familial magnetism and seek a “hipper, younger” magnetic force. Later in life, people are typically attracted to magnetic forces closely aligned with their career interests and geographical location.
The art of persuasion and acting a role are vital skills to attract followers to a political belief. For America’s first 130 years, most political dialog occurred in black and white in newspapers and formal written presentations. There were speeches and debates before the radio, but without large venues with sound systems, not many people heard them in person.
It is not accidental that the more polished John Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in 1960. Likewise, it is not accidental that the Republicans selected two actors, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, as their presidential candidates. Even though they were, respectively, B-movie and reality TV actors, their presentation skills made them more attractive to many.
Interestingly, for some reason, many people, particularly senior citizens, are blindly attracted to persuasive charlatans, con men, and seemingly noble philanthropic, religious, political, or other “worthy” causes. Even a “billionaire” President begs for Social Security money from elderly retirees.
One caution about using natural magnetism as an analogy to political magnetism. There is a big difference between the physical and social sciences. In the physical sciences, magnetism is reasonably well understood, testable, and predictable (unless you go down to the spooky sub-atomic level or the size of a large object like a black hole or a galaxy.) Conversely, we do not understand the alignments, attractions, and repulsions between humans very well. We cannot test human beings in a centrifuge. However, certain natural, magnetic-like human behaviors are predictable.