ABSTRACT

This essay investigates why voters both forgive and reward the corruption enacted by Trump and Zuma because of the powerful illiberal fantasies they solicit in relation to their respective national mythologies of the good life. It does so by attending to the sexual politics these presidents articulate and perform. It describes and analyzes Mar-a-Lago and Nkandla as dream palaces of national belonging, Trump and Zuma’s public and private utterances about gender and sexual minorities, the rape allegations that have swirled around the two men, and their responses to pandemics. While their presidencies have no doubt violated the norms of constitutional democracy, the essay argues that we need to see them as both aberrant and symptomatic in relation to such norms.

摘要

本文调查了选民为何宽恕并奖励特朗普和祖马实施的腐败行为，原因是他们就各自的美好生活民族神话提出强烈的自由幻想。通过参加这些总统明确表达和执行的性政治来做到这一点。它描述并分析了马拉·拉戈和恩坎德拉，他们是民族归属的梦想宫殿，特朗普和祖玛关于性别和性少数群体的公开言论和私人言论，围绕这两个男人的强奸指控以及他们对大流行病的反应。虽然他们的总统任期毫无疑问违反了民主宪政的规范，本文认为，我们需要看到他们既是异常和对症就该规范。