Post-war Austria is a country whose very existence is based on a refusal to ‘work through’ its traumatic Nazi past - proving that Waldheim was evading confrontation with his past emphasized the exact trait-of-.identification of the majority of voters. The theoretical lesson to be learned from this is that the trait-of­ identification can also be a certain failure, weakness, guilt of the other, so that by pointing out the failure we can unwittingly reinforce the identification. Rightist ideology in particular is very adroit at offering people weakness or guilt as an identifjring trait

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