#461 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday September 20)
Image courtesy of the New York Times
Good morning,
GRIEVANCE OR FEAR—WHAT MOTIVATES THOSE SUPPORTING POLITICIANS WHO DON’T SUPPORT THEIR INTERESTS?
Alan Rosenbach responds to my Musing on the “culture of grievance”:
“The grievance concept is a great way to explain distrust of the system and hatred of coastal elites. Grievance is the emotion behind lack of self worth and powerlessness. It explains the cognitive dissonance required to vote for a candidate whose policies are against one's own financial interest. To use your example, a politician who votes for tax breaks to venture capitalists and hedge fund managers.
Is grievance the principal factor behind the rise of a political strongman with authoritarian leanings? I'm not sure. I wonder where grievance fits in when ranked against simple fear. A large number of Trump voters fear change. Their primary fear is open borders, which gave us the "Build the Wall" branding by Trump. Another fear involves the education system: Trump supporters believe that it is damaging to discuss sexual orientation with young children, which produces the right's obsession with so called grooming.
There is a fear of cancel culture, a fear of universities teaching a left wing curriculum, a fear of Fauci and other experts, whom the right believes are dictatorial, a fear of increasing crime, and a fear that gun control will expose their families to danger when a criminal enters the household.
Are such fears more or less powerful than grievances against elites or the system itself? This is not a rhetorical question. It seems unlikely that anyone knows the answer.”
ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST AND TAPPING INTO UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
Ben VandeBunt writes regarding an earlier Musing about compassion for others and selflessness. But it actually fits with my thoughts regarding Trump tapping into the feelings of the populace:
“To me, that issue is nuanced and most of us address it in limiting ways, like ‘liberal v conservative.’ Senator Kaine partly attributes losing in 2016 to not adequately understanding that many Americans are standing in line, playing by the rules and falling behind. And when they complain that immigration or affirmative action beneficiaries are cutting in line in front of them, they are told they are racist, xenophobes. That might be true for some of them, but certainly not all. While Trump appears to be a narcissist, he showed a lot more empathy to their point of view than others did. Complicated stuff.
Can I put in a vote for those seeking enlightened self-interest? For example, it is a law of nature that happiness, love and peace of mind can only be attained when given to others. Most psychologists would agree with this.
Instead of lumping folks into ‘I care about others’ versus ‘I care about myself,’ we should when possible promote a more ‘enlightened self-interest’ approach. Someone with enlightened self-interest would know that if we want positive attention, or to be listened to, or to be respected, to live a life of meaning and want to be loved, we need to give those things away first. Too often, we use bad strategies to get what we want.
By using a strategy of pulling people in -- and not pushing them around -- more often we will get ‘what’s better for me’ and ‘what is better for all of us.’ This approach not always available but should always be our first choice.”
INCREASING THE SIZES OF THE HOUSE AND SUPREME COURT
In response to my suggestions for making our government more democratic and representative of the majority, Mark DiMaria agrees but adds that he “would push Puerto Rican statehood equally with D.C. (why should those American citizens have any less ability to participate in our nation's governance than any of the rest of us?),” and he would “increase the size of the Supreme Court, adding one seat annually until we reached 15, reducing much of the inherent power of individual justices, and consequently the political stakes of each appointment over time.”
Ben, Alan, and Mark, I agree with you all…again!
Have a great day,
Glenn
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