#467 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday September 27)
Good morning,
THE POPULIST ANSWER TO GRIEVANCE
A lot of folks had opinions about my discussion about the high level of grievance in this country—grievance about the economy, a sense of lost values, decline in public safety, malaise over a system that seems to favor the elites and tax breaks over labor, etc. My thesis is that this sort of grievance gives rise to demigods who feed upon and further that grievance, offering what appears to be a response for the forgotten or ignored. These demigods historically and currently can be found on both extreme ends of the political spectrum.
Mr. Trump tapped into the anxiety of the times six years ago. He since has been fueling and magnifying it to a fevered pitch, all while doing remarkably little for those whom he claimed to support. Witness tax breaks for the wealthy and the post-election PAC allegedly for fighting a stolen election—siphoning hard-earned dollars from his supporters for a fight he has not waged.
In its more extreme examples, which we witnessed on January 6 of last year and increasingly hear on cable news and social media, grievance manifests itself in anger, violent rhetoric, and declining faith in democratic institutions, the press, and our elected representatives. It is difficult to know how it will evolve. But it is concerning. Here are a few thoughts from others:
Jeremy Rosen correctly identifies the tone-deaf posture of the coastal elites and failure to identify the needs of the disaffected: “I think a different way of looking at Trump voters arguably voting against self-interest has to do with the attitudes of many Democrats. The Democratic Party has changed from the party of the working class to the party of coastal elites who often look down on working class people and their values. When Hillary called voters deplorables, she was vocalizing a common attitude. The Democratic Party frankly thinks that people in flyover country who go to church on Sunday are weird. I think that such attitudes created an opening for Trump to speak to those who are being marginalized by the other party. Even today, many Democrats would prefer to focus on the fact that men can get pregnant rather than focus on meaningful ways to improve the lives of middle class people in flyover country.”
Skip Kessler has another perspective on the appeal to the angry “base”: “Like many others, I often wonder what the outcome would have been in 2016 if Bernie Sanders had run in place of Hillary Clinton. I am not a Bernie fan but, like Trump as you describe him, Bernie speaks to those who are aggrieved by the system and who believe that the system is rigged against them. For the reasons that Trump, with his “base,” beat Hillary Clinton, I think that Bernie, with a similar and perhaps overlapping “base,” could have beaten Trump. Unlike Trump, Bernie is authentic and is not trying to manipulate the base for his own ends that differ from those of his base. Nor does Bernie countenance the violence and racism that Trump continues to inspire.”
HOW THE DEMOCRATS MAY BE MISSING THE BOAT
I have commented about the culture of grievance and how Donald Trump tapped into the grievances felt by the underemployed, underserved, and disaffected—those with little in common with Mr. Trump. I agree with Jeremy that the Democrats are tone-deaf to the pleas of these people.
Bob Lameres responded with one of the clearest summaries of places where Mr. Trump and/or the Republican Party “hears” a significant group with legitimate grievance, while the Democrats seem disinterested in their concerns. Here are his observations:
“The big one is immigration. Democrats have done an incredible poor job of explaining the economic benefit in fact necessity of immigration, which then leaves them wide open to be accused of simply trying to create future generations of democratic voters.
Taxes. it seems to surprise you that those in the lower end of the economic spectrum would support lower taxes.
1. You underestimate their intelligence. They understand that those who pay the most in taxes are going to benefit the most from tax cuts.
2. When your discretionary income is limited, you know first-hand how government spending on studying the gender identity of goldfish is a waist of a resource they themselves are in great need of.
Abortion. The Democrats are identified rightly or wrongly (though in many cases rightly) as the party that supports unlimited access to abortion. That’s not where the majority of people are. Republicans are going to have to put Senator Graham back in the closet; but a large group of voters find state by state laws as acceptable [because circumstances and opinions differ state-by-state].
Guns. Like many people, I have a home that’s 70 miles from the nearest police station. Gun laws for NYC make no sense for New Mexico. This has created voters who are comfortable with each state deciding its own course and a subset of voters who are enthusiastic about this form of democracy.
Finally Trump represents to them a chance to express their displeasure with a culture which has conflated constitutionality with morality.
When Glenn Sonnenberg listens to NPR he hears well-meaning voices addressing issues in a way that offers enlightenment and solutions. That’s not what some 60+ million other Americans hear.”
ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY
In response to my discussion of how “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (as termed by the right wing Trumpists) isn’t just a syndrome, but a general worry about the further damage that may lie ahead for our democracy, Chris Maling shares the following quote from Stephen Colbert:
“So you just want to let Trump off Scot-free for insurrection because he is no longer in power? That’s like acquitting Jeffrey Dahmer because he is full!”
I suspect Mr. Trump and those like him are still quite hungry.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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