I was bullied as a teenager, but that’s not what this post is about. It’s about this quote:
With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and the poor, but white and black, and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals, if honest and industrious, and hence have a position and pride of character of which neither poverty nor misfortune can deprive them.
John C. Calhoun, a pro-slavery political firebrand from South Carolina, spoke these words in the United States Senate on August 12, 1849. The words are rather clear, but in case the meaning is missed, here’s the short paraphrase:
If you can convince the poor white man that he is better than ANY black man you can keep him on your side even though he remains poor.
This is how the South conned millions of poorer white people to support a war for slavery and racism even though most of those poor southerners did not have the means to own slaves themselves. The lowliest white man is superior to any black man. This is what white supremacy is all about.
It’s also what today’s Republican party is all about. As an Abraham Lincoln scholar I began noticing the overt rise of this philosophy back in 2007 when Barack Obama was running for President. The “tea party” came out of the woodwork, arguing that they were like the patriots who threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773. After someone pointed out that they had the historical reference backwards (the British had actually given tax breaks to a huge British tea corporation and tried to make the populace pay for it), the “tea party” invented a backronym “T.E.A” to suggest “taxed enough already.” Besides being dishonest, it was ridiculously false. The Obama-pushed stimulus bill (officially the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) had just given substantive tax breaks to 95% of Americans, so “taxed enough already” was a ruse.
So what was the real reason for the growth of the “tea party,” which subsequently took over the entire Republican party, which is now the “Trump party”?
Robert Reich, who formerly worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, put it this way when talking about bullying behavior:
Trump used this anger [i.e., working class whites upset over being left behind by the economic recovery] to build his political base, channeling the frustrations and anxieties into racism and nativism. He encouraged Americans who have been bullied to feel more powerful by bullying people with even less power: poor blacks, Latinos, immigrants, Muslims, families seeking asylum.
Keep in mind that Trump is a billionaire who got that way because he father gave him hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and connections when Trump was a toddler, then more when he was a teenager, then even more as a twenty-something. He’s been a terrible money-manager. He’s also thoroughly corrupt, a misogynist, and his only intellectual capability (according to his own cabinet and co-workers) is knowing how to swindle people. Hardly the kind of guy you would turn to if you were angry at the current economic system. Trump immediately put in place “his best people,” i.e., billionaires who have been caught swindling the public treasury and destroying human health and worker protections while immediately increasing the public debt by over 1.5 Trillion Dollars. Huge tax breaks were given to the 1% while tiny tax breaks to normal people were immediately negated by increased costs and plans to water down social security, Medicare, and other programs that benefit 95% of Americans (and which the 1% don’t need so don’t care about).
Think about that. The Republican party and Trump have done exactly what we expected them to do – steal from the working and middle class and give to the rich and the corporations. There simply is no honest way to rationalize putting such people in power based on the “taxed enough already” talking point. Rich people got richer, the non-rich white people who voted them into power got poorer. And they will get poorer still when the Republican party follows through on its promise to disband programs that help workers, the middle class, and the poor, all while increasing the profits of the very rich.
The above might seem to be an aside, but it isn’t. The Republican party and Trump always favor the rich and take away from the rest of us. Always. Proven over the last 30+ years. This isn’t a secret. This is what they always do. The Democratic party, while it has had it’s share of historical embarrassments, has for those last 30-50 years been the party of the working class and the middle class. Without the hard work of the Democrats and activists, the economic position of the middle and working classes would be even worse. The actions taken by the Republican party since they gained power in all three branches of government has proven that they always hurt the working and middle classes and the poor while grossly benefitting the very rich, all at taxpayers expense and while Republicans run up the national debt. Abraham Lincoln, who would be considered way too liberal and progressive for today’s far right “conservative” movement, pointed out the problem with the “divine right of kings” such as the corporate and billionaire classes that the Republican party currently represents: “You toil and work to earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” This is today’s Republican party.
So if the economic rationale for the majority of white people voting Republican is invalid, and it is, then why did working and middle class whites vote for the party that cares only about the 1% and against the party that cares about 95% of Americans?
See John C. Calhoun.
Now, I want to thank the few privileged white people who have bothered to read this far. That shows intellectual and personal honesty on your part. Many white people stopped reading long ago. Many would get to the Calhoun quote, swear that they are not racist or bigoted in the slightest way, and run away without reading or thinking any more about it. I see this in any discussion, where “conservatives” refuse to have an honest discussion. I see this in social media, where people who once thought government debt, playing golf, lying, and any hint of improper conduct was grounds for immediate attack, yet now either say they aren’t important or conveniently ignore these formerly abhorrent atrocities as not worth comment. Talk about a double standard.
For the record, I’m not calling all white people racist. But some of us are. Maybe even the majority of us. Ah, but you’re not, you insist. You have a black friend, or a Muslim friend, or know someone who is Hispanic. You’re not racist. You’ve never ever said anything remotely racist.
True. Maybe. At least not overtly. But racism isn’t just about screaming obscenities at minorities (be it racial, religious, economic, gender, preference, political, whatever). You don’t have to march with Nazis or the KKK to be a racist. Sometimes you just have to be white and believe that you’ve achieved all you’ve ever achieved on your own and that if others (“others”) would just apply themselves and work harder they could achieve their dreams too. I know many of us think this because many of us have said this. Repeatedly.
See the problem with this? As a white man growing up in a white world I wasn’t arrested just for walking down the street. I wasn’t pulled over just for driving a nice car. I wasn’t followed around stores. I never felt that the job I didn’t get was because everyone who worked there was white and I wasn’t. I wasn’t tossed out of college for having a bad semester. No one questioned my capabilities because I didn’t go to Harvard. [Okay, this one might have happened.] No one assumed the worst simply because I wasn’t white, or was overtly non-Christian.
My point is that we, as whites, especially white men, live in a white-majority world in which the default value is white, Christian, and largely, male. Everything else is devalued. White Christian males have had the power in this nation since its inception (whether that Christianity is true faith or faked for personal benefit). Not only the power, but the forced “inferiorism” of non-white, non-Christian, and still to some extent today, non-male. The entire society is set up to benefit, or at least privilege, white men. That same society devalues and disadvantages non-whites and non-Christians. It isn’t always overt, and sometimes not even intentional, but it is there. Meanwhile, despite priviledge cries to the contrary, there is no attack on white men, no attack on Christians. None. All non-whites want is for the “all men are created equal” and the U.S. Constitution to apply equally to them. “They” aren’t taking any rights from us, “they” are simply asking that those same rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution in theory, be accepted in practice.
Back to John C. Calhoun. Calhoun and the white aristocracy of the South had for many decades threatened secession from the Union. The entire reason for those threats, and eventual secession, was to protect and expand slavery. They admit it. The Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens explicitly stated that the Confederacy was all about white superiority and subjugation of the black man. Every seceded state stated as their rationale for breaking their constitutional bond with the Union the desire to protect slavery and keep the “inferior” in their place. The Confederate constitution was a carbon copy of the U.S. Constitution except that it explicitly added their belief that slavery was right and that whites were superior to blacks. Those were the only changes. They were fine with the guaranteed rights; they just wanted those rights to apply only to white men. The Confederacy was explicitly focused on the principles of slavery and white superiority. [It certainly wasn’t “states’ rights” since slaveholding states were actively trying to violate the rights of other states, not to mention they invalidated states’ rights even within their own confederacy.] Any suggestion that the Confederacy wasn’t born of racism and treason is false, as proven by the words of the Confederacy itself.
So Calhoun argued that “they” (the slaveowners, aristocrats of the South, like-minded racist of the North) must band together against “them” (black slaves, abolitionists, “black Republicans”) to protect their white superiority.
To this day the white middle class and the white worker class and the “evangelical Christians” often vote against their core beliefs and their best interests. Most white women do the same. They do so because being white is still considered more beneficial than being non-white. And without any sense of the irony, they do so while claiming that being white provides no special benefit.
I grew up white Christian in an almost universally white Christian small town in New England. I spent most of my career working in professional companies whose professional staff was almost all white. I attended scientific and history conferences that were largely white, although some diversity has begun to creep in over the last decade. Not once did I ever think of myself as privileged. And yet this last decade has repeatedly proven me blinded by my own privilege as reality demonstrated that very fact. I know now that if I hadn’t been white or hadn’t been Christian I could have easily ended up facing the same societally-enforced restrictions and biases that non-white, non-Christians have been facing for the entire duration of this country.
I love this country and I have no intention of moving elsewhere. I’ve traveled to many others, including countries that Americans have historically hated (at least until our recent love affairs with our biggest enemies), and the complaints we whine about here pale in comparison to real issues in some of those other places. This is my country, and to borrow the phrase bastardized by racists, I want my country back again.
Not the country where whites can lynch non-whites. I want the country that believes in “all men (and women) are created equal.” I want the country where the U.S. Constitution applies to ALL Americans, whether they were born here or moved here. I want the country where we all, as Abraham Lincoln said, have an equal “right to rise.”
From Robert Reich again:
This bullying game has been played repeatedly in history, by self-described strongmen who pretend to be tribunes of the oppressed by scapegoating the truly powerless.
Trump is no tribune of the people. He and his enablers in the Republican Party are working for the moneyed interests — the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and other corporate and Wall Street chieftains — by cutting their taxes, eliminating regulations, slashing public services and allowing them to profit off public lands, coastal waters and privatized services.
To overcome this bullying game we need those with common gripes to band together, their combined power enough to create meaningful change. American workers did this when they formed unions to fight for better working conditions (e.g., getting rid of child labor, insisting on health and safety protections, achieving reasonable pay and work weeks). Likewise, American women did this to gain the right to vote, to become educated, to hold jobs. Now workers are being left behind again as billionaires are given tax breaks for pushing paper around the back room of banks while not creating any actual jobs here at home. The days of making money by building bigger factories are gone; now the rich make money by shipping jobs overseas or, even more likely, by trading derivatives that have huge upside to them while putting the risk largely on the American people. Giving more money to the rich doesn’t create jobs, it diminishes them. Republicans know this (it has been proven over several decades and repeated failures) but they lie to the American people anyway because it helps the very rich, who donate billions to Republican politicians.
So we must disavow Calhoun and Trump’s philosophies. Our economic enemies are not our fellow workers, be they white, black, brown, Muslim, immigrants, or refugees. Our enemies are the plutocrats who now own all three branches of government. And we don’t defeat them by disparaging government itself; we do so by getting rid of the party that has a proven track record of caring only for the 1% economically, and the white supremacists socially. We do so by getting rid of the party that engages in corruption and Anti-Americanism. The party that aggressively acts to reduce the number of people voting through unconstitutional gerrymandering, illegal voter suppression tactics, and intimidation.
Every election counts. Make sure you are registered. Make sure you vote.
[P.S. I’m not a Democrat, so don’t try to write this off as some sort of partisan screed. I would love to spend my time arguing with Democrats about this issue or that (as I have done in the past), but the Republican party has so institutionalized dishonesty, corruption, and Anti-Americanism that we can’t have the honest discussion we need to have. It’s time for all of us – especially us white men (and women) to be honest with ourselves and with our country.]
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
estebang said:
Some folks can use help remembering to ask for an absentee (age is a sufficient justification) ballot. I’ve been reaching out to those folks I know in such a situation over the weekend.
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davidjkentwriter said:
Good. We all need to do that. I just spoke with my parents about it and encouraged them to vote with information, not out of habit of voting for the townie who has been screwing them for years.
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Josette King said:
Thank you for summarizing so cogently the real issue that is tearing our country apart. And thank you for your call to action! PS – I returned my absentee ballot this morning.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I’m sure I’ll lose “friends” over this. But it has to be said, and we must all say it. A good example of the privilege I grew up with, even though I came from a poorer blue collar family, is the fact that so many of my former classmates have turned out so arrogantly racist. Many won’t acknowledge that fact, of course, but everything they do says it. The fact that they spent years screaming about issues (because “Obama…”) and now ignore the very same issues proves to me that they know they are being dishonest and Anti-American. That says a lot about them.
BTW, I’m not a Democrat (nor a Republican). I would love to spend my days working to encourage Democrats toward actions they may not be comfortable with. But I can’t. I can’t because the Republicans have made it impossible to have an honest discussion of the issues. The Republican party has institutionalized dishonesty and corruption and white supremacy. Only with them gone, or dramatically changed (which can only happen after they are gone), can we return to working toward the common good. The Republicans have done this on purpose. They have repeatedly shown they are dishonest and Anti-American. John C. Calhoun would be proud.
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Josette King said:
Very well said – I wholeheartedly agree with you, and I wish I had the guts to be more forceful in saying it too. I have reached the point where I am reticent to articulate my outrage publicly. I am tired of getting shouted down (ok… bullied) by disingenuous people who will not anyway hear (much less consider) any fact that doesn’t support their own bigoted/entitled narrative I do not support either party. Rather, I quietly support candidates that hopefully will make a difference, and the ACLU. I urge my expat friends to register and get their absentee ballots, and I vote.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I’ve never been one for confrontation or activism; the opposite. But the time has come to speak up for humanity. I’m still shaken that such a large percentage of Americans – mostly white – are so arrogant in their disdain for the diversity that makes us great. I kept to myself thinking that everyone saw reality, only to find that Facebook and other media created a bubble around me so I couldn’t see the pitchforks or the overt racism that has re-infected the nation. I find myself now feeling obligated to challenge racism and bigotry in those that I now recognize as being just that.
I do find that “conservatives”/Republicans are gutless cowards. When asked to support their views, they run away like the meme of the pigeon on the chess board. Where once they saturated their FB and social media with false attacks on Obama, they now ignore very real crimes by their fearless leader and the cast of corruption that is today’s Republican party. No more “Obama plays too much golf.” Now they post recipes to avoid having to admit their dishonesty in not saying anything about Trump’s constant golfing, not to mention his scam of charging the secret service double for staying at his own golf courses.
I’m doing what I can to encourage people to vote. And for the first time in my life I directly asked my parents to vote for someone who cares about them (her reply, “Oh, but I can’t vote against our hometown guy”). I at least have to try. Meanwhile, I’m supporting the candidacies Democrats who have a chance to get rid of corrupt Republicans. I can argue policy with a Democrat; no one can argue policy with the dishonest and the corrupt that is now the Republican party.
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Relax... said:
Very well said, and I doubt it pissed anyone off. You’re very diplomatic. I’m neither Democrat nor Republican, too — haven’t been for years. Whomever isn’t killed in the womb is fed into the war machine even while still in school, so it’s a matter of picking which death to choose for OTHERS? Outrageous. I can’t vote my heart — I will be voting for whomever can truly help shut down this partisan monopoly (and destruction of America and of other nations who depend upon us for help.. or at least for hope), until there’s a real balance and some real guts in Congress, again.
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davidjkentwriter said:
We certainly need more than one voice, and they all must be honest voices. Right now the Republican party has institutionalized dishonesty and bigotry. They must be removed if we are to have a country again.
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Relax... said:
Absolutely agreed.
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Lightness Traveling said:
Your long-ish article invites a long-ish response. But I’ll (try to) yield to my better instincts. You already know that I’ve always considered myself a “Business Conservative” Republican. Alas, among those who’ve gained control of the party from its more ideologically-driven and extreme edges (whom I that I think you in-part accurately describe), I’m just another “RINO”. The truth is, sadly, that the “Republican” party no longer exists within America’s two-party conundrum in anything other than name. What we have now is a neo-nationailst movement based in anachronistic fantasies. Those like myself have largely fallen away (my article, “Hell”), since we know we can’t make any meaningful difference from within. Noel King’s chat with Tom Nichols on NPR this morning sums it up for me. But… where to turn?
As for the racism, I know an older man from Oklahoma who has expressed exactly what you say here. He once explained how poor Whites were pandered to with political messages of racial supremacy, consequently empowering people who actually worked against their own self-interest. But I think it can work the other way around as well. Identity politics are pervasive in America, and they result in much of the frustration that I think most voters feel even with regard to their own candidates.
Maybe I’m just an unrealistic pragmatist. And I’ll leave it at that.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I’m not sure I know what “business conservative” means. Aren’t we all in favor of a strong business environment based on honest economic principles, ethics, and hard work? That isn’t what the Republican party of today represents, and it hasn’t been for decades.
I agree that you would most like be called a “RINO” (or worse). That’s one of the reasons we know that Trump followers and the Trump/Republican party (which was Trumpian even before Trump) are dishonest. As you note, the party is now the party of racists. That didn’t start with Trump, it merely got a national voice with him. The Republican party has pandered to racism, bigotry, misogyny, and other forms of hatred for years. Trump just coalesced Ayn Randism around himself, and the party jumped at the chance to shift economic benefit even more to the rich and powerful, not to mention stack the courts with people who will allow Republicans to continue to unconstitutionally gerrymander, suppress the vote, and openly lie. Any Republican who tries to be honest is primaried out of office by the extremists in his/her own party. Just look at how the party let Trump attack John McCain. I’ve been hot and cold on McCain during his career, but I’m aghast that the Republican party, the party that used to pretend it was more American than the Democrats, now does so while daily attacking veterans and cozying up to Putin. When you look at the “principles” the Republican party has always claimed they believe in (patriotism, family values, fiscal conservatism), every action they take proves they believe in the opposite. They just say those things and count on their voters to be too stupid to notice.
I know this sounds like some sort of partisan rant but it isn’t, it’s fact proven daily.
All I want is the ability to honestly debate policy to deal with honest issues. We can’t do that because the Republican party – as epitomized by Trump – have institutionalized dishonesty. The Democrats have some dumb ideas, but at least they haven’t institutionalized Anti-Americanism, which is exactly what the Republican party has become.
You make a valid point with your “man from Oklahoma” story. Pandering to white supremacy/xenophobia makes whites more racist. True. It gives latent racists cover and allows them to become more open with their racism. But does standing up against that pandering and that bigotry (what you call “identity politics”) also make whites more racist? That may also be true. We tend to hunker down into defensive postures when challenged. I have several friends who I didn’t realize were racist (I’m not that close with people I call friends, so I often don’t know much about their views; I’m mostly referring to old high school classmates I had lost touch with for years and other co-workers I don’t see socially). When I try to talk to them – actually talk, not attack – they either double-down on defensiveness or run and hide. Of the two, the “run and hide” response is the most likely. They will repeat a talking point without any support at all. When asked for support they run away. That tells me that they don’t actually have any evidence of their contention (other than they heard it on Fox & Friends), but they can’t let it go because it would remove the one rationale they have for their bigotry or misogyny.
BTW, in case you were suggesting that “identity politics” makes non-whites more racist, I suppose that happens too. But isn’t that like saying antebellum slaves fighting for freedom and equality makes white plantation owners more racist? Any action by someone seeking equal treatment that makes me more racist would seem to reflect on my insecurities and Anti-Americanism, not any deficiency on their part. Fighting back is the only way women gained the vote, black men gained their freedom, blacks gained their civil and voting rights (100 years after they supposedly already had them), workers gained a reasonable work week and health and safety protections, etc. Waiting for us whites in power to grant them these things wasn’t an option because we whites would never have granted them ever. Refusing to move to the back of the bus or taking a knee at a football game were equally considered Anti-American by the white people who want to maintain their power and “superiority” over non-whites. The same happens with the rich and powerful controlling the economy, getting richer not because of designing a better mousetrap and hiring workers to build more and more of them, but by creating paper/electronic financial vehicles that allow, for example, the very rich to trade derivatives with high upside/low risk for them but tremendous risk to the non-rich who will suffer when the government has to step in to keep the too big from failing and taking the economy with it.
We need everyone to stand up for honesty and integrity. Influential Democrats need to insist Democrats be honest; the same must happen within the Republican party. [I’m not sure the Libertarian and Green parties are even parties.] Right now, as the bipartisan writers Mann and Ornstein put it, the Republican party IS the problem.
Sorry for writing long again. I do think you’re in a unique position in that you have enjoyed both privilege and a broader understanding of both non-American and American culture. I’m always impressed with your insights and enjoy reading your perspectives. My own upbringing was white but blue-collar poor (though not destitute). Through luck and hard work I managed to raise my condition (so Lincolnesque), which has given me the privilege to do what I do now. But I’ve also learned in recent years that my situation would most likely have not been so nice if I had not been born when and where I was born. I’ve accomplished what I’ve accomplished through hard work, for sure, but I also haven’t been handed additional challenges by society like others have been.
Apologies again. Sometimes I can’t stop writing. 😉
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Lightness Traveling said:
I like your comment. But I’ll confess that I don’t necessarily agree with everything, either as stated or implied. But I’m curious, and I try to keep an open mind.
I can only interpret things from my own perspective, which is admittedly limited. But that’s an ordinary human condition. In my case, I’m an educated, successful, west-coast, Asian/White-American… which pretty much sums up today’s image of American “privilege”. I wasn’t even bullied in high-school. Do I owe an apology to someone for any of that?
I also try to separate the politics from the person. And in that regard, I see Trump as having done more damage to conservatism in the US by attaching his name to the pragmatic aspects of Republican Party politics, and through his leadership by intimidation. There’s a bigger picture than merely a bunch of greedy racists, anti-intellectuals and opportunists. And that Machiavellian/Objectivist mentality and corruption most certainly exists within the Democratic Party as well.
Trump is a petty, corrupt, ignorant, misogynistic, racist, narcissistic, wannabe Dictator-in-Chief. And I won’t cast a vote either for him or for anyone who doesn’t have the spine to say it like it is, because it empowers exactly the kinds of corruption and psychopathology that have brought down the party. I also disagree with a great deal of what has emerged from the Republican Party, especially of late… though most definitely not everything. I also remain unconvinced that Democrats have the answers hidden behind any of their own smoke-and-mirrors. Pick a specific, and I’m happy to discuss my own views. But I don’t think it helpful to get worked up over generalizations, and especially those based in narratives.
As for issues of race, I won’t deny that it’s a problem in America. But I also think it’s become impossible to have rational, fact-based discussions on the topic anymore. The only person I can speak for is myself. And my general impression is that most people have been distracted from the really big issues by the “victim” narratives emanating from both sides of the fence. The largest economy in the world is rapidly squandering its wealth and its future in corrupt government contracts, military-industrial boondoggles, and taxpayer-funded bailouts of profit-taking corporate share-holders. Meanwhile, pandering politicians shout fist-pumping messages intended to distract voters with their own emotions.
I don’t have a solution, because I think the dysfunction is built-in to the American system, as well as our society as a whole. A nation can’t be better than its people. And if as a people we’re all angrily waiting for a loving and benevolent mother of a government to come to our rescue…
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davidjkentwriter said:
I would be surprised if you did agree with all of my comment and I appreciate that you came back with a long, thoughtful comment yourself. I’ll try to reply briefly to a few points you made (if it’s indeed possible for me to be brief).
You ask “Do I owe an apology to someone for any of that?”. No. Absolutely not. I don’t see that any of us with privilege should have to apologize for it. And no one is really asking for an apology. All everyone wants is to have the same opportunities without having to first dig out of the discriminatory hole we’ve put them in. As for the bullying, I’m glad you weren’t. I was, but I don’t think anyone has to apologize to me. It told me then that I had some real [fill in expletives here] for classmates. In retrospect it shouldn’t have surprised me they turned out to be [expletive] as “adults.”
I disagree with much of your third paragraph. I don’t think you can separate the politics from the person. People choose their politics based on who they are. If they are dishonest and racist, their politics are dishonest and racist. I also don’t think Trump has damaged conservatism any more than the Republican party has been damaging it for decades. It used to mean believing that certain economic styles were best; now it means diverting money and power from the 95% to the 1%, and largely, from the general populace to the white populace. Frankly, conservatism has always had a racist element on the social side (the pre-Civil War and Reconstruction conservatives were Democrats). That was to be expected given most of the white populace was openly racist back then, but there is no excuse for it now.
That doesn’t mean I’m calling you or other conservatives racist. The problem isn’t so much the individuals as it is that the party (or label) has institutionalized and pandered to racists and bigots as a means of keeping the poorer white folks in line with the white orthodoxy. As I alluded to in my essay, it also keeps the working class whites from teaming up with working class non-whites to fight for their rights.
I guess where we differ most is that you consider the Republican party/conservatism to be pushing honest ideas but that message has been muddled by all these distractions. I don’t see the party or conservatism to be honest any more. Pretty much everything the party says it believes in is the opposite of what they actually do. I’ve already rattled off some examples and it would make this even longer to go through more so I won’t. Let’s agree to disagree on this aspect for now. I honestly think it’s a discussion best had over a beer and doesn’t work well typing over the internet.
Oh, do the Democrats have all the answers? Absolutely not. Some of their ideas are beyond stupid, and the far left can be just as nutty and dishonest as the far right. But even there think about what the two extremes want: the left wants affordable health care for all, education that doesn’t bankrupt the students or their families, honest policy decisions based on science, and no discrimination; the right wants to take away affordable health care for anyone who can’t afford it, deny public education (again, you get only what you can afford, while skimming off public funds for private schools), deny science, and remove the rights of everyone non-white, non-evangelical Christian (not to mention for man evangelicals to bring on the end times). Not a hard choice as to which is the least destructive. I know you’re not one of those extremists, but the Republican party and the non-conservatives who most loudly proclaim they are “conservative” are. And they’ve run the party for a very long time.
I agree more than disagree with your “as for issues of race” paragraph so will leave it for now.
Your last paragraph, I think, exemplifies what I think is the problem. To some extent the dysfunction is a result of our governmental structure, both intended by the founders and the unintended. And yes, I agree that a nation can’t be better than its people. That’s what destroyed my faith in human nature the most, that such a large proportion of our populace are horrible, racist people. But this part is the most concerning: “And if as a people we’re all angrily waiting for a loving and benevolent mother of a government to come to our rescue…”
Like you, I don’t have a solution. I would start with everyone being honest, but that seems to be impossible these days. To some extent I do agree that people expect the government to sort this out. On the other hand, and as you note, the government is only as good as its people and a huge percentage of the people are dishonest and easily manipulated. I don’t think most people want the government to solve all the social problems, but I do think we expect the government – or at least one party – to actively try to manipulate the public with dishonesty for the sole benefit of the privileged few. And that is what is currently happening and has been happening for many years. I’m not sure you’ll agree that’s the case, but it is demonstrated by the Republican party on a daily basis.
In an ideal world, the two parties (or more) should present their views and debate the options with the goal of resolving the problem and/or best positioning us as a nation to thrive. At the very least they shouldn’t be actively working against the principles of “all men are created equal.”
I wish I had an answer. Maybe more people should have some long give-and-takes like we’ve just done. Frankly, I don’t see that as possible given how quickly people build defensive walls are race for the exits whenever someone says something that challenges their predispositions.
Thanks for bearing with me. I doubt we solved anything, or even agreed on much, but I hope we’re still “online friends.” Best, always.
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estebang said:
I have enjoyed reading some of the comments he
I have been trying to put some of what is happening now into historical context. But the level of hypocrisy and dishonesty (and the effort put into it)and silliness makes it extremely painful to digest. Too many folks probably just give up and tune out as a way to survive.
The hypothesis that works for me is that fear/hate/segregationist arguments are easy and work, so they are used mostly out of greed and laziness.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I recently finished reading Jon Meacham’s “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.” It had been reading material for a group of Diane Rehm enthusiasts I ran into on my recent small boat Baltic Sea cruise and had caused such contention that I thought I should read it. It turns out to have little of the overt political bias suggested by those people, but one thing it did do was review our history with respect to just that – overt political bias. As I wrote in my review, it’s rather depressing how much of our history has proven us to be dishonest and racist. So our present situation isn’t all that unique, he suggests. The one big difference is that he reports on how presidents’ have pulled us out of past crises whereas today that is what has caused it (or at least our recognition of it). My review is at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2542103899?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I think your last paragraph is all-to-correct. We, as humans, are pitifully insecure and there are people out there who revel in the ability to manipulate us all for their own benefit. It’s a sad reflection on who we are. I was particularly saddened to find my belief in humanity to be grossly naïve.
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Lightness Traveling said:
David, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m near impossible to offend. If you recall Gather, I was an occasional recipient of some vitriol. In particular, I remember one back-and-forth regarding how errors can be introduced into meta-studies. Moreover, I really do sincerely appreciate hearing others’ views and opinions, regardless of whether or not I agree. And I especially appreciate them when they are honest and intelligent, which is why I continue to engage with you. Sometimes… every now and then… they might even cause me to change my own perspective on something.
I realize that I work within my own circle, and that colors my perspective. I actually have a rough article sitting in the editor that arose from a discussion with a local friend about whether or not I had benefited from “privilege” after a recent incident. And I’ve hidden some questions about the relative privilege of race in a few of my articles, “Handshakes” in particular. I’ve also been deeply involved in a couple of overseas programs that have left me wondering about the nature of “character” with regard to finding success in life. But what I’ve seen first-hand is pretty difficult to discuss openly in American society, where it’s become fashionable to blame someone else for every ill or misfortune.
I tend to agree with “estebang’s” second paragraph here. It takes a great deal of work, and a tolerance for much cognitive dissonance along the way before coming to most honest and realistic conclusions. For the second time in my life, I’ve recently cashed-in a great deal of political connection. And it hasn’t been without some potential serious consequence.
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davidjkentwriter said:
One thing I’ve always liked about you, even going back to Gather, was your integrity and intelligence (okay, maybe that’s two things). I’ve found those characteristics to be disproportionately rare in my online interactions. Gather was a microcosm of what we’ve become in real life.
And btw, I have learned a great deal from you, including changing my perspective, though I realize it might not always seem evident. I’m also enamored of your willingness to help others, e.g., those overseas programs you just alluded to and have mentioned in the past.
I understand your thought about “fashionable to blame someone else for every ill or misfortune.” In fact, that’s ingrained in the Calhoun/Trump philosophy I wrote about in the original post. On the other hand, there is actual dishonesty as I’ve described in the Republican party and those people who most vocally scream they are “conservative” (as opposed to conservative).
The importance of “who you know” has been a big part of my privilege as well. I don’t have your connections but, as with anyone, it’s who you meet that bring opportunities (true whether you’re a plumber or a billionaire). Nothing wrong with meeting people. There isn’t even anything wrong with being born to connections and privilege. The only thing wrong is making believe others haven’t achieved as much because they haven’t worked hard enough while ignoring the very real societal discrimination that has held them back, or at least put a lot more obstacles in their path.
I hope your consequence isn’t as serious as you suggest. Thanks again for bearing with my verbosity. That was one of the complaints people on Gather had. I’ll plead guilty and blame Blaise Pascal/Mark Twain/everyone else for the excuse in “if I had more time I would have written a shorter response.” 🙂
And yes, I’m so wired that I’m replying after a grand total of 2 hours sleep. 🙂
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The Log Cabin Sage said:
Take another look at Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address – ‘the perpetuation of our political institutions.’ It’s a complicated speech but one in which he actually describes our current situation and our current leader. He refers to ‘towering genius’ as a mindset but describes it like an ‘ego.’ The irony? The word ‘trump’ appears in the last paragraph or two – not as a noun of course, but still…Also, his Know-Nothing letter to Speed is so classic too. Thanks for the good article!
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davidjkentwriter said:
Thanks for the reminder. That is indeed a good address to spend some time reviewing. I’m also a big fan of the “Know Nothing” letter to Speed.
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