I don’t think this is accurate. You’re free to explain why you feel it is accurate because I appreciate people whose opinions don’t line up with mine offering me counterpoints, but this isn’t my experience.
For one thing (and this is very important) it is only white rural areas that vote overwhelmingly for Republicans. There are rural counties in America full of blacks, Latinos and native Americans. They have the same problems. Job losses, drug overdoses, loss of hope, out of control health care costs, etc. But the white counties vote republican and the non white counties vote Democrat. They have the exact same problems, but skin color determines which party they vote for.
Also these problems exist in the cities too. We have drug problems, unemployment, health care costs, etc to worry about too.
But the democrats at least offer policy to help. The gop does not. They offer unrealistic solutions or empty rhetoric and then govern like plutocrats.
I agree we on the left have a lot of contempt for rural conservative whites. We do. But a big part of that is because we view them as bigoted hypocrites. The problem is rural values normally are code for ‘opportunity for me, but not for thee’. Basically, according to their values, they can get married but gays can’t. They can protest injustice (like government brutality and oppression) but blacks can’t. They can get welfare but other people shouldn’t. They deserve religious freedom but Muslims and atheists do not. They want freedom and welfare, but only for themselves. They want everyone else to live in an authoritarian, dog eat dog world while they get to live in a free, safe enclave. It’s infuriating.
Throw in how dogmatic many of them are, and it’s hard to respect them.
The notion of illiberal liberals is still quite new to me - close-minded, dismissive, unquestionably morally superior, judgemental, etc. God, i probably used to be one. At least you aren’t one.
Fwiw, in understanding the new political paradigms in Europe and the US I didn’t find the old groupings at all helpful; desperate people aren’t democrats of republicans, they have no allegiances, they know all politicians fail them.
Poor rural whites are ripe for radicalization, but organizing them seems like quite the challenge given the lower population density.
It’s optimistic because it assumes these young progressives will modify or dismantle the systems of power that lead to these policies instead of being co-opted. Even just a socdem America would require an enormous and sustained popular movement, but the culture strikes me as defeated. There’s a lot of pressure to be passive and obedient. Try starting a union in a right to work state. Oh, you can’t pay your student debts? No more driver’s license. Do a little protesting? Let’s call it a felony. The elites are playing for keeps.
Imagine an America where the Clintons are seen as reactionaries.
To describe the American commercial media during the Cold War as “fairly balanced” is peculiar. They systematically supported American imperialism explicitly, or made excuses for it, or ignored it while demonizing the Soviets and third world independence movements.
You could also say there was a little home cookin when it came to false reporting of many of the unfolding events in Vietnam, too, regardless - I wouldn’t say “fairly balanced” is a peculiar descriptor. I would say it’s quite accurate in that despite the noted imperfections, it’s still not rife with all the extremist, outlandish news sources we have today and goofy “fake news” climate.
The US in many ways will always lag behind europe.
But what happens in 20 years. In 2037, the oldest millennials will be in their mid to late 50s. The American electorate will probably be 45%+ non-white. Most people who identified with the tea party in 2009 won’t be here anymore.
Part of me thinks what is happening (and will continue to happen) is that the older white voters are not handling seeing America become multicultural. They feel displaced and feel like America’s identity that they knew and loved (a white, hetero christian patriarchy where everyone knew where they fell in the social totem pole and nobody fought against the system) is rapidly dying. They are getting desperate to MAGA by turning America back into what it was where they were on top.
But they won’t be around forever. Granted, their kids could be just as bad if not worse. But so far, it appears that younger white voters aren’t as bad as their parents generation and are accustomed to multiculturalism in ways their parents are not. 62% of white boomers voted for Trump, only 47% of whites age 18-29 voted for Trump.
In 2020, up to 40% of potential voters will be millennials.
I don’t hate republicans or conservatives. But I think many on the right are so afraid of demographic and cultural changes that it is making them do and believe irrational and immoral things. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Things won’t be perfect, but the era of segregation was better than the era of slavery. The era now is better than the era of segregation. And the future will be better still.
I’m hopeful for the future, but the US will always be an imperfect place. We will never be Sweden or the Netherlands, and it could be decades before the demographics that are behind the most immoral and irrational behavior in politics aren’t around in strong enough numbers to damage the nation.
Having said all that, I have considered leaving the US too. Mostly to live in a country with sane politics and a working, humane health care system.
I think one of the most remarkable statistics I’ve seen relates to US healthcare and it’s that, in the context of so much money and so much medical knowledge and KPI indicator gains elsewhere in the developing world, life expectancy in the USA is declining.
I cannot think of a more damning indictment of - not a healthcare system - but a political system. And absolutely no one is being held to account. With all we have in the 21st century this is an epic catastrophe. It is a truly extraordinary failure of democracy and political accountability.
And one portion of the article also potentially explains how this trend could fuel tribalism in the political system.
It was clear that the perception among a lot of white blue collar voters in suburban and rural America was that socioeconomic changes that many urban intellectuals considered positive were coming at their expense. When people say that it’s hyperbole to compare the United States to Germany of the 1920s and early 1930s, they’re basing this on the fact that we’re not recovering from a humiliating defeat like the Germans were in WWI or that we don’t (yet) have Weimar hyperinflation. But America’s been at war for close to two decades now, and many of those soldiers who’ve died or suffered devastating injuries are from the Heartland. We’ve also experienced a devastating financial crisis that crushed the middle class and in many cases this has all but permanently condemned them to life in the ranks of the working poor. Without economic security, there is no social or psychological stability. People have lost faith in institutions to serve them. It’s easy to see why many are looking for a superman, and I’m guessing their vision of a superman is someone who looks a lot like them and articulates how they feel.
“I cannot think of a more damning indictment…” unless it’s that the US has the highest infant mortality rate of a group of 25 other developed countries We’re at the BOTTOM of this list. (Note: this is a pdf.) Data is from 2010.
Still a disgrace when you consider we have the resources to vastly improve this situation. If Congress cared about children. This is the Congress that let CHIP expire and hasn’t done anything about that either.
I’ve pretty much lost it. The GOP tax “reform” will get reconciled and rammed through in one of its potential monstrous forms despite the fact that it’s unpopular with the people Congress is supposed to be serving, since money is speech and big money donors control Congress. Plus Tmurp would sign any GOP bill into law as long as he could spin it as a GOP “win” and a “fuck you” to Obama, Hillary, Schumer, and Pelosi.
Paul Ryan and the Turtle will probably destroy SS, Medicare, and Medicaid as much as they can next year, and Tmurp will sell it as “the best bill ever” so his base will cheer as they set up their cardboard boxes in the street.
This country is crazy and there’s nowhere for me to go as I don’t have any route for citizenship elsewhere, no rare skills to be a desirable hiree in another country, and am obviously not independently wealthy so I could be accepted as a resident who would not be a drain on whatever society I would possibly like to move to.
I know I’m selfishly complaining about myself a lot here, but this is the Pit. I’m just so tired of hearing how wonderful and upstanding and put upon billionaires are and what a load of mooching freeloaders the working class is and how MAGA consists of welfare for billionaires and big business while eliminating programs for the less fortunate.
Don’t say that, France will open its arms wide to **anybody **!
Provided they do at least three years in the Foreign Legion, that is. But what’s 3 little years in the worst hellholes the planet has to offer ?
I’ve been an adult for several decades now, and that question has come up at least once in each one. Of course I have hope. It’s all relative. I was recently reading about the political wranglings in the 1790s, and the 2010s don’t have much on that period. Just a bunch of friggin’ backstabbers back then. Not George Washington, but just about everyone else in government. In Ron Chernow’s bio of him, Washington had apparently envisioned his job as temporary, maybe stepping down a couple years in. But there was no one he felt comfortable handing over the reins to, so he held on, and the job visibly aged him. He finally had enough after two terms.
So, yeah I have hope. Rumors of America’s death have always been premature.
Miguel de Unamuno in 1906: “Let others invent, and us take advantage of their inventions. I hope and trust that you’ll be convinced, as I am, that electric lights work as well here as where they were invented.”
The notion that it’s ok for research to take place abroad so long as it benefits everybody is very different from the notion that one should never research because any research will benefit everybody; even more different from the notion that anything new is by definition suspect.
Hell, I still have hope for Russia. Of course I have hope for the US. That makes me either an optimist or an idiot. (And I’m not ruling out the latter.)