Even More than my Disdain for Trump is my Disdain for who we as Citizens have Become

To engage in a calm conversation with a being who holds a different political view from your own is difficult right now. In this particular election season, the animus is so intense. Each side views the other as potential destroyers of our nation.

In my Facebook stream I posted a quote from a Mother Jones article the other day. The words and thoughts were what one author believed was the underlying story of the Trump campaign. I don't think what was written is far off.

The quoted narrative implies the story of the conservative mindset that has given rise to the Tea Party and to Trumpism is one of theft, favoritism and denial.  The story is that the American dream is being taken from us, the middle class or people who think they used to be middle class or people on the cusp of making it into the middle class, by “others” who have no real claim to it.  These other people are mostly identified as migrants, refugees and poorer Americans.  These people are thieves stealing opportunity and wealth from us. It is a powerful narrative in a nation where the gap between rich and poor is growing and where the middle class is not prospering as it had in the past.

There is a different story that underlies liberal thought. The liberal story I see is a view of a government focused on helping through action, not indifference or by insisting on “self-reliance”. This story is pretty much the antithesis of the story underlying Trump’s popularity. 

This liberal narrative is twofold. First immigrants and the poor are not stealing from us. All of us are in actuality the product of immigration to this place. Most of our families started out on the bottom rungs. We should therefore not demonize these people. Instead we should help them with food assistance and with housing assistance and various other forms of aid. We have at times demonized religion of others in this country, Catholics and Jews have taken a hit along with others. But these faiths have not destroyed us. Neither will Islam. We are a secular nation and we while we have a right to assert to assert conformity with the norms set forth in our Constitution, we have no right to mess with value systems of others here beyond that.

The second prong of the liberal story is the American dream is not being stolen by the poor and the immigrant; our cherished dream is being stolen my multinational corporations and by the legislators that are beholden to them. Citizens United is a mockery of justice. Demonizing the worker and the union member makes no sense. Descriptors applied to American workers, especially union workers include lazy, self-indulgent, unwise with money, devious, promiscuous….hmmh…aren’t these terms we used in the past to subjugate by law our black population? It is the money that has flowed from corporations into the pockets of the majority of our politicians that has derailed us. Yeah the laws that are being written are not to insure equality and opportunity, instead they are now drafted to insure the institution of a ruling class of wealth and wealth alone. This is the liberal story.

Neither of the stories is exactly true.  Supporting the conservative story there are abuses that have occurred with social welfare programs.  On the liberal side there have been injustices done to good, honest people just trying to integrate into our American life. We could go point by point through these stories and come with examples that support both sides.  To some extent that is what we have to do.  We have to look at the laws in place and the practices in place and decide what is working and what is not.  If we build a wall who will fill the lower end jobs in food service, agriculture and some of the construction trades?  If we allow indefinite payments to able bodied persons through various forms of welfare how do we not create a class of dependent Americans?

In the end what we have to do is deal with the problems not as a sound bite, not as someone else’s problem but as something we collectively tackle as a people.  Blow up the TV folks and move on.  Go to town council meetings and ask why giving tax breaks to a particular developer really makes sense for the economic welfare of your city.  Run the numbers as to graduation rates in your high school and figure out who isn’t making it to commencement.  Could the lack of academic success be tied to poverty?  Well then dig in and think about how we deal with this.  Does preschool free breakfast and tutoring make sense. Do our trade policies and our own patterns of consumption undercut the strength of our democracy?  Hey I own an iPhone that was built in China and as a result I have helped create a trade imbalance in favor of that undemocratic society, a place that pollutes even more than we do. Should my next phone be made in America?  Do we even still make phones in America?

In the end it is our individual engagement that will save our democracy if it is to be saved.  Me I don’t think a vote for a person who’s answer to trade imbalance is to tear up free trade agreements and to illegal immigration is to build a wall gets us there. I think Trump is a fraud and a vote of frustration for Trump will do us no good. But for others the narrative is one that paints a woman as deceitful and a trickster at best. It is not an easy season to enter the voting booth.

The bottom line for me is that we have to move away from our narcotics, TV, the internet and tons of other distractions and diversions.  We need to get back to work in being citizens.  It is frustrating and maddening but we have to do it.  We have to take back our government from the corruption that large amounts of money have engendered and figure out what works to advance us a society within the framework of our Constitution.