As a Democrat, I’ve been spending the last few weeks sifting through the wreckage of the last election, looking for anything that can be salvaged.
Here’s one thing. The results sent a message, loud and clear, that voters don’t want to be thought of as faceless members of tribes defined by their race, gender identity and, above all, their victimhood.
That has been the message hammered away at by Democratic and liberal elites (but not the rank-and-file) for decades — and most especially since the George Floyd murder. And yet those voters rejected that narrative on November 5th. Donald Trump improved his performance among Black and Hispanic voters and he even did okay with white women, even as he faced off — and insulted and demeaned — a Black female candidate.
The trouble with the liberal elite narrative of American history and life that is that the victims in that story don’t see themselves as victims. They see themselves as individuals. They don’t think about “intersectionality”; they think about the price of eggs.
For too long, my party has been afflicted with Guilty White Liberal Syndrome. Maybe this last election will break that fever. Because the truth is that life and history are complicated. We are not members of groups whose fate is shaped by circumstances. And yet, it would be just as wrong and simplistic to assume that we control 100% of our own destiny.
The recent announcement that a handful of Madison schools made the list of some of the best public schools in America drove home that last point. All of those schools — Randall, Hamilton, West — were in relatively affluent neighborhoods and most of them were in neighborhoods with a high percentage of professors, professionals and university employees. You don’t think it’s an advantage to grow up with substantial resources and in a family and neighborhood where education is highly valued? You don’t think that it’s a huge disadvantage to grow up in a neighborhood without those things?
And that’s precisely why Guilty White Liberals feel so guilty. In the back of their minds they know their advantages stem primarily from their educations and their resources (which are in large part a result of their educations). So, they obscure the issue by focussing on race and identity. But the root of inequality is not race or gender; it’s education and family income.
That’s always been true, but the election made that truth inescapable. The Democratic Party needs a revolution in its thinking. It needs to stop seeing voters as faceless members of groups. It needs to understand that when it pegs them as helpless victims, it insults them. It needs to figure out that the esoteric concerns about intersectionality that affluent liberals have the luxury of wallowing in are foreign to people who actually need to compare the price of eggs.
I think the reelection of Trump is a disaster. But not an unmitigated one. If it shoves Guilty White Liberals to the background and it forces my party to see people as the individuals that they truly are, that would be a great thing. And I’d be thankful for it.
We’ll take tomorrow off and watch some football. Have a peaceful Thanksgiving.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Quit beating up on people who have decent morals and values. How can you ignore the people who voted for a person like Trump, and give them the excuse of feeling not heard. Poor babies. Baloney. What are the large number of young males that voted for Trump who are now shouting things like: your body, my choice – if not moored in identify? You aren’t acknowledging the fact that we may just have a larger number of people who are mean and completely and entirely focused on identity: males = supreme beings and this is our country. It wasn’t about money. It isn’t about the far left who I didn’t see making appearances during the campaign. You are the person that amplified their importance and their voices. We all get that they are extreme. What we all now know is that the “fringe” right, actually isn’t fringe anymore. The trouble is, the Democrats just don’t hate enough.
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“the Democrats just don’t hate enough.”
Mercy mercy me! The deeply viscid irony though which you had to slog to type that!
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well another year is slowly coming to an end not much to be thankful for, but just want to put politics away, do not care about who anybody voted for, still welcome in my life. keep politics religion and sex out of the conversation, ( and Badger football also ).
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“We are not members of groups whose fate is shaped by circumstances.”
While you might not wish it to be so, it is an objective fact that one’s race and gender has had a pretty big influence on circumstance in our country. Not to mention that your next paragraph illustrates the point. Financial success in the US has historically mirrored racial demographics. It’s been a REALLY short period of history since the majority (was it?) has decided to make racial discrimination “illegal” (note it’s not really illegal).
“the root of inequality is not race or gender; it’s education and family income”
Yeah, and race has been a strongly correlated factor with that for a really long time. We hopefully are getting past that someday, but the disparate data still persists.
It’s insane to think that in 60 years or country has eliminated the impact of racial discrimination. Since there is little data to back up that claim, it appears that rich whites just want to stop even thinking about it – yeah, I bet that’s more comfortable to just ignore it. Politically expedient, certainly.
People are guilty because deep down they know they didn’t earn what they have. We don’t have a meritocracy, and we never have. We have generations that gained wealth while others were prohibited (violently) from doing so, and that wealth is bound in the property ownership and inheritance of their families. Sorry that makes people uncomfortable. The truth hurts.
We don’t have objective measures of intelligence, and while it may be remotely possible to develop them, we haven’t. What we call education is regurgitation and obedience. We have many many rich people that I wouldn’t trust to change my oil (R and D both).
Give me the kid that scores lowest on the standardized test – that’s the one that knows it’s a joke and not to bother with silly games. The ones that ace them are well in line to work in the missile murder factory and swallow whatever the authorities say. Take a minute to think objectively about how these tests are administered, and you might get a hint about what the results REALLY mean.
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