Trump isn't the only problem - we need to understand where all these people are coming from and fix it
Yeah, I know, it feels like we’ve talked this to death already. And with the mid-terms just around the corner, strong Resist-ance, and clear progress on Mueller’s investigation… well, it seems we’re in a pretty good place now. Right? We’re on a roll.
But something’s been nagging me just the same. There are signs that even if we de-Trump the nation, we will not be rid of what spurred Trump’s rise (or Palin’s). The resentment he tapped into will continue to grow and fester.
What if there’s something deeper that we haven’t quite put our finger on — something eating away at our core, our democracy. What if that thing keeps coming back to bite us? What if it’s been biting us for a while and we just haven’t been able to see it?
Today someone pointed me to this article, titled “The Respect Deficit” by Richard Reeves. Reading it, I was intrigued by the discussion of respect as one of three types of equality: basic equality (human rights, legal rights), material equality (resources, economic), and relational equality (relationships, respect). Relational equality depends on both self-respect and mutual respect (to/from other people).
Reeves explains the importance of relational equality (respect).
Relational equality is usually a necessary precursor, for example, to laws ensuring equal rights. When black Americans were seen as intrinsically inferior, held in a fundamentally different relation, it was easy for whites to deny them basic rights. Once people begin to relate to each other as equals, legal rights usually follow close behind. Support for same-sex marriage, for example, rose most quickly among Americans with gay friends or family members. ... Relational equality fosters equality of other kinds.
And that got me thinking. Well, I don’t know about you, but at least where I live, there’s a serious lack of relational equality. In the gym, many people don’t bother putting away equipment they use — as if that’s beneath them, as if someone else should do it for them. When the maintenance worker is vacuuming, most people ignore him, expect him to work around them or wait for them to finish. Almost no one looks the maintenance worker in the eye and smiles or nods a greeting, they never say “hello, how are you?”.
This is just one of many clear signs of class separation in our society. People who have good paying jobs look down on those in lower paying jobs. People in a lot of low-paying jobs put up with this kind of attitude, and the thoughtless behavior that comes with it, on a regular basis. People living in poverty experience this type of disrespect and more, a palpable disdain, on a daily basis.
The article gets to the heart of the matter when it dives into what happens to respect in a true meritocracy (which is what we’ve been striving to create in the U.S., and what most Americans believe we now, at least mostly, have).
Meritocracy [...] justifies and amplifies material inequality, by weakening the foundation of mutual respect needed for the funding of public goods, or support for greater resource-redistribution. The ideology of meritocracy is the connective tissue between material inequality and relational inequality.
Another problem [...] is a loss of self-respect among the poor. ...
Life in a meritocracy is psychologically comfortable for those who possess whatever particular kind of merit is valued. But it is hard for those who do not. In an explicitly non-meritocratic hierarchy, these pains are fewer; the pauper knows he can never be a prince. But when everyone can, at least in theory, be a CEO or a president or rich, your failure to do so must be your own fault.
Sounds like precisely what’s been happening in our country (including reduced funding for public goods and support for resource redistribution).
The inevitable eroding of self-respect, along with the loss of mutual respect leads to a keen sense of despair. Trump tapped right into the despair.
The loss of self-respect among some of meritocracy’s losers is accompanied and amplified by a loss of respect between classes – the winners and losers ... The economic gap becomes an empathy gap, which becomes a respect gap. ...
When economic inequality evolves into class separation – by neighbourhood, school, workplace, lifestyle, culture – the seeds of destruction for relational inequality are planted. Rather than looking the less fortunate ‘squarely in the eye’, the elite might instead come to look at them down their nose. ...
Although Trump is not an economic loser, he has always felt a lack of respect — felt dissed by the elites. His gritty speaking style feels good to his supporters — he understands that feeling of disrespect, he feels it, too. So when he promises that he alone can fix it — they believe it.
They felt trapped in a meritocracy that doesn’t value their skills. Trump gave them an out — a way to reclaim their self-respect. Trump told them all their problems were caused by THEM — every president before him, the fake news media, Congress, China, NATO, … It’s everyone else’s fault. He’s given them an excuse for their failure, he’s giving them hope.
Why would they not ADORE him? Of course they do. It explains a lot.
So now what do we do?
