I remember when the TEA Party was mobilizing across the country in 2009 and 2010, whipped up and fed by the megalomaniacs on talk radio and Fox News. Sure, it was there during the Palin rallies in 2008, but it came crashing ashore as the Dems pushed through Obamacare, passed Dodd-Frank, worked to pass cap-and-trade, and took steps to prevent another Great Depression.
I was talking with a friend of mine about the anger in those crowds, the hate. Sure, I’d seen it in the 1990s against the Clintons, but not like that. I’m sure folks who lived through the 60s and 70s found the heightened emotions reminiscent of that era when we lost so many of our leaders to hateful, deranged violence.
And I remember saying how worried I was about where this was going. And my friend responded, “Don’t you think it will eventually die down? It’s just an emotional response. It’ll calm down.”
And I asked, “How? What forces could possibly contain that hatred now that it has been unleashed?”
Skip ahead seven years. I’m more concerned now than I was then. Because something has happened during the Obama years. Not only has he angered so many on the right to blinded fury, but it seems he has angered a growing number on the left.
That anger is at the core of the Bernie movement, and it is at the core of Cruz and Trump. The anger comes from different philosophical places, but based on everything I’m seeing on social media, in this campaign, in talking with friends and family, and on Daily Kos day in and day out, the raw emotion is underlying it all is anger.
And that scares me. Not me physically. But I’m scared for my country.
I posted a shorter version of this in a comment in another thread and the response was essentially (I’m paraphrasing, but this was the gist), “Damn right I’m angry! At all the corruption throughout the entire system. The establishment is broken and I’ll be damned if I support another corrupt politician.”
In response to another comment in which I questioned the efficacy of anger in building movements and making progress, I was called naive and bourgeois — and that I hadn’t given enough credit to the way anger has inspired movements over the years. If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention, was the message.
This sentiment is growing. It has already deluged the viability of the GOP establishment candidates. That I could have predicted. But I never thought it was this bad for our side.
I don’t care who you’re for — Bernie or Hillary. I promise anyone reading this that I am undecided and see very significant strengths, but also huge weaknesses for both candidates. I want to see how the next few weeks unfold to gauge who has the better chance in November.
But my broader concern is how angry we’re becoming. How nasty we’re treating each other in this board and in other social media channels. It seems to be cresting to a new level of vitriol. And I wish we could all tone it down. We’re better than they are. We’re about inclusion and diversity of views. We’re not dogmatic and narrow-minded. We’re broad and open. We’re smart and informed. We’re big-hearted and inclusive. And I think we can all do better.
All of which leads me to another thought about democracy. It came up in some threads about Hillary’s interview with Chris Mathews last night. Someone posted that Hillary thinks we’re stupid. Another one posted that Hillary has flip flopped.
I watched that interview. And I will say first, yes, Hillary is a clunky speaker. She’s more like Gore than Bill and she’s definitely no Obama. So, no question she’s flawed.
But the message she conveyed is dead on. And it’s a message Bernie would and has said on the trail. Making change in our Constitutional system is extremely difficult — by intentional design. Our framers wanted it to take a long time to develop ideas and pass them. The rabble scared the crap out of them. They wanted political leaders to have to negotiate, compromise, and forge consensus. This is exactly what America’s founding operating system demands.
And it got me thinking about the underlying issue of anger. Our world has become so fast-paced. In one or two generations, we’ve gone from ancient rotary phones to having everything that has ever been written or spoken or thought available instantaneously on a device you can bring with you everywhere. The millennial generation has grown up surrounded by choices and information. I had to go to Blockbuster to rent a movie, and they can watch anything at any time on any number of apps. I grew up with one type of Doritos and now there are a gazillion Doritos flavors and knock offs.
And it’s like that with everything imaginable.
Which raises two points in my mind:
- I think people are more prone to get more frustrated than ever before in American history about the relatively glacial pace of change and the inherent compromises needed to move forward in our system purposefully designed to move slowly and in moderation, one step at a time. We don’t have single-payer — Obama sold us out. We didn’t break up the banks — Obama sold us out. We didn’t close Guantanamo — Obama sold us out. Etc. etc. And the frustration and agitation makes sense when everything else around us moves so fast, but it takes EPA a year to understand the crisis in Flint, for example. Fracking companies move in and buy off local governments and the bureaucrats in Washington either turn the other way or are way too slow and way too gridlocked to respond effectively. And all those lobbyists exist in Washington not really to get things done for their clients, but to stop progress that would undermine their clients. It is so easy to slow things down in our system and so hard to speed them up. And that’s very frustrating.
- I’m not sure this is right, but I also think part of the concerns about Hillary and part of what people find so refreshing about Bernie is Hillary has been in the system all this time while Bernie has mainly be free to do what he wants unencumbered by party-building or making compromises to move things forward. Now, I know this will get people riled up, but hear me out. Hillary comes from the Midwest and moves to Arkansas with Bill. Bernie is mayor of Burlington. Hillary comes to the White House with Bill. Bernie goes to Congress as Rep from Vermont. Hillary has been a national figure on all kinds of causes and has been a major force in building the Democratic Party. Bernie is an Independent Democratic Socialist who has never been heavily involved in party building. Hillary moves to New York and is Senator from there after 9/11. Bernie becomes Senator from Vermont. The kinds of deals and work and positions Hillary has taken on to build up the Democratic Party in the 80s and 90s and through to today, Bernie has never had to take on. He’s marched to his own beat and done his own thing. I raise this because I wonder if part of the issue Hillary faces (especially with young voters) is that so many are so frustrated with the establishment that they give zero credit to the countless things she has done throughout her life to help Democrats and are much more inspired by this independent voice, this rebel, this unkempt, somewhat grouchy, definitely single-minded and determined silver-haired man from Robert Frost land who has been free all his life to fight the good fight.
Anyway, not sure what it all means, but I do think the old ways are dying, and we have entered a new era. Not hyperpartisan — we’ve been there for years. But the era of anger and contempt for institutions and establishment figures soiled by compromise and party-building. It is definitely happening on the right. And especially with young voters, seems to be happening in a big way on the left. I wonder what our democracy will look like as we blow up the old ways. What institutions will we build? How do we collaborate? How do we get things done? Or do we just spend this era yelling at each other? I don’t know.