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Trump Supporters and Dignity, Part 2
Yesterday, I highlighted two articles about Trump supporters. The first by George Lakoff examines the “strict father” conservative/”nurturent mother” liberal frames and tries to understand Trump supporters by looking at why Trump is effective with them. The second article by Emma Lindsay looks at how racism plays into the liberal-consesrvative debate. She argues that for liberals to call someone “racist” is the end of the argument. It implies they are morally deficient and that they now have to leave the field of debate. But Trump strategically uses racist language to consolidate his base. It is important to understand how and why this works if we are to actively engage in restoring self-worth and human dignity in our country.Today I want to add Chris Hedges’ recent column on the Trump phenomenon, The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism. (Thanks John D for sending this one in!) Hedges’ historical review of the rise of fascists movements in Europe and what they teach us about today is very good. His tone is somewhat grating and you have to wade through some far-left rhetoric. He concludes that civil society has to figure out how to re-enfranchise the base because the established political parties have abandoned the base. Here’s an excerpt:
The Democrats are playing a very dangerous game by anointing Hillary Clinton as their presidential candidate. She epitomizes the double-dealing of the college-educated elites, those who speak the feel-your-pain language of ordinary men and women, who hold up the bible of political correctness, while selling out the poor and the working class to corporate power.
The Republicans, energized by America’s reality-star version of Il Duce, Donald Trump, have been pulling in voters, especially new voters, while the Democrats are well below the voter turnouts for 2008. In the voting Tuesday, 5.6 million votes were cast for the Democrats while 8.3 million went to the Republicans. Those numbers were virtually reversed in 2008—8.2 million for the Democrats and about 5 million for the Republicans.
But do read Hedges whole piece for the analysis of fascism. And also see Jim Wallis’ America’s Flirtation with Fascism. By raising this explosive “f-word” one needs to be cautious not to blithely personalize it. “If fascism is happening, then these people must be fascists.” Not necessarily because it’s not true, but because it’s not helpful. Facism is an ideology that can be used to achieve certain ends. We have to understand it in order to fight it.
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Trump Supporters and Dignity?
Here are two good articles that have helped me think about The Donald differently … or perhaps I should say the Trumpeters, differently. (Donald Trump is who he is.) Maybe the Trumpeters want something more from America than they’ve been getting–economically, culturally, or politically. Maybe they want their dignity back.I’m not quite sure why, but Americans seem very willing to give over their dignity to whomever asks (as TSA pat downs and social media shaming prove). Maybe it’s the cancerous capitalism and culture of consuming. If the market establishes the value on everything, then who am I to claim my own self worth?
George Lakoff is famous for defining conservative and liberal “frames” and the values associated with them. He says that to be effective one must argue from within the proper frame. Trump has mastered the conservative frame and is arguing brilliantly within it. Whether Trump is “conservative” or not, hardly matters.
Emma Lindsay unpacks Trumps strategic use of race-baiting to consolidate his base and confuse his opponents. In Duane Carr’s A Question of Class: The Redneck Stereotype in Southern Fiction he writes: “The practice of race-baiting by politicians, pitting working-class whites against African-Americans [or “Mexicans”] in order to control both, has been well-documented. … As [Kenneth] Stamp explains: ‘In a society of unequals–of privileged and inferior castes of wealth and poverty–the need to find some group to feel superior to is given a desperate urgency.’” Hence, seeking dignity.
1. Why Trump? by George Lakoff (Huffington Post)
Family-based moral worldviews run deep. Since people want to see themselves as doing right not wrong, moral worldviews tend to be part of self-definition — who you most deeply are. And thus your moral worldview defines for you what the world should be like. When it isn’t that way, one can become frustrated and angry.
There is a certain amount of wiggle room in the strict father worldview and there are important variations. A major split is among (1) white Evangelical Christians, (2) laissez-fair free market conservatives, and (3) pragmatic conservatives who are not bound by evangelical beliefs. …
Trump is a pragmatic conservative, par excellence. And he knows that there are a lot of Republican voters who are like him in their pragmatism. There is a reason that he likes Planned Parenthood. There are plenty of young, unmarried (or even married) pragmatic conservatives, who may need what Planned Parenthood has to offer — cheaply and confidentially.
Similarly, young or middle-aged pragmatic conservatives want to maximize their own wealth. They don’t want to be saddled with the financial burden of caring for their parents. Social Security and Medicare relieve them of most of those responsibilities. That is why Trump wants to keep Social Security and Medicare. …
2. Trump Supporters Aren’t Stupid by Emma Lindsay (Medium)
“Normally, when liberals talk about racism, they use “racist” as an end point. “Trump is racist” is, by itself, a reason not to vote for him, and “being racist” is an indicator of a person who is morally deficient.
But, if you don’t take this as an end point?—?if you instead ask “what do people get out of being racist?”?—?you’ll start to unravel the emotional motivations behind it. One of the best unpacking of this I have read is Matt Bruenig’s pieceLast Place Avoidance and Poor White Racism. To summarize, no one wants to occupy the “last” place in society. No one wants to be the most despised. As long as racism remains intact, poor white people are guaranteed not to be “the worst.” If racism is ever truly dismantled, then poor white people will occupy the lowest rung of society, and the shame of occupying this position is very painful. This shame is so painful, that the people at risk of feeling it will vote on it above all other issues.”
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Video: Rose Berger’s Public Witness at the D.C. Council
Many of you know that I’ve been working with the tenants at 2724 11th Street NW in the District to improve the terrible conditions in their apartment building. On Monday, 29 Feb, I went down to the DC city council to testify to my experience with housing inspectors and code enforcement. The total length of the meeting was 16 hours and 30 minutes. I testified about 7 hours in then finally hopped the bus to go home. Below is my written testimony, but the video captures my actual remarks.–Rose
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Monday, 29 Feb at 10a
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 500
Rose Marie BergerThe mission of the D.C. Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs is “to protect the health, safety, economic interests and quality of life of residents, businesses and visitors.”
My name is Rose Berger. I have lived in Columbia Heights for 30 years. For the past 3 years i have been working with my neighbors in an apartment building at 2724 11th Street NW,to get their abominable living conditions improved.
When I say “abominable conditions,” what do I mean? Let me explain. My neighbors live in a building infested with bedbugs, rats, and roaches. Last year part of the ceiling collapsed. The plaster is falling away from the walls. The ceiling leaks. The common areas are unsanitary except when the tenants themselves organize to clean them. On the north side of the building outside an unfinished construction project left a giant hole in the side of the building, which the owners covered over with plywood, and has been left incomplete for several years allowing it to become an open garbage dump.
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‘Forgive us for using un-Christlike means to spread the gospel’
The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, apologized to Catholics on behalf of priests during the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu City in January 2016.“Brothers and sisters, our parishioners, forgive us, your lost shepherds, and beg God to show us his mercy … Before you come to us, your pastors and priests and bishops, to confess your sins and seek pardon, brothers and sisters, Catholic laity, please give us your pardon and forgiveness, too, for our sins against you. [And he went on to list]:
Forgive us for homily abuse, or the practice of delivering long, winding, repetitious, irrelevant, unprepared homilies during the Mass. Forgive us for our long homilies and rushed liturgies. All sin is pride. Forgive us for allowing the glitter of gold to dim the glow of the sacred host. Forgive us for getting stuck in dusty, dogmatic formulas, and snuffing out the spirit of renewal. Forgive us for using un-Christlike means to spread the Gospel of love and mercy. Forgive us for our stingy encouragement and hasty prejudices. Forgive us for allowing the Church to age and playing deaf to the joy of the youth and the children. Forgive us for the delivering hindrances instead of being helpful. Pride, it’s the root of all sins.”
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Palmetto Poet Laureate Asks Hillary about Forgiveness
South Carolina’s poet laureate Marjorie Wentworth said when she posted this video, “For those of you who missed my question at the CNN Democrat Town Hall Event on Tues., here you go. Psyched that they chose this question, which is tied to my next book with Dr. Bernie Powers and Herb Frazier We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel.”
An excerpt from “One River, One Boat” by South Carolina’s poet laureate Marjorie Wentworth
“… Consider the prophet John, calling us
from the edge of the wilderness to name
the harm that has been done, to make it
plain, and enter the river and rise. …” -
‘Deep Waters of God’
“The Church’s power does not reside in herself; it is hidden in the deep waters of God, into which she is called to cast her nets.”–Pope Francis
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A Judge Should Be Judged By His Prisoners
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday, was a fierce and traditional Catholic. He and his wife Maureen attended St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Great Falls, Va. Scalia was said to favor it because it was one of the few Catholic parishes in the Washington, D.C., area that still offered a Latin Mass.His brilliance on the Court and throughout his career due no doubt in part to the rigorous Jesuit education he received prior to Harvard Law school. On Sunday in Mass, we prayed for the repose of his soul. And I was glad for that.
His most noted opponent and “BFF” on the Court was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The two were famous as judicial fencing partners. According to NPR’s Nina Totenberg, “The Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., is about to open a new play about Scalia called The Originalist. There’s a best-selling line of T-shirts featuring a robed Ginsburg over the jibe, “Notorious R.B.G.” And both are the subjects of a new comic opera called Scalia/Ginsburg, based on their famous legal feud.”
But in remembering Judge Antonin Scalia I turned to Mumia Abu-Jamal, perhaps America’s most insightful political prisoner sentenced to life without parole, to provide Scalia’s memorial. A judge of the highest court in the most powerful land should, in the end, be judged by his prisoners.–Rose Marie Berger
From In Prison Nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal:
Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court, famous for his quips and his judicial opinions is no more. The Associate Justice, appointed to the courts by President Reagan in 1986, was coming up on his 30th year this September on the bench. He was a controversial figure, and arguably the most intellectually gifted of his colleagues. But it must be said that his brilliance was not at the service of the many but the few.
Law professor Cass Sunstein, in his 2005 book Radicals in Robes, criticized both Scalia and perhaps his closest colleague, Justice Clarence Thomas, for their ‘original intent’ theories. Generally the theory holds anything not explicitly originally written into the constitution was not legitimate law. Such they call both jurists ‘false fundamentalists’ especially for their opposition to affirmative action, on the theory that government could never take race into account. Sunstein argued wasn’t the 13th amendment specifically about race? Wasn’t the Civil War? And didn’t the Reconstruction Congress create institutions specifically for black ex-slaves, like the Freedmen’s Bureau, a financial institution? “To ignore such history” he said, “was disingenuous.”
Writer and scholar Chris Hedges, in his 2006 book American Fascist, identified Scalia as a “dominionist jurist,” or one who used his religious views, not his legal ones to decided cases. Scalia may have lost his greatest ally in the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision when he critiqued O’Connor decision to uphold the abortions. O’Connor, a stickler for decorum, didn’t take kindly to his attack and thereafter moved perceptibly to the left, often becoming the fifth vote for a liberal majority, especially on criminal justice and women’s issues. Scalia, brilliant, opinionated, outspoken and in-your-face was never boring. He knew where he stood and planted his flag there for arch-conservatives. Antonin ‘Nino’ Scalia was in his 79th year of life.–Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Video: Ash Wednesday
Video: The Real Homeland Security Defends Pennsylvania Watersheds
On Jan, 20,2016, people from Pennsylvania were forced to break into a “business as usual” meeting of representatives from fossil fuel corporations and state government in order to defend their land and advance the goals of the Paris Climate Conference to keep fossil fuels in the ground and enact an immediate transition to renewable energy.
As Christian activist Nathan Sooy of Dillsburg, PA, says in this video, “When civil discourse is finally closed off or ignored it leaves only the option for uncivil discourse.”
This is a 10 minute video of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Pipeline Task Force meeting the People’s Task Force for the Protection of Pennsylvania (EDGE, BXE, and Pennsylvania fractivists) in Harrisburg, Pa. The industry had their time to talk at the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force meetings. This video tells the people’s story, featuring public comment from Pennsylvania residents and public health advocates that were dismissed, silenced, and ignored after sacrificing to be at every meeting.
Seven people were arrested. None of them were the government or corporate representatives.
Feast Day of Thomas Aquinas
“Nothing in the definition of charity can set a limit to its growth, for it is a sharing in the limitless charity of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, its agent of growth is God with unlimited power. And even on our side, each increase in charity produces an even greater increase in our capacity to grow–our heart is enlarged.”–Thomas Aquinas
Rose Marie Berger 