I think it was both. There are a bunch of people who sat out elections because they were not really fans of what the Democrats peddle but the GOP was not offering enough to get involved either. People who tend to be culturally conservative leaning but also not necessarily economically where Romney/Ryan are at. So I have an article that touches on some things that I think came into play with this group. I am not going to post link to it because I think people tend to just scoff based on who is writing the article, so the rest of the thoughts from here down are stolen from that article. If people would like a link to the whole thing, I can give that at a later point.
Today, the Right’s passion causes some confusion from the Left’s managerial class, as well as other figures in the “establishment.” The Right says the Left hates them, and the managerial Left and its moderate fellow travelers are perplexed.
They say, we don’t hate you, we only want what’s best for you. Are things so bad for you? And who are things really bad for?
The basic message is that they’re motivated by altruistic concern for the greater part of the community, especially those historically victimized by racism and other prejudice. Their noble motives are augmented by technocratic credentials and expertise. The only real victims of their system are bad people who deserve their lot.
For the rest of us, including those not quite on board, we’re treated with the same charity one reserves for a toddler who won’t eat his vegetables. Your desires and wants aren’t compelling concerns, even though our regime is supposed to be based on the “consent of the governed.” They’re obstacles to be overcome. In the elite’s self-conception, they’re altruists and capable experts fighting against obscurantism, evangelizing the rest of us with “evidence-based” solutions.
Thus, the conflation of disagreement with ignorance, the mania for
censoring alternative views, and the talk of “unity” and “decorum.” Going along with the program is the fastest way to achieve the establishment’s promises of peace, harmony, and efficiency.
The government looks very different to those living and working outside of it. Those inside are often completely shielded from the consequences of their rules. They do not have to worry about layoffs, pay cuts, the cost of insurance, and other burdens on Americans who work in the embattled private sector. They think of government as the land of their friendly, well-paid, and mostly unstressed neighbors. What’s not to like?
But the rest of us, particularly in the middle rungs of society, get little in return. When the federal government shuts down, we wouldn’t know unless we read it in the papers. And we interface with it chiefly by paying taxes and dodging meddlesome inspectors and other forms of harassment.
There is a type of hate, perhaps more accurately called contempt, that manifests as extreme indifference. The individual “human engineering” of THX 1138 (Crazy edit: this is referring to a George Lucas movie mentioned earlier in the article that I cut out) is rivaled by the “social engineering” that runs roughshod over the expressed desires of those of us who haven’t asked for these radical and intrusive changes.
The examples are legion and go back many decades. One is the “bombing” of safe suburbs with some undesirable new institution, like a
housing project or
refugee resettlement facility. Of course, these won’t go up in Chevy Chase, Maryland or in the Hamptons; that would be silly . . . to say nothing of expensive. But they have to go somewhere, and what better place than some middle American backwater, like Minneapolis or Boise. If this means the schools become dangerous, property values go down, or your children aren’t safe on the streets, that’s just the price of progress. You’ll have to manage. (Crazy edit: I know the attack to this paragraph is going to be racism, but I believe it is classism. The idea that the ideas people are never forced to face the consequences of their ideas. They have walls, both figurative and literal, that protects them from things like this. Planned Parenthood is not in Carmel. Refugees do not get settled in Beverly Hills. Things like that.)
Obamacare had this feature, as well. It essentially was a Rube Goldberg contraption that ended up being a
cross-subsidy for poor democratic constituencies from the pockets of the struggling middle classes. At the same time, the government workers’ and unions’ “Cadillac” insurance plans
were left mostly untouched.
Gun control also has this feature. It is fundamentally a war against self-defense and self-sufficiency. It deprives ordinary people of the means of self-protection, but the government has no corresponding duty of protection. If things happen—like riots—that’s just
life. The cruelty of this policy—pushed often by those with private security and gated communities—is only made worse through hostile plans to “defund the police.”
But nothing has illustrated the divide with greater clarity than the coronavirus hysteria. (Crazy edit, I cut some stuff about the effectiveness of the lockdowns to remove disagreements over that from the equation.)
It’s not GS-12s, congressmen, and public school teachers who had layoffs and pay-cuts from these “shutdowns.” They had, at worst, the modest burdens of working from home. They still got paid. They still maintained their identities and their titles.
It is the struggling waitresses and hairdressers and hotel desk clerks who have suffered. It’s the small business owners whose restaurants, stores, and gyms have gone belly-up. While the insiders piled up cash and whined about us all being in this together, the rest of us got $1,200—if we even got that.
One of the most striking aspects of late Soviet times was that the common people were not chiefly complaining about abstract freedom or a desire for more democracy. They complained about the obvious
privileges of the party elite, the special stores and nicer apartments and the
corruption with which they enhanced their lot, while that same elite preached the brotherhood of man. The common people also were repeatedly insulted by big and obvious lies, such as the scale of the war in Afghanistan or the Chernobyl disaster.
Much of the populist energy in our own country has the same feel. While the Bernie Sanders wing blames big business, the Trump wing is hostile to elites in both business
and government. (Crazy edit to remove bomb throwing statement) But the impulse comes from the same place: a sense that we’re not all in this together, that we don’t have the same struggles, that we don’t have a voice or a means of changing anything within the system, that the policies that benefit those in power come at the expense of the rest of us, and that the people in charge fundamentally do not care about us.
The center-Left managerial elite don’t imagine themselves to be the party of hate. They believe themselves to be the party of progress, human rights, equality, and science. Even “love.” But their frequently expressed indifference to the fate of their fellow citizens echoes the hate-as-indifference so chillingly portrayed in science fiction dystopia.
Back to my thoughts, I think the psychology is right here for many of the voters that Trump attracted. I also think the writer saying center left is a bit off too. People like McConnell are not center left, but they suffer the same blind spots. After Ttump was elected, the first thing that got taken care of was corporate tax cuts. It got wrapped in with a tax cut for others, but the corporate piece is what really drove things. I think that a cut was needed, BUT, it also was a payoff to groups who have had nothing but payoffs in my 40ish year lifetime.
Sorry, out of time, but hopefully some stuff here to chew on. I tried to pull out the really over the top partisan statements to get to a more distilled version of the argument.
