Barrack Obama should have gone to church, regularly and conspicuously. Hillary Clinton, too. Paris is worth a mass. So was the White House.
 |
| Trump invoked traditional values |
Christmas songs surround us this month, reminding us of a nostalgic imagined past of home and tradition and a warm memory of everything being all right again, "just like the ones I used to know."
Donald Trump had a message of nostalgia and tradition. The Democrats did not. It cost them.
Hillary Clinton lost among white voters, especially among white evangelical voters. This is not a change from previous years. These voters vote Republican every election. This is a huge handicap for Democrats because these voters represent approximately 26% of the electorate. Here is the study from PRII.org: PRII: White Christians side with Trump
 |
| PRII: Looking back to the 1950s |
Religion matters. Some 74% of white evangelical voters think things have gotten worse in America since the 1950s, and 81% of those voters supported Donald Trump.
Education matters. There is a significant divide between the attitudes of college educated white voters versus non-college whites on whether the country is getting better or worse since the 1950s. Some 56% of college educated whites think things have gotten better in America since the 1950s, but the non-college disagree: 65% think things are getting worse.
Changing demographic matters. Some 73% of Republicans think that immigrants are threaten traditional customs and values. Only 29% of Democrats say the same.
Donald Trump captured overwhelmingly the votes of people who wanted a return to something. He was enabled in this because Obama and Clinton represented new America. Educated. Black. Rational. Scientific. Modern. Diverse. And largely secular in orientation. They left a political void that Republicans seized upon.
Republicans did not think Obama was Christian.
Democrats repeatedly note that the accusation is factually untrue, factually unfounded, and utterly cynical when presented by detractors. None of that matters. Carl Palidino, Trump's NY Campaign Chair said, "In the mind of the average American there is no doubt Obama is a Muslim. He is not a Christian." Palidono spoke to the reality in a great many people's minds. In a May, 2016 poll only 13% of Trump supporters at that time agreed that Obama was a Christian and two thirds think they do know his religion: Muslim.
What could Obama have done with such information, information that Obama and the media consider lunacy and conspiratorial and outrageous?
They could have dealt with it, not dismiss it. They might have gone to church. The Protestant King Henry the IV of France ended the religious wars of France in 1593 by attending a mass in the heavily Catholic city of Paris. It didn't kill him. It resolved the religious wars that were tearing France apart.
Ann obviously unchurched and openly unreligious Trump overwhelmingly won the votes of people for whom religion is apparently very important. Trump was not an example of Christian faith. He was an advocate for Christian faith. He represented tradition, not piety nor virtue.
Memory and desire. Trump evoked an image of an imagined past. America strong. Christians triumphant. The old social order was in place and secure. That America is real, as real as Christmas.
The sober rational reality of a white Christmas is slick roads and airport closures in snowstorms. The physical reality of "I'll be home for Christmas" is that the person in the song cannot go home and can only dream of it. The world affairs reality of Christmas is that all is not calm and all is not bright in anyplace other than a young child's mind. The adult reality of Christmas is that Santa Claus is pretend.
The nostalgic image of Christmas people celebrate in their hearts is snowy cuddling over an open fire, a return to family, peace, joy, and unearned gifts from Santa. Obama and Clinton embraced the direction of the Democratic party as the secular, new, rational, and modern party, and they likely lost votes because of it.
It is a tough world out there, but there is imagined refuge from it, in the mind and the past:
"The weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
Since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."
Changing demographic matters. Some 73% of Republicans think that immigrants are threaten traditional customs and values. Only 29% of Democrats say the same.
The Democrats failed to create a strong unassailable message of traditional values and traditional Christian faith.
 |
| What matters is what people think |
Donald Trump captured overwhelmingly the votes of people who wanted a return to something. He was enabled in this because Obama and Clinton represented new America. Educated. Black. Rational. Scientific. Modern. Diverse. And largely secular in orientation. They left a political void that Republicans seized upon.
Republicans did not think Obama was Christian.
Democrats repeatedly note that the accusation is factually untrue, factually unfounded, and utterly cynical when presented by detractors. None of that matters. Carl Palidino, Trump's NY Campaign Chair said, "In the mind of the average American there is no doubt Obama is a Muslim. He is not a Christian." Palidono spoke to the reality in a great many people's minds. In a May, 2016 poll only 13% of Trump supporters at that time agreed that Obama was a Christian and two thirds think they do know his religion: Muslim.
What could Obama have done with such information, information that Obama and the media consider lunacy and conspiratorial and outrageous? They could have dealt with it, not dismiss it. They might have gone to church. The Protestant King Henry the IV of France ended the religious wars of France in 1593 by attending a mass in the heavily Catholic city of Paris. It didn't kill him. It resolved the religious wars that were tearing France apart.
Ann obviously unchurched and openly unreligious Trump overwhelmingly won the votes of people for whom religion is apparently very important. Trump was not an example of Christian faith. He was an advocate for Christian faith. He represented tradition, not piety nor virtue.
Memory and desire. Trump evoked an image of an imagined past. America strong. Christians triumphant. The old social order was in place and secure. That America is real, as real as Christmas.
The sober rational reality of a white Christmas is slick roads and airport closures in snowstorms. The physical reality of "I'll be home for Christmas" is that the person in the song cannot go home and can only dream of it. The world affairs reality of Christmas is that all is not calm and all is not bright in anyplace other than a young child's mind. The adult reality of Christmas is that Santa Claus is pretend.
The nostalgic image of Christmas people celebrate in their hearts is snowy cuddling over an open fire, a return to family, peace, joy, and unearned gifts from Santa. Obama and Clinton embraced the direction of the Democratic party as the secular, new, rational, and modern party, and they likely lost votes because of it.
It is a tough world out there, but there is imagined refuge from it, in the mind and the past:
"The weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
Since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."
1 comment:
Trump’s Christmas Memory
This Upclose post took me back to Truman Capote's 1956 short story, “A Christmas Memory”. It depicts the cultural comfort that secular Christmas ritual brought to white families living in rural poverty. (Watch the poignant one hour TV portrayal at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS0uurW6ZQM). Christmas is not just nostalgia, it is a collection of good memories to over two-thirds of our population, first from our own childhoods, then from special Christmas mornings we spent with our children.
Beyond the secular, yes indeed, “religion matters”. To Democrats, Black Christianity matters, Judaism matters, Islam matters, and in 2016 even Mormonism mattered when we thought we might really need those votes. Its white Christianity that doesn’t matter to us. They cling to their bibles and guns, after all. We’re so educated, urbane, and morally superior to the right that we were actually gratified to write off “whites without college education”. Contrast this with Trump’s famous and warmly delivered line at his rallies: “I love the poorly educated”. (Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0). His racially inclusive political rhetoric was more universal, as his white rally goers cheered his “love” for “the blacks”, “the Hispanics”, “our LGBT- cuuuuue people”, and “the immigrants who come in legally”, emphasizing with syllabic conviction “leeee-gal-lee”! And who else did he love? “The evangelicals, we love our evangelicals”. No one believed Trump knew the first thing about evangelicalism. But voters represented by 306 electors believed his big tent of non-ideological agnosticism would give refuge to the “poorly educated”, to the establishment distrusting gun owners, to the displaced factory workers, and to “the evangelicals”. Trump’s disjointed, unsophisticated and ignorant-sounding lexicon imbued his rhetoric with instinctive credibility.
As to UpClose’s reminder that “religion matters”, what better promise to protect religious liberty is there than when the promisor is a non-ideological agnostic? Trump essentially said “you want Supreme Court justices who are anti-abortion, pro gun and pro religious liberty, hell, I don’t give a shit, join my voting block and you got it. And since I could care less, you’ll have no worries that once in office, I’ll change my colors.” Trump’s colors are monetary green, and the red, white and blue. Contrast this to Tim Kaine, who for campaigning purposes emphasized one thing only from his Catholic Jesuit missionary stint in Honduras—Spanish. His Christianity, like Hillary’s and Obama’s, was a mere demographic note on his political resume. There was not a hint of “we love our evangelicals” from our bench. Our love was directed to, and only to, multi-culturalism and glass ceilings.
Christmas and religion are embodied in two secular forms in America: cultural identity and 1st Amendment political religious rights. Both, in conjunction with borders and hand-to-your-heart patriotism, are core components of nationalism, which we have renamed “white nationalism”. American nationalism may be energized by patriotism and religion, but it is fueled by isolationism, now renamed “anti-globalism”. Sanders and Trump burned that fuel white hot in their campaigns, but Clinton was dragged unwillingly into its embrace. Democrats are dismissive of nationalism because it is, by definition, sustained by poorly educated Christian whites and factory workers in red and swing states. Our disingenuous embrace of populist anti-globalism is the failure of half-heartedness and ideological confusion. We need to be less judgmental.
Yuletide 2016 was the year Democrats gifted ourselves lumps of coal in our political stockings, as Trump-- clad in a Santa hat and shouting “Merry Christmas”-- solidified his coalition.
Post a Comment