A Curious Event is underway: The Trump base is more worried about the influence of foreigners in American culture than of Russians in American government.
The Atlantic Monthly has an article today that reflects what this blog has attempted to discern and explain. Trump's victory was really due to the reaction against coastal elitism and the cultural hegemony of educated elites. It created backlash. It was racial for some people but for a great many others it was distaste for the "otherness" that seemed to be taking over the culture.
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They did not want to have to push one for English. They wanted English to be the default, not just first of several. They perceived Muslims as unsettling and frightening, whether they were native-born or immigrants. They wanted greater cultural conformity, with Christian religion and traditional families protected and celebrated. A marriage between one man and one woman should be the default, not simply a choice among several options.
Hillary's rainbow celebrated diversity. Trump's people pushed back.
And now there is the Russian influence story. Russia does not seem as "foreign" to traditionalists as do immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Putin is a traditionalist and an authoritarian. He wears a cross. He punishes homosexuals. He is white.
Democrats and progressives have switched orientations and have been anti-Russia, seeing it as a totalitarian state, not a socialist one. Republicans spent 70 years opposing Russia as the Communist boogey-man, an existential threat to America through nuclear war or ideological poisoning of the American mind. Some Republicans are stuck in that place: John McCain and Lindsey Graham are the most prominent, but others share the view of Russia as the enemy. Mitt Romney famously said so.
Why aren't other GOP leaders following? Because GOP voters are not demanding it. GOP voters see a nation of white men, whose drug of choice is alcohol, whose economy is based on fossil fuel extraction and export, let by an Christian, patriotic, nationalist homophobe as culturally inoffensive. They understand Russia's interests to be different from American interests, but Putin does not threaten American culture.
Putin does not sneer at ketchup on well done steak. Putin does not praise rainbow diversity. Putin does not welcome Muslim immigrants. Putin does not project the finer delicate qualities of coastal elitism. He project the opposite.
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| Regular Guy |
Putin is not the frightening one to them. The high school valedictorian with the unpronounceable name, born in India or China and come to America is the one who threatens the future of their children. The food aisles in the grocery store with foods that are strange and exotic are what threatens. America is changing from within, and the threats from the outside seem less ominous.
2 comments:
On the money...Regressives only see what they want to see. Ignorance and intolerance leads to fear. Fear can be exploited and Republican tacit approval of Regressive phobias set the stage for a Trump.
Putin oversees an economy 1/10th of the U.S., with greater inequality, a per capita income less than half of ours, and a healthcare system, while nationalized, that is grossly underfunded, forcing people to purchase private insurance. They spend twice as much of their GDP on their military as the U.S. as well, with the intent to intimidate their neighbors. By any measure they are a Third World dictatorship, pursuing an expansionist path to further enrich their leader.
Trump respects Putin because he is wealthy and powerful, and aspires to the same. It's possible we will find him deeply in debt to Russian banks and individuals controlled by Putin. Oddly, Trump's behavior fuels the speculation and interest in this subject, leading to an almost certain disclosure at some point.
This information is readily available to anyone from multiple sources, and is why most thoughtful people, including politicians form both parties, see Russia as a threat to stability in the world, and certainly nothing to admire. Regressives are delusional in their faith that an authoritarian government will protect them; one of the many, many false beliefs they hold.
What do the Americans you're describing know about Russia? Unlike most of the cultural phenomena you cite, there is no Russian presence in schools, supermarkets, phone options or communities. Russia in the USA is an abstraction, and "interference" in our election an allegation. That allegation is completely intermeshed with an overt political agenda against Trump, carried by the Democrats and the media. Neither has any credibility with the Americans you describe. In fact, both have considerably less credibility than on November 8, 2016.
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