"Multicultural." "Diversity." "Equality."
Those are controversial words.
The 29th annual Medford Multicultural Fair took place again this past weekend.
The Multicultural event is at the front lines of the current political and culture war. The Mayor greets people. School bands and choirs perform. Booths of local nonprofits pass out literature. Volunteers paint children's faces. There are hula dancers and folk dancers on stage from Mexico, Thailand, and Japan.
The Fair reflects an appreciation of diversity. It reflects the live-and-let-live individualism that was shared by both the political left and the old GOP of Eisenhower, Reagan, Dole, Romney, and the Bushes. Modern conservatism has gone in a new direction. The political right in America is part of a worldwide trend visible in Russia, Hungary, France, and Poland, and most recently in Italy: It is illiberal democracy.
The world's democracies are experiencing a counter-revolution against globalism, modernism, free trade, and the free movement of capital and labor. Immigration and borders are the flash point. Trump did not happen in a vacuum. The new GOP under Trump took place in the aftermath of the U.K. Brexit and the rise of nationalist parties in Europe. Trump understands his base and he expresses illiberal democracy on its behalf in his actions and rally speeches. He lives it. Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán explains it:
Christian democracy is, by definition, not liberal: it is, if you like, illiberal. And we can specifically say this in connection with a few important issues — say, three great issues. Liberal democracy is in favor of multiculturalism, while Christian democracy gives priority to Christian culture; this is an illiberal concept. Liberal democracy is pro-immigration, while Christian democracy is anti-immigration; this is again a genuinely illiberal concept. And liberal democracy sides with adaptable family models, while Christian democracy rests on the foundations of the Christian family model; once more, this is an illiberal concept.
Orbán weaves together the themes of backlash against civil rights for Blacks, women, and non-traditional genders. American became more secular. Illiberal democracy reinstates Christianity as the default American belief system. Illiberal democracy reaffirms that Whites of European extraction are the default, the real Americans. Illiberal democracy reaffirms the "natural" and default presumption of binary genders and traditional roles within families, including patriarchy.
There weren't Republican protesters at the Medford Multicultural Fair, but there wasn't a Republican booth, either. (There was a Democratic booth.) Illiberal democracy doesn't necessarily express itself by shouting down the people at the Bahai booth who were passing out stickers saying there was no room for prejudice. It expresses itself as resentment that Mexican youth can celebrate their their heritage, while the celebration of White majority culture might be condemned as an expression of White superiority. Illiberal democracy did not necessarily express itself with booths by Evangelical Christians with brochures urging women to submit to their husbands. Evangelicals resent the fact that they might be shamed for saying this sentiment aloud. There were no booths attacking trans people as unnatural and weird, but illiberal democracy expresses itself with quiet resentment of the fact that they might be called "homophobic" for saying it.
All the changes. A Black guy as president. Women wearing pants-suits and being the boss. Gay marriage. Trans people. Atheists. Unmarried people living together. Abortions. Pronouns.
Polls have routinely under-estimated Trump's support. Social conservatives sense they are being overpowered and sneered at by elites. They fear they are being displaced by foreigners. Their country is being stolen from them. They resent that they are shamed for feeling how they feel and thinking what they think.
After the Charlottesville rally Trump said there were "good people on both sides." Trump says forbidden things and doesn't act ashamed.
[A longer and more comprehensive discussion of illiberal democracy is available here at the New York Times.]
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5 comments:
Liberals support all kinds of diversity except for viewpoint diversity. Say the “wrong thing“ at a liberal institution like a college or mainstream media organization, and you will get canceled (meaning denounced, ostracized, penalized, and even fired) for your heresy. The only way out of that cancellation is to write an apology that reads like something straight out of the “struggle sessions” from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
People outside of the liberal bubble resent the imposition of left-wing orthodoxy as though it were a new dominant religion. Americans have always been against the establishment of an official state religion. The backlash is coming, and calling it “illiberal“ isn’t going to stop it.
There was a sign that was common in the Tea Party demonstrations of the early 2010s. It said, “It doesn’t matter what this sign says, because you’ll call it racist anyway.“
"...shared by both the political left and the old GOP..."
I would take issue with the characterization of the "old" Republican party being liberal in any way. If you look at the progression of Republican presidents since Eisenhower, who was almost apolitical in many respects, each has moved more to the right, reflecting the political philosophy of a constituency that has lost its intellectual legitimacy.
What's left? A bunch of flag waving old farts whining about losing status, with the attendant ED, and a s***load of really seriously deranged nut jobs completely disconnected from objective reality. But they are just pathetic, what's dangerous are the politicians who pander to them, using lies and conspiracy lunacy and racial paranoia, and violence if that doesn't work, to pervert democracy and seize power.
The multicultural fair doesn't reflect a new America, it represents the America that has always been, just as today's Republican party is a revelation of its true nature.
Some of these things are not like the others, as Mr. T has already pointed out. "Live and let live individualism" no more reflects the new Left than it does--pace Mr. Sage--the new Right. Virtual unanimity in social, economic and political priorities is instead the goal, including at the Fair, the variety of songs, food and costumes notwithstanding.
Globalism from the conservative point of view is not primarily about attitudes towards free trade, labor, and movement. It is an (unwholesome) alliance of transnational corporations with politicians who consider the nation state obsolete at best, and pathological at worst, in favor of global compacts to standardize, top-down, most facets of humanity.
We know (okay, I think I know) the upshot is Bad America, Bad West, not progress-ive diversity as characterized by Mr. Sage here, because while putatively misogynistic, homo- and trans- phobic Evangelicals are not feted at the Fair, denouncing the very same or even worse features in their Abrahamic cousins would instead be denounced as "Islamophobic".
"Diversity Is Conformity" would be one slogan in an Orwell sequel.
A Liberal democracy is one that emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies. It’s too bad so many Republicans oppose it.
In liberal democracies, all citizens should be treated equally under the law but as Ms. Hilliard explained yesterday, we still have a lot of work to do in that area. What makes America great isn’t its wealth or military power, but the degree to which all its different cultures can live and work together in peace.
There was a sign that was common in tea party demonstrations, along with a lot of Confederate battle flags: “OBAMA’S PLAN – WHITE SLAVERY.” Racist or not racist – we report, you decide.
"Diversity Is Conformity" would be one slogan in an Orwell sequel.
As things go from bad to diverse…
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