Brian M Downing
Studying the quarrels of an ancient day [we] can at least seek to understand both parties to the struggle and want to understand them better than they understood themselves; watching them entangled in the net of time and circumstance [we] can take pity on them – these men who perhaps had no pity for one another.
Sir Herbert Butterfield
American history has had its share of populist movements. A religious revival saw wickedness and oppression in King George and pressed for independence. Abolitionism drew from a later revivalist movement and changed the country profoundly. A few decades later, a tide rose against bankers and railroad magnates. Both parties addressed the problems.
Today’s populism is the most divisive since abolitionism. Though progressive confidence saw most of the populist tributaries running dry and becoming irrelevant, they’ve been gathering strength for decades. Momentous changes over the last fifty years have seen to that.
Patriotism
American history, institutions, and leaders, from the founding until the sixtes, were widely respected – and even had a sacred aura. They were divinely ordained and served as beacons to the world. The Constitution was a Covenant for those who’d fled tyranny and intolerance and established a new nation. Sacredness drew new vitality from the sacrifices and victories in the Civil War and World War Two – conflicts that had a decided good vs evil meaning.
Sacredness has diminished over the years. Prosperity and secularization brought materialist and scientific outlooks. The protracted fighting, casualties, and turmoil of Vietnam delivered a more serious blow. Patriotism had led to naive trust in leaders who’d blundered into war and misled the public. The mood of the day insisted on seeing through the sacred aura and recognize the corruption, exploitation, and oppression it obscured. Heroes were unmasked, myths were deconstructed. That’s how history was written and taught from grade school on. The Pledge of Allegiance became optional.
America has never recovered its senses of sacredness and patriotism, at least not as a whole. They’ve receded in large parts of the public, often considerably. In other parts, the faith has persisted, strengthened, and become militant and revanchist.
Politics and law
The Founders cautioned against political parties nonetheless they cropped up shortly after the ink dried on the Constitution. Washington foresaw many problems with parties but not the parochialism, vindictiveness, and disregard for the nation as a whole of today. Political organizations are stale and lifeless, more responsive to lobbies and cash than to practical assessments and sound policies. Speeches are crafted by consultants and plugged into teleprompters. Rehearsal and input from focus groups see that a measure of emotion is worked into the display. Little wonder that a spontaneous orator, even an outlandish one, draws a visceral response, enthusiastic support, and hope for change.
The justice system favors the well-heeled. They know how to work the system. Criminals get off on technicalities and head back to the street. Television and film praise figures who take matters into their own hands. The unorthodox cop tosses away his badge in disgust in Dirty Harry but so resonant was the message that he returns for sequels – as did the avenging husband in Death Wish. Law and order are up to the people.
There’s a template. A reform-minded leader, despite strong popular support, will face legal constitutional barriers. A mood is coalescing that favors loosening the bonds that restrain a great leader and hold back what the nation needs and the people demand.
Social change
WW2 and its aftermath brought far-reaching demographic dislocations, frailer socialization processes, tremendous prosperity, and changing norms. The turmoil and defeat of Vietnam accelerated things. Less tethered to the past by religion or patriotism or anything, change became rapid and directionless. A green light was shown and a race was on to get away from the past, though there was no known destination.
Women had entered the workforce during WW2 but many left when peace came and family life prevailed. The discontent of the sixties led to a new wave of women in the workforce. This time they were more educated and insistent and not content for slots in the typing pool. Every workplace changed.
Sexual norms evolved. Marriage became less important – the same with divorce. Same-sex relationships and gathering places became accepted. In the nineties the military adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which was thought the acme of progressivism. A few years later it was thought archaic and abolished in favor of complete acceptance.
Racial composition has changed markedly. The Hispanic population has tripled since 1970, Asians have quadrupled. Each has its neighborhoods with signs in their own language. The white population has declined by 20%, the black percentage is up slightly. Minorities have taken their places in the professions, television and film, news reporting, and politics.
Americans long prided themselves on individualism – the frontiersman, homesteader, inventor. But a hyper-individualism, what Christopher Lasch called a “culture of narcissism,” came into being. It overwhelmed longstanding norms and senses of community and national duty. Everyone is wonderful, gifted, and has right-of-way on the road.
Unifying myths have lost considerable strength and nothing has replaced them, save perhaps the reflexive invocation of diversity. But that’s only on one side. America contains dozens of ethnic and racial groups, many of which are increasingly antagonistic. A few are increasingly armed.
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Some changes are widely accepted. Few women want to return to lives of domesticity and most families couldn’t get by with one breadwinner anyway. Minorities have become essential workers in hotels and restaurants, farms and ranches. Nonetheless, in large parts of the country there’s a sense that too much has changed too quickly, resulting in drift and normlessness and disarray. In other parts, a prevailing view held that the old America was shrinking in size and influence. Progress would see it fade away like the one-room schoolhouse, revival tent, and steel mill. Alternately, accepting their fate, it would linger on but in small, insignificant enclaves.
Populist movements of the past involved decent, well-intentioned people but attracted manipulative charlatans and demagogues such as Huey Long and Joe McCarthy. That’s one constant from the past that we can count on. In our day, politicians, media outlets, a plutocratic caste, and at least one think tank are tapping into a reservoir of discontent and seeking to use it to their advantage. Their vision of the future is greatly different from any understanding of the American past. Tradition, heritage, and sacredness can be simulated.
©2024 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.