Gov. LePaige and George Bailey

LePaige’s commentary is the same virulent strain of Hobbsean, conservative thinking we’ve seen since the 80’s: “The world is dangerous and full of bad actors; we must break into our tribes and fend for ourselves.”

You also see it in the more cynical libertarian thinking: “Everything I have I fought for and earned, with no help. Why should I help society as a whole? People outside of my family, or my church, or my race? Fuck ’em. Let them fend for themselves.”

This narrow, sectarian, tribalist ideology is behind all the policies libertarians and conservatives pursue.

Fund roads? The roads in my private subdivision are just fine.

Women’s health? My daughter doesn’t need an abortion.

Social security? I’m sitting on a fully diversified stock portfolio.

Education? My children go to private school.

It’s the politics of the personal, from people of privilege.*1 But class isn’t the only factor; religion is the other shoe. You don’t have to be privileged to be selfish.

Fund roads? The world will end soon, it doesn’t matter.

Women’s health? Abortion is genocide.

Social security? My money’s in a mattress.

Education? My children are homeschooled.

And again, it’s the same thing: it’s the politics of the personal, writ large.

All politics is personal. No disagreement here. This all comes from a very personal place.

You see, It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies. I love it, and there’s something that I’ve taken from it, and every year I watch it, I’m renewed by it.

You see, George Bailey gave, and gave, and gave. He wanted to give to his country, but was kept out of the service. But he kept giving. He gave to his community, to his family, to his local economy. I didn’t see his tax returns, but I have a strong feeling he paid taxes, too.*2

My point is, George intrinsically knew that it’s good to serve more than just your family. In the end, it came back to him. When he needed resources beyond what his family could provide, the community that he had served stepped up. He was the “richest man in town.”

I know some conservatives may be reading this and thinking:

“Yes, that’s my point! We need to give within our communities, not to the government.”

You’ve got the right idea! Just expand the circle of “community”. Are you expanding? Go past your church. Go past your town. Go past your state. Keep going. . .

Lo and behold, you get the whole country in there! Every person! Atheists, people of color, queers, Muslims, right-wing militants, environmental militants, Taylor Swift AND Bey.

These people are your community. Every last one of them, even the assholes. I know, it used to be white guys, and they all had land. But things have changed and that genie is not going back in the bottle. We can’t move back to cabins and communes. But what we can do, together, is talk about what’s good — for EVERYONE.

Not just your family.

Not just your religion.

Not just your politics.

Everyone.

And I promise, that giving? That fairness? It’ll come back to us. We can be the richest country on earth.