2016: The Story in Two Theories (Part One)

**This post begins a series of theories and stories about the last year and a half of heavy political coverage and questions. The next story will focus on the role of elites in political life: do they have too much influence, or have we weakened their influence too much. Enjoy**

Theory 1) there’s an intractable, sociological, political, and economic privilege in being a white, straight male in America. From before the Founding to the existing present, there are real advantages to being the WSM — and that the power structures surrounding it are so ingrained in American life, American WSM’s can’t even recognize their own privilege. This captures everything from the basic things like finding work, to how women are treated in the workplace and spoken to in everyday life, how LGBT communities are valued, to how the police treat minority communities. This is mostly manifested political through the various identity based politics within the current Democratic coalition.

Theory 2) the crack up of many white, blue collar American communities. Who, first, have lost out from the gains of globalization; and second, are, through demographic trends and sociological, political, and economic reasons, less powerful now than they have been in the history American life. This anxiety has led to the rise of white-verrenvolk-authoritarian-populism that is manifested in the Trump campaign. You might even want to extend this theory to younger white men, the supposed “Bernie Bros,” who argue that they don’t have the same bargaining position as the generations before them did, and that the system needs altered, though the politics are different.

There’s truth in some of this, but also A LOT of tension with each other, and an understanding that they’re not mutually exclusive.

I’m not sure what to think of them, other than that they’ve dominated the conversion this past political year, and in many ways have talked past each other.

I’ve opened this up to most of you. What do you think? Please be civil, courteous, and reasonable in your answers, if you chose to provide one.

To be sure, all of these problems and conversations existed prior to this year, but through this crap-fest of a political campaign, they’ve seemed to have raised the stakes.

I’m curious what you think. I really don’t have a good answer myself.