On a Reasonable Left-Wing Response to Rightist Alienation

From John Hansen

In response to my recent post on Rightist Alienation, my friend and compañero in Wisconsin, John Hansen wrote the following response, which I happen to endorse and agree with. John happens to have a rather special take on the matter, given that he grew up in Mississippi, knows, and I assume still communicates with people from down there, and so I think better understands the inner workings of the minds of Southerners better than I, a Northerner, ever could. His insight on the matter adds context to the narrative, not only of my own post, but also of the article. Below is his response, reprinted in full, lightly edited and aggrandized:

I blame the boomers…seriously I know that’s played out but hear me out. What we are seeing is an ideological bent coupled with fear. The boomers, by far the largest players on the political field when it comes to voting blocs. This generation was young enough to remember their parents marching against Civil Rights but not old enough to remember Jim Crow. They may have been out there in the 1960s but they are conservative establishment who have grown up on an idea of America that was crafted in Hollywood, i.e. John Wayne, Davy Crockett and those in the south had a heaping helping of southern romanticism which glorified the CSA.

This generation, (of course [I’m] aware of generational cohorts not being monolithic,) really came of political age under Reagan and have really bought into the idea of America that is hyper individualistic and prone of excusing excessive wealth while demonizing the poor. Now that they are older, they are scared, politically conditioned to buy into the “This is our Alamo moment, its now or its lost forever” type of rhetoric that you hear from the right and here’s the most conversational critique, they are not ready for black men to be president. Civil Rights was seen as good as long as it was abstract. I know that there is data that proves this, opposition to racist segregation is seen as good but would they let their kids date someone of a different race…hell no. [This is referred to as the Bogardus Social Distance Scale. Examples can be seen here for race. They have even done this for profession, which you can view here.- NH]

So they see in almost all areas “their” America slipping from them and they are mad, scared and willing to bring it all down if they think it will slow what they see is irrevocable change. Of course this is the folly of conservatism, you cannot really conserve power, you can only mitigate the pace at which you lose it or you can progress by growing power. In short I don’t see any watershed political results occurring due to the GOP shutdown and Tea Party default. But the youth will hopefully pay attention and in 20 years or so, the last of the Boomers will slide into history and the US will be poised for another strong century or half century of growth.

Thanks to John Hansen for his commentary.