Eating Crow, and a Defense of Politics
“…there’s a blaze of light in every word, it doesn’t matter which you heard — the holy, or the broken, Hallelujah.” — Leonard Cohen
I previously wrote I would be ashamed if the United States voted Donald Trump into the presidency. I am.
The election result does not change anything about the man we elected. Donald Trump is the same man that mocked a disabled reporter, belittled John McCain’s bravery as a POW, called for a religious test for immigration, and insinuated combat soldiers who develop PTSD are weak. He is the same man who refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in his foreign policy, and is perfectly comfortable praising autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Saddam Hussein. He is the same man who, with a long record of shamelessly forcing himself upon women, had the gall to suggest women who seek abortions, regardless of the reason, should be “punished.”
Now he is our president. To understand why, we must look past the man and take a wide view of our country.
Donald Trump’s victory was the greatest political upset since Truman defeated Dewey in 1948, and we are just beginning to unravel how it happened. Every pollster, every political pundit, every person in “the know” — even those supporting Trump — was wrong.
One fact should surprise no one: this election, our country’s ugliest, severely depressed voter turnout. Trump actually garnered a million fewer total votes than Mitt Romney in 2012, and Hillary Clinton was nearly six million short of Barack Obama. Our nation is not only more divided; the American people are increasingly disgusted with the political process.
Much will be made of Hillary Clinton’s loss. Reports written minutes after Trump’s victory tell a tale of internal campaign issues: Bill Clinton repeatedly pushed for a message-driven campaign directed towards white working class voters in the rust-belt (the same demographic that gave him the presidency in ’92), only to be dismissed by campaign manager Robby Mook, who insisted on a data-driven, Get-Out-the-Vote campaign targeted at the Obama-coalition of young, urban whites and minorities.
But the data was wrong and the Obama-coalition did not show up on November 8th — at least not where they needed to. While Clinton did succeed in winning the popular vote, she did not convince crucial voters to turn out in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — states no one believed were actually in play. Working class whites, many of whom voted for Obama in 2012, showed up instead for Trump.
It is undeniable that racial resentment played a huge role in Trump’s victory. But the numbers show it was largely not a wave of hidden racists that carried Trump to the presidency; it was rust-belters who stayed home.
If Mike Murphy is right, and data in politics “is dead,” how do we move forward as a democracy?
During my reflection this past week, I turned to a New York Times op-ed titled “In Defense of Politics, Now More Than Ever.” I originally read it before the election, but think it may have even more relevance now.
Written by conservative thinker Peter Wehner (which is interesting, considering the professor whom shared it with me was a long-time Democratic operative), it discusses politics as an art form. The political class has severely damaged their connection with the citizenry; their messages have become lazy, relying on good-versus evil mindsets and impossible promises.
Wehner’s call for humility is particularly stirring:
“We need the self-confidence to admit that at best we possess only a partial understanding of the truth, which can be enlarged by refining our views in light of new arguments, new circumstances and new insights. But this requires us to listen to others, to weigh their arguments with care, and maybe even to learn from them.”
We must recapture the political art form if we are to move forward as a nation. This does not mean we should condone Trump’s sins or the ugly emotions he has stirred. But we cannot continue to ignore large swaths of our nation, or dismiss their beliefs as racist or stupid. Something has to change.
“Thinking about politics as a moral activity may seem unimaginable during this malicious and degrading political year. But doing so, in a realistic and sober way, is the first step toward repairing America’s shattered political culture and restoring politics to the pride of place it deserves in our national life.”
The use of big data has made it all too easy to divide us up into separate demographics; white, black, Republican, Democrat, college-educated, single parent, religious, urban, rural, etc. While this process can win elections, it does nothing to heal our growing divide. We need messengers that can bring us together, that can help us speak the same language again.
I doubt Donald Trump will be such a messenger. His message may have been more successful than Clinton’s, but it was anything but unifying.
That said, nothing will be improved by not giving him a chance. We must watch Trump diligently, and stop him when he does wrong. Yet, is that not the citizen’s duty in every democracy?
It is easy for any heterosexual white male to say “Give Donald Trump a chance.” So, here is Dave Chappelle from this week’s SNL, saying it better than I ever could:
Wehner occasionally quotes 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and so we’ll close with my personal favorite passage of his:
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”
