Ta-Neishi Coates is one of those uncomfortable voices of whom I really can’t get enough of from reading — one the reminds the reader that there is no such thing as a monopoly on human experience.
His worldview and perspective — quite frankly — aren’t my own. I have no grounding (and never really can have one) for the views and experiences that he expresses… probably in much the same way that Coates will never quite understand the experience of being white (or Irish-Lebanese Catholic), poor (growing up in a trailer), and working class himself. Tomes such as Hillbilly Elegy and For Common Things speak to me in a way that Between The World And Me cannot.
This is where we touch upon a recent interview given on The Daily Show that is worth listening to/watching in its entirety. It’s a frank exchange, but one that inspired the following meme:
…and this is where I break ways with Coates and with many of my friends on the left, on two counts: (1) racism is a symptom stemming from lack of opportunity, and (2) that the real angst behind the Trump voter and the working class isn’t one that is predicated on any instilled vice per se, but one stemming from a certain sense that their sacrifice and hard work isn’t being thanked — in short, where the hands that built America are being sacrificed for a new order where their families are on the outside looking in.
For instance, the following (uncomfortable) observation has to be acknowledged.
Barack Obama was credentialed without being accomplished.
Donald Trump was accomplished without being credentialed.
…and if we don’t understand that distinction, then we cannot understand the Trump voter and why they are so at odds with the other half of America (and vice versa as to why the non-Trump supporters are so at odds with the other half of America).
This idea of “jumping six feet to get the same thing someone else has to jump two feet for” is *precisely* how the Trump voter feels about the Ivory Tower, the entitled class, the hipster class, etc. when they see government subsidies and handouts go to a few at the expense of the many (even if they themselves might be one of “the few” when it comes to certain programs — mortgage deductions and transportation come to mind).
“We all have to jump six feet,” says the Trump voter, “how come that guy gets to jump two feet on account of his race, background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, social class, who his buddies are or where he went to school?”
“…and why is he doing this on my dime?”
As the jobs bleed away and the transition to an automated society becomes more and more apparent, those on the top of this new pyramid got there on the backs of the working class (both parties). Hence the rise of Bernie Sanders and the rise of Donald Trump. The “losers” in that deal are upset that the winners got there on credentials — which to them appears to be taking tests without being able to change a tire or start a fire — rather than on the intensive hard work that “Mexicans” would gladly do for half.
At heart? The new system just isn’t fair — and what drives the Trump voter isn’t an appeal to fairness or borders or even a “rule of law” but rather a sense of ingratitude for this great nation their labor ultimately built… and a few are capitalizing on.
What drives the Trump voter (and to some extent, the Bernie voter)? INGRATITUDE.
That the well heeled “ascendants” and those coming to our shores are totally thankless for the American engine they and their fathers and grandfathers built, fueled, sacrificed for, and watched helplessly as their skills went unneeded and manufacturing lines were dismantled and shipped to China and India… and banks got their bailout, and working class America got nothing.
Is the joke on them? Perhaps. Goldman Sachs was on the ropes 8 years ago (anyone remember Hank Paulson on his knees begging Nancy Pelosi to vote up TARP?) and now finds their executives safely ensconced in the White House. All on the public dime, all with the collusion of the two major parties.
That’s what credentials get you — the two feet jump. If the rules don’t work for the six-foot-jumpers, then why not go for the guy who accomplished everything by playing the players rather than playing the game?
Because playing the game gets you a pink slip, black lung, and 20 years invested in an industry that no longer exists… that’s not “racism” at play. That’s an alliance between socialism and corporatism that sees people as numbers, aided and abetted by campaign contributions and politicians made too lazy to care by a lazy electorate that just wants their job back.
Take a look around. There are a lot of folks trying to make that six foot jump out there, and they’re not all white, Hispanic, black, lower class, midwestern, southern, Californian, second-generation American, or what have you. Politicians know the score: if they can’t throw some government towards and easily identifiable set of “winners” over another set of “losers” they will. It’s how you bribe people with the public purse (as Bastiat reminds us in “The Law”).
The guy next to you isn’t the problem… the assholes that see you as a vote, the ones throwing the sword in the middle of the coliseum saying it’s you or the other guy — that’s the problem.
There’s a majority of working class Americans who would like to be appreciated for the economy their labor helped build, who are going to need a massive investment in workforce development and microfinance in order to give them the tools to be self-sufficient in a 21st century economy. Unleash that… and we’re on the right track.
Opportunity resolves so many other problems. Jack Kemp used to say that there are no limits to our future if we don’t put limits on our people — and Kemp was right. Get back to this… and you get started on a serious conversation.
Back to the meme — it’s not “racism” that put Obama in the White House anymore than it was “racism” that put Trump into the White House. Racism is a disguise; lack of opportunity is the problem. Expand that, and we won’t have to pick winners and losers anymore.