New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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Itās Sowellās Vision of the Anointed writ large.
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The UKās vote to leave the European Union - āBrexitā - was motivated by similar factors. In either case we are looking at the politics of resentment at work. In other countries this response takes different forms, but the āfamily resemblanceā is clear.
Resentment seems more effective in explaining the cynical appeals of Democrats to blacks (racism), Hispanics (open borders), the poor (socialism), and so on than the working manās vote for Trump or Brexit. Not that there isnāt bitterness among the working classes due to the oppressiveness of elitesā legislation and petty bureaucracy. Will Belgium allow Romaine lettuce to be grown in Wales or Washington allow our low-flow toilets to be flushed twice? But I think it too easy to dismiss populist movements as resentment any more than, say, the fifteenth century Reformation. Certainly there are always lots of bad motives for reform, but letās remember that itās precisely these souls who passed Brexit and elected Trump who drive our trucks and muck out our stalls and cook our food and cut our lawn and change out the railroad ties and climb the windmills to fix them. Plus so many of the elites are self-important twerps that one would lose some of oneās manliness admitting one resented them. Smile.
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Thanks, I do get your point ā¦ interesting that this time round President Biden seems to have been able to connect with much of the white working class voter base in a way that Hillary did not in 2016.
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My team, of course, has legitimate grievances, and yours has mere resentments. This is much like how my team has very reasonable concerns about <whatever Iām on about right now> but your team is fear mongering for votes.
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Except that I never once saw the visceral response of my team to Pres Obama Iām seeing now to Pres Trump. Striking
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I was more making the point that both teams criticize the other for the things they themselves do. Iāll never forget the day a Democrat coworker informed me circa 2004 that Bush and the Republicans were terrible for stoking their votersā fears. I donāt think it ever occurred to him that Democrats use fear the exact same way, they just portray it as reasonable concern over e.g. global warming, gun violence, racism, etc.
Fear (as with resentment) is a powerful human emotion, and any party in a popular democratic system that refuses to use it is essentially slitting its own throat.
And yes, I think we all knew a prototypical cranky uncle who seemed to be driven insane by President Obama. Trumpās arrival on the scene seemed to turn every member of the media and the political class into a crazy uncle and weāve all been stuck listening to them for four years.
I might have walked out of the Brooks Brothers, myself.
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I remember seeing numerous articles/comments/posts from reformed and reformed-ish theological writers during the 2008-2016 years on how Christians need to be respectful to government, the president is not a pastor, avoid hysteria, honour the king, etc.
From a number of the same people who have publicly been hysterical during the 2016-2020 years. Many Christians seemed to have grown a moral conscience on public theology matters only since President Trumpās election.
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I certainly did. And still do. Iām in an ongoing conversation with a minister who to this day, four years later, can barely restrain his rage at Obama.
Also, in fairness, Trump has lashed out at the media and elites from the beginning of his candidacy. Iām not sure itās fair to point out their disdain and anger toward him without recognizing that he has stoked that from before the media ever made him a target. If you read his own books and comments regarding dealing with the media, his baiting the media is utterly intentional, which is one of the reasons I find it hard to muster sympathy for him as some beleaguered soul. The media is behaving foolishly and disrespectfully, no doubt. And itās a mistake. But none of that brings me to feel some sympathy for the unfair way the President is treated. He is treated the way people are treated when they give no courtesy or respect to others.
Itās possible that you do not consume much Conservative Talk Radio. My experience with that medium is that it is hours of hate and anger, righteous and otherwise, on repeat and non stop. Given that, I donāt find it surprising that there is a lot of fury directed back and forth.
And I guess I donāt find the analysis that āelites hate Trump because they are haughty and proudā any more convincing than āworking class love Trump cause they are racistsā. There are plenty of other reasons, like his hatred for the elites themselves (which he shares with Bernie ironically) and the natural human revulsion to hypocrisy, to explain the elite disdain and hatred for President Trump.
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I found him kind of cute. A staid and quaint comedy sketch.
But thatās not what I said. Rather, elites lose it when they are not allowed to govern their inferiors. As for whether Donald Trump āstarted it,ā Iāve never before heard anyone say the media was simply responding to his trashing of them. But your argument reminds me of Bobby Knight who despised the media, yet wasnāt attacked by them or viscerally hated for it by them so much as he was hated by the elites of this community forā¦
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