Was Mencken right?
I’ve long thought that we live in a ‘counter-intuitive’ era, in which much of what we are told to believe or practice does not feel true or convincing to people whose education, circumstances or experience is different from that of our progressive, soft-left, baby-boomer generation (e.g. same-sex marriage, gender fluidity, positive discrimination, multiculturalism, the precepts of the Obama era, etc).
That is not to say that these beliefs are wrong, although sometimes they may be, but that they discomfort people at either an explicit or a subconscious level.
This, I suggest, goes beyond the realities of economic hardship, unemployment, and the like in triggering deeper anxieties and - sometimes inchoate - resentments.
I expected there would be a price to pay for this - and we are about to pay it!
But I can understand, accept and forgive the search of so many people for views of the world that accord more closely with their own experience of it. Indeed I am prepared to take some of the blame, as a typical representative of a generation that was perhaps too uncritically convinced of its own virtue and enlightenment. And I concede that Trump may even occasionally stumble on a good policy, and identify opportunities the progressive left may have rejected or neglected, or policies that need correction.
What distresses, frightens and dismays me beyond words, however, is rather different.
It is that so many people do not perceive, or are not troubled by, or even, in some grotesque way, find comfort in, someone as contemptible, dishonest, narcissistic, inflammatory, demagogic, manipulative, cruel, misogynistic, vindictive (need I go on?) as the man they have elected President for the second time.
As the son of Jewish parents who escaped Nazi Germany, Trump’s election settles a life-long question my parents’ generation and mine asked endlessly: was the mass support for as detestable and alarming a person as Adolf Hitler a peculiarly German phenomenon that could not happen elsewhere?
Many reassured themselves with the thought it was, and could never happen in the USA or Australia. I did not share that view, and now we know: it can happen anywhere!
Why and how ordinary, and yes, decent, people can be blind to, or accept, total, obscene immorality I cannot explain. Yes, they are entitled to seek change through the ballot box, but do ethical character, and the time-honored fundamentals of American democracy, count for nothing?
(And of course why the best vehicle for responding to the misgivings of so many of its citizens that America can produce is Trump, pundits cannot answer. Persuading Putin and Xi Jinping of the superiority of democracy was not made easier last Tuesday.)
Trump’s election means I now struggle to maintain a belief in the worth of any endeavor to do good in the world, and to retain any sort of idealism about our future.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”
— H. L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
I don't know about Menken, but liked Ambrose Bierce's definition of politics: "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." or Jay Leno: "Politics is just show business for ugly people." or Dick Tuck after being defeated in a Californian Senate primary: "The people have spoke-the bastards."
Why am I joking? This is serious, and in my view, America is reaping the rewards of changes in society since the Reagan years-including exploding inequality, appalling corporate ethics, disdain for multi-lateral organisations like the UN, and poor rankings on most empirical measures of socio-economic well-being. Together with uncontrolled social media and gutted newsrooms the battlers are easy pickings for a Trump, who I thought Michael described in overly generous terms. Further, as Michael intimates supercilious lack of empathy from the "intelligentsia" is unhelpful.
Alarmingly, we have uncritical, obsequious, bi-partisan support for the US alliance, while well-credentialled critics like Paul Keating and Gareth Evans say the government is out of touch on foreign policy-particularly in reference to that alliance and our attitude to China. Albanese , Marles and crew continue to parrot the Man of Steel's assurance that it is based on shared values.-values that have presumably shaped the development of contemporary US society. We are also frequently reminded of how much we owe our powerful mate for saving us from Japan during world war 2-justified gratitude but they did need a base in Australia to tackle Japan [I thought the US might have eased tension by announcing support for the rearmament of Japan in Nanking.] Be that as it may, it is very hard to reconcile the US of the 1940's and 50's with Trump's America--affordable housing, progressive taxation that moderated extremes of wealth and poverty, the Marshal Plan, Nelson Eddy and Jeannette McDonald, creation of the UN after defanging the earlier League of Nations--and so it went-apple pie and cream.
At the very least, the state of the US demands an informed, hard-nosed review of the AUKUS submarine mirage--the review that should have happened before the Albanese government waved through the deal negotiated secretly by Scotty from marketing, that great statesman. As for me, I hear that CAE is about to offer a trifecta at very good rates for Port Melbourne battlers-Mandarin language classes, Cantonese cooking demonstrations, and seminars on the British and GFrench remodeling of the Summer palace during the second opium war in 1860. I think I'll sign up.
Dear Michael
Thanks for this. I think you have put words to what many of us are thinking and feeling.
How can so many women vote for an sexual predator and abuser?
How can so many poor workers vote for a rich millionaire?
How can so many people who worked hard for whatever money they have vote for someone who just inherited it?
How can so many patriots vote for a selfish, self-seeking, self-aggrandising individualist?
How can so many Christians vote for an amoral unrepentant sinner?
How can so many people who care for others vote for someone who doesn't give a stuff about abody else?
How can so many people who want to do the right thing vote for someone who has no concept of right or wrong?
In short, how can so many good people vote for someone so bad?
The only explanation I have read that begins to make sense puts it down to a "new tribalism" in which you become a member of a tribe and anything anybody in your tribe says or does is OK and anything the other tribe does or says is ipso facto wrong.
There was a strong element of tribalism in Hitler's message too.
And, I think, in the current Middle East conflict.
Ian Robinson
13/11/24