The
United States is having a very exciting presidential campaign season this
year. From a field of over twenty
candidates, a field of extremely diverse candidates who battled mightily in
making their positions known and in trying to convince the American public of
the righteousness of their claims to the Democratic presidential candidacy, we
are now down to just two candidates: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Many of those who dropped out were more
moderate politically like Joe Biden and threw their support to him. Candidates like Pete Buttigieg, Amy
Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Mike Bloomberg were
deadly afraid of Bernie Sanders getting the Democratic nomination for
president. They’re afraid for several
reasons. First, they’re afraid that too
many people won’t vote for a Democratic socialist for president and Trump will
win the election. Second, because he has
a good chance of losing to Trump, he could easily bring down all the Democratic
candidates for the Senate and for Congress, candidates who would have great
difficulty defending Sanders’ socialist aspirations to many people. Third, the moderates are also afraid of what
would happen if by some chance, Sanders actually won the election. They are
afraid that Sanders would try to implement his costly plans without having any
means to pay for them. And the moderates
are also afraid that Sanders’ campaign is that of a cult leader surrounded by
his devoted followers who want to carry out a populist revolution.
Sound
familiar. It’s very similar to another
cult leader in the U.S. with a devoted following and a populist political
movement. Without formally labeling it
as such, Donald Trump wanted his own political revolution after winning his
election. And although he considers
himself a conservative, the fact that he flip-flops on so many different issues
means that people have to believe in him unconditionally if they are going to
support him at all. This is very
different from Bernie Sanders, who pretty much remains consistent in the
political positions he promotes.
However, what Sanders does have in common with Trump is a belief in a
radical transformation of the political, social and economic landscape in the
U.S. And people like the rush, the high
that comes from the experience of such a radical transformation. It helps to pull people out of the numbness
that they feel living in modern technological society and experiencing the
excessive frictionlessness which ultimately leads to numbness. In both cases, it is not just the events of
the transformation that interest the followers, but the experience of these
events.
At
least in my lifetime, it used to be that politicians of the two major political
parties in the United States would hover around the center: left of center and
right of center. There were fairly
conventional positions that defined the Democrats and Republicans and yet,
because they weren’t that far apart from each other, they could work together
to get legislation passed in the Senate and Congress. But over the years, particularly since
Reagan, the Republican Party in government has moved more and more to the
right. Now, increasingly, a part of the
Democratic Party is moving more and more to the left. The ideas of the far left and the far right
are so different, that it is very difficult for them to work together on almost
anything. Gridlock results. But for the supporters of these two diverging
philosophies, it doesn’t matter. What
matters is the rush from participating in the cause. In the case of Bernie Sander’s followers, the
cause is Democratic socialism. In the
case of Trump’s followers, the cause is partly some traditional conservative
Republican positions but mostly Trump himself with his disruptive unpredictable
personality.
But
the point is what would happen to the people if they actually achieve all of
these important policy goals. With
nothing to fight for, they would sink back into numbness. Of course, with Trump’s personality, he can
never accomplish all of his goals, because he is always creating new ones with
his flip-flops. He is very aggressive in
his attempts to pull himself out of his own numbness, and this is why so many
people like him and follow him.
Now
let’s assume for the moment that Biden wins the Democratic nomination and
ultimately the election. So both Sanders
and Trump, the two transformative revolutionaries, are defeated. Does this mean that things are going to go
back to what they were in the old days?
Does this mean that people will have learned their lesson from the
presidency of Donald Trump? The answer
is that maybe some people will have switched over from Trump to a more moderate
stance. But not most of them. And, of course, many student Bernie
supporters will hold their ground and stick with their leader. In short, we are in for some rocky political
situations in the U.S. for a long time.
And not just here, but similar political situations are going to occur in
many countries around the world. And
Americans can and will find alternatives to Trump and Sanders. Not necessarily exact replacements, but still
extreme political activists of different stripes. The important thing for many people today is
to be shocked out of the fundamental apathy that underlies their surface urgent
ideology. I’m not saying that these people
don’t have beliefs or political positions.
But these beliefs and political positions just aren’t as important as
the rush that comes from joining a cult’s leader’s crusade. Of course with Trump, the rush may be even
more intense because of his constant flip-flopping.
What
can be said is just as we have created the conditions for extreme climactic
events as a result of our lack of respect for the environment, so we are in for
a lot of extreme political events as a result of our support for a lot of
eccentric cult leaders and our growing impatience with democracy. As different as they are, both Trump and
Sanders are demagogues who want to lead their followers to the promised land of
revolutionary change. And granted that
Sanders change is based on a coherent vision, while Trump’s change is not, in
both cases the followers get to be swept up by a political wind of hurricane
proportions that help them to feel alive again.
And for many people, a revolutionary leader is the kicks drug of
change. And an extreme political event –
a rally or an election or a revolution – is like an extreme drug
experience. Which means that politics is
moving further and further away from the arena of sanity and feasible political
compromise. Our politics is in for a lot
of very strong weather. Let’s hope that
our political house has a strong enough foundation to withstand it.
(c) 2020 Laurence Mesirow
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