I have seen this before. A charismatic talented speaker and media savvy politician with an extreme message steps to the stage when the culture or economy is under stress. It was in Alabama, the state of my birth and high school years that when I was a teenager George C. Wallace, governor many times, flourished with his anger and message of division and rancor.
Times were changing in the 1960s. World War II had ended and African-Americans, called Negroes at the time, had taken the results of the conflict seriously. This very large southern minority were demanding better schools, freedom to travel in the front of the bus and all the other opportunities we white people took for granted. Wallace labeled some 'outside agitators' and often called out the Alabama Highway Patrol to enforce his racial segregation policies.
George C. Wallace of Alabama ran for president in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976. An assassination attempt in 1972 severely paralyzed him for life. He died in 1998.
Wallace was on the wrong side of history as a quick glance at the racial make up of the University of Alabama football team attests. I don't know which did more to desegregate the races in the South - Martin Luther King or Southeastern Conference Football. That question is no joke.
Over time a generation died and racial tensions subsided, and an increased measure of civil liberties were made available for blacks. Younger generations of white southerners emerged, more open to acknowledging societal wrongs, better educated and focused on business rather than the past. The fact that blacks now had a court-enforced ability to vote was and is the telling force today. The power of the buck and ballot eventually dulled much of the sharp edge of hate.
A racial divide of course continues. No place more so than the southern Protestant church on Sunday morning. The Republican Party scooped up the young white professionals and their blue collar cousins. The Democratic Party in the Deep South today is largely that of minorities and highly educated whites.
So where am I going with this? Now I am aged 70, not 16, and once again a semi-demagogue has arisen to play on our nation's fears and to accentuate our regional, religious and cultural divisions. I did not like it in 1963 and I don't like it in 2016.
During this election cycle as I have for decades, I struggle to understand the culture of my birth - the Deep South. I can better understand the economic fears of today's rust belt communities of the Midwest.
So in reading a book review in the October 24, 2016 issue of the New Yorker, I knew I found something. Professor Mark Lilla of Columbia has written "The Shipwrecked Mind", a collection of essays on political and religious reaction, i.e, that part of the political spectrum most drawn to the promises of Donald Trump, most open to his assurances of nirvana that only he can bring.
Lilla defines reactionary as 'an organic response to political and social revolution, and the quite sensible fear that the shared common life of a people has been wrenched out of its cherished patterns." In simple terms, a fear, an anxiety generated by cultural or social change.
In the 1960s in this nation, it was the assault on white racial mores and a never-ending violence in Southeast Asia. In 2016, it is anxiety generated once again in this country by the arrival of immigrant groups who somewhat look, talk, worship and dress differently. And the loss of an assured job in one of the nation's declining manufacturing and mining sectors.
Ask the Ohio middle aged male whose steel plant closed in the past year who he is voting for? No question - he is supporting the person who promises he 'will fix' it and will reverse globalization and 'drain the swamp' in Washington where 'bad trade deals' are made. Never mind that automation or economies of scale have had a lot to do with the decrease of manufacturing employment in America. Or that the service and technology sectors are the areas of job growth.
Demagogues and their sound-alikes always have simple answers. It is always 'they', the outsider, the enemy, a scape goat who are responsible, not the individual whose employment or cultural comfort is under assault. Not the endless force of dynamic capitalism.
While I despise the demagogue, I do not 'deplore' those who respond to his cries and unrealistic promises. In my advanced years, I have come to better understand how difficult it is for humans to deal with change and especially change one cannot control. For the person with only one or virtually no marketable skill in a post-industrial economy, life is one of anxiety, of seeing most of America move forward economically, of feeling and actually being left behind.
As Lilla notes, the reactionary spirit arises from anxious groups because "to live a modern life anywhere in the world today, subject to perpetual social and technological changes, is to experience the psychological equivalent of permanent revolution."
In America we have geographical pockets of poverty and economic depression. In America we have communities challenged by the influx of Hispanics or other immigrants. In America as in the rest of the world, nihilistic terrorists, almost always young men, bring random and deadly destruction. And since this nation's founding, the racial divide by color and history persists.
Yet in America the unemployment rate is down to 5%, the historic norm in good times. The stock market is almost three times what it was in 2008. Certain careers are crying out for trained personnel. Certain towns, such as one of my youthful domiciles - Cookeville, Tennessee - are extremely economically healthy looking for workers. Most of us are doing well, a few very, very well.
Those who are the most educated in America are doing the best economically and socially in dealing with the stress of constant change. There is no question the more one understands the world - its history, its economic cycles - the more one can cope with the on-going cultural changes of a vibrant world. And generally the more formal education one has, the more marketable skills one has.
In 1950, reports the November 2016 edition of Harpers, less than half of all adults had graduated from high school. Today, almost 90%, yes, 90% are graduating!
In 1950, even with the G.I. Bill, only 8% of the adult population had a college degree. Today, that percentage is 36%!
Judging from these statistics, younger Americans are responding to the changing world by getting ready for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
The presidential polls note that the majority of college graduates in this county are not voting for Trump. Generally he is attracting non-college white males, those most aggrieved in a geographically spotty economy, in a service and technological economy, that continues to shed manufacturing jobs.
I suggest those responding most to the extravagant claims of the bombastic egotist are making a wrong decision in their lives.
To those those who have not prospered in this 21st economy, if you are young stay in school, technical or professional. Get several skills. Your job in the 2020s may not be there in 2030.
If you are displaced career-wise and middle aged, go back to school. Get that GED, a new technical skill, whatever. Get a government grant to help you manage tuition. Relocate if you have to. Move, don't just sit there and moan.
To our elected officials, flood our pockets of poverty and underemployed with education and training programs for those who have lost their jobs to closing factories or mines.
Offer an allowance for families to move to states and towns where there are jobs. My ancestors uprooted themselves constantly seeking a better farm, a better job, and I have followed the same pattern.
Change is a constant in a global, largely capitalistic economy. No demagogue can stop change. He may channel your despair and fears but he is offering wrong answers. Bridges of understanding, not walls, better deal with cultural migrations. Unfortunately all too often in this nation and others, the angriest voice, rather than the coolest head, carries the day, at least temporarily. We shall know more on November 8, 2016 in America.
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