Some of those Trump voters are experiencing a level suffering that is unimaginable to outsiders. Opioid addiction is devastating (I have lost a close family member to it). The opioid and meth epidemics have devastated many rural communities, just as other addictions have devastated urban communities for decades.
And nobody's immune. Alcoholism, addiction, suicide: all are on the rise. So are rage, dehumanization, contempt. In our chaos and isolation, more and more Americans are firing the sunset gun.
Whether by design or not, this has proven useful to today's economic and business elites. An addicted underclass is easier to control than one that is fully functional and aware of its oppression.
It's true that many Trump voters are well-off, even prosperous, as professionals and business people. Yet, aside from some billionaire donors, liberal contempt and hatred seems to be reserved for the impoverished. The liberal community might want to ask itself why that is.
I would ask every Democrat who condemns a poor white Trump voter: What has your party offered to these voters and their communities? Isn't it possible that your contempt for these people allows you to overlook their needs?
Burning Down the Cosmos
A 2018 political science study concluded that growing numbers of marginalized people felt "extreme discontent" with "disliked elites," and were spreading "fake news" for reasons the authors described in striking terms: to "unleash chaos," to ''burn down' the entire established political order," to "disrupt the entire established democratic 'cosmos' and start anew."
The authors claim that up to 40 percent of Americans share these feelings.
The question that remains unasked: Why shouldn't "marginalized people" dislike the elites and want to burn down the established order? In politics, business, the media ... in virtually all areas, elites and their choices have failed working people. The "democratic cosmos" may look orderly to the professionals inhabiting its upper heavens. But the earthbound majority looks up and sees a sky out of Revelations, burning with fire and raining down shooting stars. Some of them pick up a rifle and aim it at the heart of the sun.
It's probable (although far from certain) that Joe Biden will become president next January. For many of us, that will be a refreshing change from a president who has fueled hate and despair. But the addictions that Trump fed on will remain. Centrism will not defeat it. Centrism built today's political cosmos, a cosmos whose stars are jewels on a velvet coffin lining. Centrism is the failed political philosophy of those "despised elites." Centrism gave us Trump.
The Twilight Choice
Repairing the breach left by centrism and fueled by rage will require radical love, the kind of love that condemns a broken system and not its broken people. Biden will undoubtedly conduct himself in a civil way. But radical love doesn't come from the top, especially under this system.
Percy again:
"Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world, I came to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?"
Has it? Not yet, but it could happen sometime soon. To survive it, we'll need a deep sense of compassion, communion, and community. We will have to care for one another, in ways we have yet to fully understand. We'll need to think clearly. We'll have to withdraw from our addictions - to rage, scorn, depression - if we're going to survive. I don't know about you, but that will be hard for me sometimes.
But it's five o'clock everywhere. The chamber of the gun is loaded, and evening is almost upon us. The choice -- to tighten our finger around the trigger, or put it down and look toward the dawn - is up to us.
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