The American economy nearly slid into a depression in 2008, and the financial system almost self-destructed. The voters reacted by turning to the Democratic nominee for president. That was to be expected. Now they are in a nativist frenzy against illegal immigrants. That too was to be expected. There is renewed talk of protectionism--also something to be expected.
Some are talking about getting out of our two costly and pointless wars, but there is no great outcry. The reaction against the costly wars was to be expected, but our long conditioning to warfare and the fear of terrorism account for the limited reaction.
Very learned writers wondered if a deep economic crisis would alert the middle class to the fact that it is in deep trouble and that its children will probably have a diminished standard of living. People are finally catching on to these situations, but they are not moving to the left, as some would expect.
The opposite has happened. The nation, in a state of crisis and panic, has lurched to the right and appears about to vote for the same economic policies that landed us in our present situation.
The reason is that when people feel threatened and stressed they go into something like automatic pilot. Their survival reaction is to embrace the conventional wisdom. In the United States, corporate America has spent billions creating a faux conventional widsom that says that the American way of life depends on unfettered capitalism and great tax benefits for the rich. Another part of received wisdom is American exceptionalism, the idea that we are sepecially blessed, uniquely virtuous, and entrusted with working God's will in the world.
It should not be surprising that in many states there are now battles about mosques being built. When people feel threatened they react against the evil "Other." A great many Americans think we are at war with Islam and that almost all Muslims hate us. Now there is an effort to prevent a very modereate imam from building an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero. More than 70% of Americans see the building as an effort to desecrate the site of 9/11. They seem to have an undifferentiated view of Islam.
President Obama asserted their right to builkd where they wanted, providied they complid with local law. He reminded us of our commitment to religious liberty and appealed to our better selves. In so doing, he was also serving our foreign policy objective of not appering to make war on Islam. The public outcry was so great he had to backtrack a bit.
Some Democrats, facing very tough elections, distanced themselves from his remarks.
Some might recall that until the middle of the 19th Century, many Americans did not think Irishmen were caucasian, and some towns forbade the erection of Catholic Churches. There is something reassring and comforting in having clear ememies onto whom we can project all sorts of negative feelings. In the early 19th century, we saw the people of the Philippines as Asian Negroes and killed them by the tens of thousands. In one year, 134 of them died in our waterboarding experiments.
Reacting against the thrteatening other, xenophobia and nativism, and the re-emergence of racial antipaties are all to be expected when people go into survivorist mode. It is no wonder that 24% of Republicans think Obama is the anti-Christ, or that a similar number think is still a Muslim. Our multiple crises have reawakened racial feelings and it is hard to imagine that they will diminish anytime soon.
John Boehner, possibly the next Speaker of the House, announced that he wants to repeal financial reform and to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Others on his team want to prevent spending the repaining $230 billion in stimulus money and to privatize Social Security. The picture of what a Republican Congress would attempt is becoming clear. Nevertheless, the GOP seems to be gaining in generic polls.
This survivalist response characterizes the Tea Baggers wing of the Republican Party. They briefly showed some anger over the behavior of Wall Street but thedy quickly fell back into line, embracing the conventional wisdom that financial reform is undesirable. They have nominated a pack of loopy candidates whose behavior should have alienated any sane voter. Yet, these people remain very competitive.
We face three crises--terrorism, a bad economy, and the shock of the near collapse of the financial system. Many suspect that the financial system remains shakey. The recent financial reforms were so weak that they could only cushon some of the shock from a fresh collapse.
Political fundamentalism is a survivorist response; it is like going to the default position and hanging on for dear life. Years of clever advertising made the Tea Bag response to our multiple crises almost inevitable.
Who knows if the folks in the Republican foundations and think tanks saw this coming. They certainly have been very adept at helping the party exploit it to the full.
The GOP's shameless obstructionism and abuse of the filibuster weakens the democratic system. Their exploitation of Tea Bagism and political fundamentalism amounts to injecting the poison of irrationality into the political process.
Barack Obama has attempted to counter the vast wave of irrationality with reality therapy. He occasionally points to Republican obstructionism and consistently notes that they plan to return to Bush's economic policies. In 2008, frightened independents temporarily forgot about Obama's race. But all that has changed. Many of them now think Obama was born in Africa and no amount of evidence will convince them otherwise. It is hard to see how political fundamentalism will diminish anytime soon.