24 | SAM MAGAZINE 4/24 KOLUMNI long-term transformation of the American economy, from an industrial one to a post-industrial one, an economic transformation which does not appear to offer them the possibility of matching or improving on their parents’ standard of living. Second, they are unhappy about changes in American society which devalue the personal accomplishments or characteristics which traditionally would have yielded social standing – qualities, for example, associated with traditional notions of masculinity (or femininity) or with traditional racial or religious hierarchies. THIS ANGER AND UNHAPPINESS is directed at the government, which they see as largely or entirely responsible for driving these changes. In this understanding, the “progressive” agenda seem to leave ordinary Americans out in the cold. Adding insult to injury, from this perspective the progressive narrative seems to blame ordinary Americans -- and the values and beliefs that they grew up with and hold dear -- for all of America’s problems. Not only (in their minds, at least) has government given their jobs away, made buying a home and joining the traditional middle class an impossible dream, and left them without status or respect in the community, it is also telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves for being racists, sexists, religious bigots, abusers, repressors, and generally horrible human beings. ALTHOUGH THE ANGER AND UNHAPPINESS is also felt by older folk and by women, it is felt particularly strongly by young men. The transition to a post-industrial society and the new social norms giving greater social status, power, and authority to women (and non-binary-gendered and homosexual individuals) hit young men particularly hard. Thus, in addition to the broad backlash against the progressive, post-industrial socio-economic agenda, a widening gender division in American politics is perhaps the most striking feature of the 2024 election. WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE AMERICA? Is America about to blow apart, or rip in two along its social seams? The answer would seem to be a clear “no.” There is no civil war on America’s horizon, just normal political sniping. A CLOSE LOOK at the election suggests that what has happened is that the progressives in America’s political elite -- most of whom are affiliated with or are supportive of the Democratic Party -- have gotten too far in front of America’s mainstream and are seen as too willing to use the tools of government power to try to transform American society. It would be utterly misleading to describe Kamala Harris’s agenda as “revolutionary” (though some right-of-center politicians and commentators have in fact made this claim). But a majority of Americans do see the progressive agenda that she appeared to embody as pushing the evolution of American society too far, or at least too fast. More significantly, progressivism of this sort is seen by many, perhaps even most, Americans as using state power and government diktat to achieve changes that should occur only through organic social evolution. PERHAPS THE FINAL POINT worth noting is that there is no clear or necessary logical connection between this answer to our second question – that the election reveals that a clear majority of Americans want to put the brakes on government-led domestic social transformation – and what America’s foreign policy will be, except insofar as a consequence of their reaction against progressivism the American people have elected the highly idiosyncratic Mr. Trump. The 2024 election was not a referendum on foreign policy. That it may indeed have consequences for American foreign policy and for trans-Atlantic relations is just one of those oddities of fate that we are sometimes called upon to deal with.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjU0NTUwMw==