At some point, Democrats became the party of small-town people who think they’re too big for their small towns. It is hard to say how it happened: Perhaps it is that Republicans’ primary appeal is to something small-towners take for granted (tradition), while Democrats’ is to something that small-towners are condemned for lacking (diversity). Both appeals can be effective, but it is only the latter that incites people to repudiate the culture in which they grew up. Perhaps it is that at universities – through which pass all small-town people aiming to climb to a higher social class – Democratic party affiliation is the sine qua non of being taken for a serious, non-hayseed human being.
For these people, liberalism is not a belief at all. No, it’s something more important: a badge of certain social aspirations. That is why the laments of the small-town leftists get voiced with such intemperance and desperation. As if those who voice them are fighting off the nagging thought: If the Republicans aren’t particularly evil, then maybe I’m not particularly special.
– Christopher Caldwell
I believe this captures something essential about the modern Democrat. They want to feel superior and special without actually being superior and special. Adhering to the party line offers a shortcut to that. If so, it also explains why Democrats so willingly follow the party’s views in lockstep. If the only thing that makes you special is being a good Democrat, you do not dare substitute your own judgment for the party’s. If you do challenge it, you risk being cast out, becoming not particularly special.
The desire to feel superior is addictive. Throughout history, one group has sought to feel superior to another by tearing the other group down. For a brief period, in the third quarter of the 20th century, it began to look like we were beginning to grow past that, to accept that everyone was equal under the law, even if they were different from each other. Yet it appears that vision proved frightening to too many people. We seem to be separating into two groups: those that continue to believe that, who are willing to accept that different is not evil and those that wish to feel themselves part of a superior class, one above the common herd. The second group seems to be drawn to the Democrats.
What is the end of the game? I don’t know. But John Durham was right when he said the America we grew up in cannot long endure with a two-tier system of justice. Buckle up. It is going to be a bumpy ride.
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