I wanted to write my post-election summary after we had results upon which everyone reasonable agreed, but I’m throwing in the towel. As I contemplate the notion of a Biden presidency, these things come to mind.
I don’t talk to anyone who voted for Trump. In 2016, I still did. I didn’t know many Trump voters, but I knew a few. The last thing I remember hearing from them was that things wouldn’t be nearly as bad as the economic collapse and plagues that I predicted. One might think I’d wonder what they’re thinking now. I don’t.
I’m preparing myself for the Republican guilt-washing. Watch Ben Sasse, he will be the template for one kind of sleazy weaseling, and then watch Charles Grassley, he will stamp-out the template for his generation, and finally David Brooks will torpedo it all with some mayonnaise-laden centrist salad of apologia.
The hard truth is we have to give them a way to make this work. The portion of the country to which I belong is going to have to collectively find a way to accommodate people who actually believe racial myths which we regard as so much flat-earth nonsense.
We have to find a way to require that people live among rules which apply equally to all in a culture that otherwise permits their cultural mythology. The function of government should be to protect rights, not change minds. I fear too many of those who supported Biden will try to use the power of the government to change minds. That will largely strengthen resolve in the flat-earthers.
In order to do this, the victim-hood that threatens to transform itself into fascism on the left has to be identified and targeted alongside the Proud Boys. Efforts to police the English language with slurs like “micro-aggression” targeting cultural and generational nuance do nothing to advance the beloved community.
I pay attention to East Asian politics. I first was just curious but the wisdom of this rapidly dawned upon me as I appreciated the actual physical vastness of Mainland China and finally grokked the notion that one quarter of the world’s people use a language that is opaque to me.
The most consumed alcohol on earth is made from sorghum, called Baijiu (which basically means “clear booze”). What? I’ve never heard of it? I was surprised to stumble upon Korean soju after appreciating Japanese sake for many years. I considered myself a drunkard of the world because I enjoyed Japanese whiskeys and Korean makgeolli.
The global human consumption of baijiu dwarfs any other form of alcohol, it just all happens in China. I suppose every white western dilettante of things Asian has their moment of realization as they turn their attention away from western exceptionalism. Mine came when I realized that more humans get drunk on something I’ve never heard of, much less tried. It’s a big world, Martha, we just live in it.
Like every other government on earth, the Chinese Communist Party’s rule of China has been fraught with mistakes, there are things they do that are fundamentally and irretrievably wrong, but one can’t really see the world without granting that they do a lot of things right at the same time. The progress that government has made in lifting it’s citizens out of poverty in my lifetime deserves deep respect.
My culture needs to adopt the Asian value of actively and intentionally working to preserve social order and tranquility. This is really what is at the root of what is known in the west as Chinese “saving face.” This is mistakenly regarded as a character flaw, a kind of social narcissism by many. That is a superficial view, correct in it’s own way, but also misleading in it’s easy conclusions.
Those of us who support Biden’s candidacy need to make it socially possible for the Trump supporters to save face. This is more than just steering clear of direct ridicule and not spiking the political football, it extends to working with them to address their fear that dismantling white supremacy in our institutions will cost them social and economic status.
They’re right, it will. White people who have lived lives following the rules and applying their diligent work to a long-term goals like family or small business will lose jobs and fortunes. They are entirely justified to fear these changes.
I have very little doubt that I would not have my job in a world where all comers had an equal shot at it. I’m good, but not that good. I have a plum job. I have it in part because I’m a white man, even though my employer actually exercises no such bias. The problem is far deeper than that.
None of the very necessary discussions about reparations for black people will make any progress without a simultaneous and equal initiative to find a soft landing for well-meaning and law-abiding white supremacists who are going to be pushed out of their advantaged positions in a true social and economic meritocracy in the United States. Until we can muster the collective social maturity to do this, it’s just going to back and forth like the Duke-UNC basketball rivalry.
Asians aren’t exactly role models in this regard, but developing a cultural value of getting along with people above any personal belief would go a long way towards helping us find our way to our own solutions.