tragabigzanda wrote:I'm more interested in how he accounts for the leverage of shame enacted by the liberals. Is it somehow better to use shame as a political device when the party faithful espouse a political philosophy that anything other than strict adherence warrants shame? What if that philosophy proves to be a losing philosophy, at the expense of other pragmatic issues that impact a greater number of people?
Sorry. I thought the conversation was over.
I don’t believe I implied that weaponization of shame was, as a tactic, exclusive to any single political party or ideology. If I did, it was unintentional.
Everybody weaponizes shame for political gain. And everybody tends to be dismissive of, or even blind to, the shaming that is aligned to their personal ideology. We don’t see that shaming as shaming….we see it as “correct.”
But also, I don’t know why I would be expected to defend
any group for
any behavior. Don’t you think of that if I thought it was good, I would just say so?
But I did notice something here. Please look at your sentence:
when the party faithful espouse a political philosophy that anything other than strict adherence warrants shame? What if that philosophy proves to be a losing philosophy,at the expense of other pragmatic issues that impact a greater number of people?
Tacit to this question is the understanding that voters will be less likely to prioritize a set of proposals or policy ambitions in the voting booth, if they associate those ideas with a group of people who make them feel shamed.
Which is exactly what I said in the first place. We are cowards for shame. We let it guide our actions. I think we give it entirely too much of our time and thought.
You will also note that my statement was an addendum to a larger post, reasserting my feeling that the primary driver in the last election was a fulcrum-tipping number of people concluding that the American system no longer worked for them and theirs.
I added, as a clarifier, that I also think shame played a part in that.
So what I was telling you is: I think Donald Trump’s platform has always been designed around ‘pie in the sky’ promises of economic recovery….and ‘pie in the sky’ promises about an end to the shame you’ve been feeling. One plus the other equals Make America Great Again.
And that will always be a powerful message, especially to low information voters in a system rife with inequities. But the reason it doesn’t work when he’s in power…the reason Republicans get wrecked electorally whenever he’s in office….the reason he’s 12 points underwater
right now….is that he is basically incapable of delivering on those things.
Economically he is senile, out of touch, and a slave to his own self-gain impulses. He’s too vain to understand that less is often more, and he’s too eager for personal profit to leave any functional thing untouched.
Meanwhile, if you felt like the American system was no longer working for you and yours, then he is making every effort to exacerbate that beyond anything you’ve ever experienced. If he creates an economic downturn that disrupts your livelihood, he’s also thrown out the supports you might have leaned on to recover. If you are watching your retirement shrink, you are also watching the rich get more and more brazen about dipping their spoons into the system. And to a lot of people, economic hardship feels a hell of a lot like shame.
