When politics becomes a religion, nonbelievers must be punished.
The asymmetry of modern politics is clear to every
conservative; painfully clear to several Yale undergraduates who asked me about
it recently. Leftists, they pointed out, are hostile, nasty, and seem to have
no concept of a civil conversation. Why? Because they are winning? Losing? Are
natural-born bullies? And how can this dangerous mood be changed?
It’s not just a question of civility versus rudeness—which
of course is no small thing in itself. The deeper problem is that the left
seems to have lost its taste for democracy.
Naturally there are exceptions to the modern trend, benign
leftists and nasty rightists. (Trump is a special case: see below.) The trend
itself is partly explained by the Obama sneer; presidents have enormous
influence. FDR's bouncy, feisty smile, Reagan's geniality, Clinton's
one-of-the-boys grin, W's good-natured earnestness are part of history; and
Obama's real "legacy" (aside from worldwide crisis) is that bitter
sneer. His rudeness to political opponents has made a rotten political climate
much worse. But the left's growing reputation for belligerent intolerance transcends
Obama.
You see characteristic leftist arrogance among global
warmers, who show their respect for their opponents by refusing to listen to
them and implying that they are crackpots. On campus, leftists have spit at
conservatives, screamed obscenities at moderate liberals, yammered on about
phony "rape crises" while doing everything they could think of to
promote universal debauchery, rigged local votes to silence opponents of the
Kill Israel (aka "BDS") movement.
The list goes on, the arrogance is staggering, the asymmetry
all too obvious. Conservatives, bursting with facts and ideas (and anger and
dismay), are eager to have it out with liberals and maybe even convince a few.
Liberals are eager to make assertions and strike moral poses, but not to
respond to rational argument or speak to the facts.
Where does the asymmetry come from? American conservatives
tend to be Christians or Jews. Liberals tend to be atheists or agnostics. (Yes,
there are exceptions—to nearly everything, always; but that doesn't mean we can
stop thinking.) Almost all human beings need religion, as subway-riders need
overhead grab bars. The religious impulse strikes conservatives and liberals
alike. But conservatives usually practice the religion of their parents and
ancestors; liberals have mostly shed their Judaism or Christianity, and
politics fills the obvious spiritual gap. You mightmake football, rock music,
or hard science your chosen faith. Some people do. But politics, with its
underlying principles and striking public ceremonies, is the obvious religion
substitute.
Hence the gross asymmetry of modern politics. For most
conservatives, politics is just politics. For most liberals, politics is their
faith, in default of any other; it is the basis of their moral life.
Traditional religion used to be the iron grate that kept
worldly beliefs from falling into the flames and turning into red-hot religious
convictions in their own right. Among most conservatives it still is.
But for modern liberals it is only natural to be upset,
defensive, dogmatic, and immovable when you are challenged on your political
views. Few of us are prepared to defend our deepest spiritual beliefs. Most of
us rarely think about them. Many of us have never had reason to believe them;
we simply believe what our parents did. That is perfectly fair and
suitable—except when rational, worldly politics is forced to confront
politics-as-religion head-to-head.
Why should this new and dangerous virus have broken out now,
in our generation? Judeo-Christian religion has been in decline for centuries.
But important milestones have passed in our own lifetimes. Baby boomers were
educated, in the '50s and '60s, in public schools that were still informally
Christian—in a nation that (moreover) had been created by devout Christians
guided by biblical ideas, and refounded during the Civil War by another
Christian generation led by the most deeply religious of all our presidents. By
the generation following the Second World War, it's likely that the U.S.
cultural leadership was already mostly atheist. But it was reticent about
saying so; in that era, many Americans still hesitated to go all the way. And
the centrality of biblical religion to America's best self was reaffirmed
during these same years by the pastors, priests, and rabbis of the civil rights
movement. Today all these hugely important facts have been suppressed. My
impression, as a college teacher, is that most young Americans have simply
never heard them.
So here we are today with a mainstream press, cultural
leadership, and intellectuals who laugh off the idea that a presidential
candidate's religion matters. Yet it matters intensely. Its real, practical
importance is large. Unless you are a Jew or Christian, you are likely—as a
modern American—to make a religion of your politics. And that will shape, in
turn, your relation to the opposition and to the American people.
Obama is probably our first atheist president. (David
Bernstein noted in Mosaic that Obama's Hanukkah declaration this year did not
manage to squeeze in a mention of God. One more small fact among many.) If
Obama is indeed an atheist, I don't blame him for not saying so; in today's
political environment, he can't. (Things will likely change fast in coming
years.) Much of his crude contempt for his political opponents is the man
himself. But that leaves plenty left over to reflect his outrage when you
question his political beliefs—which happen to be (I believe) the foundation of
his identity as a human being. All devout believers have moments of doubt—but
that doesn't make them indifferent to wise-guy strangers casually kicking holes
in their religion. Of course, Obama is testy when you question his statist or
appeasement-based policies. Those ideas are his religion, they are him, they
are the spiritual fuel that keeps him going. Naturally any leftist who has got
rid of his ancestral religion and replaced it with politics will be annoyed
when you treat his political views like mere political views.
Some people are arrogant by nature. Obama, Hillary, and
Trump are textbook examples. They were born that way. But Obama got help along
the way from left-wing religion—whereas Hillary and Trump probably rank among
the few human beings who love themselves so much, they don't need any kind of
religion. Trump, of course, is no more a right-winger than Hillary is a true
leftist: They each ad lib their fundamental beliefs as required.
My students want to know: How can this possibly go on? But
how can it change? How can we rearrange this bloody-minded political
atmosphere? My guess is that only a religious revival, or a Euro-style
religious collapse, will change it. Obviously the collapse is far more likely
than the revival. But revivals have happened before. America's soft spot is its
children, and children—my guess is—are the only energy source strong enough to
power a modern revival. A book on "Why Children Need God" and an
associated movement, with left-wing pediatricians and psychiatrists arguing
that children reared in traditional religious communities grow up happier and better
put-together, might do the trick. But it will take a miracle.
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