Tribal citizens

What’s keeping us divided?

During the polar vortex, while snowed in and cruising social media, I met this 60-ish woman who insisted that Mark Zuckerberg had been arrested.

“But that would be big news,” I objected. “Why haven’t I heard about it?” She answered with pitying scorn for those naïve souls like me who are constrained by consensus reality. Or what used to be consensus reality.

Conspiracy theorists live in a world where anything can happen at any time, where people act without discernible motives: Antifa pretends to rally around Trump and then attacks the Capitol. You don’t ask “why ever would Antifa do that?”

I’m looking for ways to explain this social division that we’re trying to bridge; there are dozens of perspectives. One key is tribes.

Most people need that larger social identity; some are fanatically attached to their teams, towns, states, religions, and regions as well as their countries. Others, not so much. Socrates said, “I am not an Athenian or a Greek but a citizen of the world.” However, 25 centuries later, post-tribalism still hasn’t caught on.

Sometimes tribes are built on politics. The short-lived Know-Nothing Party both flourished and disappeared in the 1850s. It was mainly based on dislike for Catholics, especially the Irish who came here in great numbers to escape the Potato Famine. Wikipedia says Know-Nothing ideology was nationalist, white supremacist, populist, and nativist. Sound vaguely familiar?

These overgrown tribes are always at war. If it’s not the Cold War, a hot war, covert war, or proxy war, then it’s rural versus urban, the middle versus the coasts, native-born versus immigrants, whites versus Blacks, Republicans versus Democrats, America versus the rest of the world, rich versus poor, or high school graduates versus college graduates.

The natural world doesn’t divide itself up by two, so why do we? Is it a failure of imagination? Do we Americans just like to fight . . . or what?

My second perspective comes from a book published 20 years ago but more relevant than ever today: “Democracy Heading South” by lifelong Southerner Augustus B. Cochran III. A political scientist and lawyer, Cochran says that our national political scene has increasingly come to resemble the “down and dirty politics” of the old Solid South.

During the first half of the last century, Dixie had one party — Democrats — and one issue — white supremacy. Without offering any real choices, demagogues and other colorful characters simply put on a show, with white bread and barbecue. The South was mired in poverty, and corruption was rampant. Many people didn’t — or couldn’t — vote.

After Democratic President Lyndon Johnson supported civil-rights legislation in the 1960s, the Solid South took a 180-degree turn, becoming solidly Republican, and remained so until recently when Georgia flipped.

Cochran says the whole country has now become “Dixiefied,” with mass media a major reason, especially TV. Writing today, he would probably add Fox News, Sinclair Radio, and social media. Certainly, the rallies, tweets, insults, and conspiracy theories of Donald Trump remind one of that earlier time of political circus.

Perspective Three: In 1800, hardly anybody in the world was a free person with political rights. Even in the United States — a beacon for the world, the first representative government with a written constitution — only white male property owners could vote. Not women, slaves, indentured servants, apprentices, Indians, or white males without property.

Gradually the franchise was expanded. Women gained rights over their children, their earnings and inheritances, and finally the vote. Freed slaves gained the vote, at least on paper.

So far, so good. Yet representative government is about more than elections, and requires an engaged and educated public. Otherwise, there’s always a danger that representative democracies will slip into the ancient default position of one-man rule.

Ten generations since the Constitution was written, we seem to have forgotten the fine points. Many don’t know anything beyond the First and Second Amendments, and they keep getting it mixed up with the Declaration of Independence. It’s seen as a sacred, unchanging document, very like the Bible.

Of the three branches of government, Congress is closest to the people’s direct choosing; however, it’s become customary to attack the institution wholesale. “They are all …”

This attitude comes from frustration with gridlock, but it discourages those lawmakers who do sincerely try to represent their constituents — and there are many. It also paves the way for strong-man rulers.

You may note that Congress was the target on Jan. 6, as if our most representative branch was the enemy.