Us-versus-them mentality and the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party is, by design, the party of fragmentation, pitting one disaffected faction after another against mainstream Americans as a means to gain political power.  Whether it’s the black card, the gender card, the class-conflict card, or whatever, you can bet that it’s being played by Democrats running for office.  This is the party of never-ending divisiveness and revolutionary tension.  Just lo and behold the state of race relations today.  After seven years of our first black presidency, where are we?  More polarized than ever, with the Black Lives Matter Movement fomenting violence against our front-line protectors of civilization.  This is no accident.  Nor will it be an accident if Hillary Clinton is elected and we come to find ourselves in a regrettable and self-destructive gender war. 

The concept of sponsoring perpetual revolution to get and keep power is nothing new.  Lenin, Stalin, and Mao well understood the need to keep pushing us-versus-them mentality in order to distract the people from the harsh reality of their day-to-day existences.  And it worked.  But their people were subjects, not citizens, so they had little choice but to persevere as best they could.  Unlike Americans, they did not have the option of voting against the sponsors of these ruthless tactics.  We have that option, but will we exercise it? 

{mosads}The one thing the revolutionaries never want to address is their end-vision for society, because they don’t have one—at least, not one that is desirable and credible.  And neither do the Democrats.  That’s why, no matter how far we go to resolve a problem, and how much money we spend to get there, it will never be enough for them.  

This is why cost-benefit analysis is anathema to the Democrats.  Regardless of how deeply in hock to the future we already are, you can depend on them to complain that we’re not spending enough.  So watch as Mrs. Clinton, the victor in a bidding-up-the-debt contest with Bernie Sanders, tries to corral the votes of young adults with lavish promises of free universal college (never mind that college is not the answer for legions of high school graduates), and looks to get working women riled up over pay discrimination (never mind that the statistics, properly presented, belie the claim), and demands that minimum wage rates be hiked to $15 an hour (never mind that the net result will be the loss of thousands of jobs for unskilled workers).  Getting political power is all that really matters to her.

The much bigger problem here is that us-versus-them mentality is inherently divisive, encouraging people to think of themselves as belonging to a group of victims, and to view some identifiable group of other persons as perpetrators.  This mentality may buy votes, but it undermines our capacity for looking past our superficial differences to see the real persons behind the skin color and gender indicia.  To put it bluntly, this is devastating to the formation of empathic bonds that transcend group distinctions.  If we want to talk about societal end-visions, let’s talk about making America the melting pot it was supposed to be—not to melt away our wonderfully diverse cultures and interests, but to bring us together on a higher plane of shared moral values that extol genuine caring for others and striving to make our best better, so that we can be of greater value to one another, both emotionally and economically.  This is an end-vision worth campaigning for, because it promises not only to bring us together, but also to empower us to reward excellence in one another, the real key to economic growth.  But don’t look for this sort of campaign from the Democrats.  They have another agenda.

Blaine Winship is the author of Moralnomics: The Moral Path to Prosperity (Moralnomics Press), available in e-book from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. and in hardcover from moralnomics.com.  (“Moralnomics” is a trademark owned by Blaine H. Winship.)