Little Man, What Now?

In his biography of George Wallace, Dan Carter argues that most American politicians have avoided noticing Wallace's legacy, dismissing him as a marginal figure whose time has long since come and gone. But Carter suggests one notable exception: Pat Buchanan, a careful student of Wallace's enormously shrewd politics of resentment.

Helpful background to examine a spectacular case of missing the point: in this recent video, Buchanan talks for ten minutes about Barack Obama's charmed life, suggesting over and over that a man of ordinary intellect made it to Columbia University and Harvard Law School because of "affirmative action all the way" and because "palms were greased." In response, Democratic talking head Terry McAuliffe smirks and giggles and says repeatedly that Republicans are dooming themselves to political failure by talking about that stuff, because so many people are desperate for jobs and just want to hear who has the better policy ideas to create them. 

But people who are desperate for jobs are exactly the audience for the story that Buchanan is telling. It seems to me that Republicans are telling this story more and more insistently precisely because of widespread economic pain and status anxiety. Democrats are reacting to a story about identity -- the "did he really go to these schools" story -- but that's just the wrapper for the real product: a story about privilege, told to an audience that can't pay its bills. This guy isn't smarter than you, but somebody helped him advance while so many hard-working others were left behind. Here's Donald Trump, telling the same story today: we've got to find out how this mediocrity jumped the line.

The point of the story isn't fear; the point of the story is jealously. It works. It's working. It often does. It's a jealousy that explains, that gives suffering people an interpretive model to understand the world. How do you link this to this? Members of the privileged class take care of one another. The fix is in. This argument has the advantage of having substantial truth behind it -- the details can be fudged.

Paranoid politics come from genuine crisis, and there's no way to exaggerate the social harm of deep and persistent unemployment. Couple long-term middle class crisis with massive bank bailouts and executive bonuses, and anything goes. 

Watch McAuliffe smirk and snicker throughout Buchanan's comments -- you're seeing the shape of our next national election. The story that Obama advanced because of privilege is an extraordinarily powerful narrative at this moment, and smug reactions reinforce its power.