{"id":3563,"date":"2016-03-24T15:24:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T20:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2016-03-24T15:24:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T20:24:38","slug":"tribalism-and-the-two-stories-of-america-on-display-this-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/tribalism-and-the-two-stories-of-america-on-display-this-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribalism and the Two Stories of America on Display This Election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UNITED<\/a>

(Photo By Al Drago\/CQ Roll Call)<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve been thinking about this marvelous and distressing Facebook posting<\/a> from our friend Bob Fine the other day, in which he recounts a recent exchange\u00a0at the local Jewel with a\u00a0Donald Trump supporter. \u00a0She couldn’t comprehend why Bob wasn’t a supporter, too: “But you’re white, you’re white! \u00a0Nobody’s looking out for us anymore!”<\/p>\n

Reading Bob’s account sent me back to something I’d read (from Nancy LeTourneau in the Washington Monthly<\/a>)\u00a0on the related subject of tribalism. \u00a0Here’s a key snippet from her piece:<\/p>\n

… The president also talked [in a recent interview] about how tribalism is the root of the problem in the Middle East right now.<\/p>\n

One of the most destructive forces in the Middle East, Obama believes, is tribalism\u2014a force no president can neutralize. Tribalism, made manifest in the reversion to sect, creed, clan, and village by the desperate citizens of failing states, is the source of much of the Muslim Middle East\u2019s problems, and it is another source of his fatalism. Obama has deep respect for the destructive resilience of tribalism\u2014…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt is literally in my DNA to be suspicious of tribalism,\u201d he told me. \u201cI understand the tribal impulse, and acknowledge the power of tribal division. I\u2019ve been navigating tribal divisions my whole life. In the end, it\u2019s the source of a lot of destructive acts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tribalism isn\u2019t merely a phenomenon in the Middle East. It is also obviously animating the \u201cwhite nostalgia\u201d of Trump\u2019s supporters. We\u2019ve seen similar reactions in Europe. So it\u2019s interesting to contemplate what is driving all this.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

As President Obama said, to retreat into tribalism at this moment is dangerous. While the forces of a changing America and increasing globalization are unsettling and challenging, it is a recipe for disaster to simply identify with those who think\/look like ourselves and draw battle lines with those who don\u2019t. The goal is not to assume we can all agree with each other on everything – but to be able to see and value the humanity of those with whom we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

As Jon Favreau<\/a> wrote recently: \u201cEvery election is a competition between two stories about America.\u201d Right now, one of those stories is about tribalism – the need to \u201ctake our country back\u201d to a mythological day when a lot of white people assume that things were better. That story rests on demonizing, expelling and\/or punishing those who are blamed for the changes that we don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

The other story is the one President Obama is talking about\u2026the potential we have to expand our moral imagination. That is not some ideal that humans are incapable of reaching. We see people do it every day. And it is old enough to be embedded in every major religion as something resembling the Golden Rule: \u201cdo unto others as you would have them do unto you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And of course, there are reverberations of the attraction of tribalism in reactions to the brutality in Brussels earlier this week. \u00a0Mr’s Trump and Cruz have (unsurprisingly) rushed to draw battle lines and shrink their definitions of “we.” \u00a0Here’s the wonderful Jonathan Chait on that<\/a>:<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The great benefit enjoyed by the United States over Europe is its multicultural character, in which citizenship is not identified with a racial group. That multiculturalism has allowed American Muslims to assimilate much more easily than in Europe, which makes Americans safer \u2014 though not, of course, perfectly safe \u2014 from terrorism. Looking at this state of affairs, with a dangerous, ghettoized European Muslim population and a much less threatening, well-assimilated American Muslim population, Cruz proposes to treat American Muslims like European ones. He endorses racial profiling of \u201cMuslim neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz does not even justify this policy as a response to radicalization. He proposes to do so, in his words, \u201cbefore they become radicalized.\u201d Cruz\u2019s belief is that subjecting a non-radicalized population to discriminatory policing will prevent rather than cause its radicalization.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of madness that now prevails for foreign-policy logic in this party…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about we stop shaking fists at each other and instead shake hands and move forward together to build an America that works for all of us?<\/p>\n