I like this. “Deliverism” as you put it on only economic issues will not do the trick. People want something to believe in, or to have someone articulate what they would like to believe. And that’s why Trump is so popular. He taps into people’s worst natures. It’s a side of us that we can’t escape, and he has lived his whole life based on it. I like what Bhargava and colleagues say about “offer[ing] a compelling, energizing, persuasive vision of the good life and to organize mass-based organizations through which people shape and live out those values in the here and now.”
And you have said it very well: “Dig into and really own the already very compelling American alternatives to brutishness and authoritarianism, things like: e pluribus unum, Lend a Helping Hand, the Golden Rule, Live and Let Live, Crown thy Good with Brotherhood, and much, muchmore that is well embedded in our traditions and culture.”
It strikes me that this is why Trump appeals so much to Christian evangelicals. They are in that movement because they have been captured by belief in an authoritarian God. So it’s an easy leap to an authoritarian asshole.
But Southern Baptists, for example, lost more members— almost a half million—than any other main line denomination last year. Part of that, of course, is the overall decline of organized religion’s appeal in general. But maybe it’s something about the SBC’s values that is, for more and more people, lacking.
Garrison Keillor produced a hat back in 2019 that said “Make America kind again. That could work!
Jon,
I like this. “Deliverism” as you put it on only economic issues will not do the trick. People want something to believe in, or to have someone articulate what they would like to believe. And that’s why Trump is so popular. He taps into people’s worst natures. It’s a side of us that we can’t escape, and he has lived his whole life based on it. I like what Bhargava and colleagues say about “offer[ing] a compelling, energizing, persuasive vision of the good life and to organize mass-based organizations through which people shape and live out those values in the here and now.”
And you have said it very well: “Dig into and really own the already very compelling American alternatives to brutishness and authoritarianism, things like: e pluribus unum, Lend a Helping Hand, the Golden Rule, Live and Let Live, Crown thy Good with Brotherhood, and much, muchmore that is well embedded in our traditions and culture.”
It strikes me that this is why Trump appeals so much to Christian evangelicals. They are in that movement because they have been captured by belief in an authoritarian God. So it’s an easy leap to an authoritarian asshole.
But Southern Baptists, for example, lost more members— almost a half million—than any other main line denomination last year. Part of that, of course, is the overall decline of organized religion’s appeal in general. But maybe it’s something about the SBC’s values that is, for more and more people, lacking.
Garrison Keillor produced a hat back in 2019 that said “Make America kind again. That could work!