Facing Fear Itself
“If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens…
“If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
November 5, 2021
Democrats and analysts of all persuasions are working overtime to understand and to compensate for the shift of so much of the white working-class — and increasingly, minority voters — away from Democrats and into the Republican camp. Many different theories and factors have been proposed including white racism, bigotry, less education, and so forth. But the underlying issue is not any of these or even all of them. These are symptoms and proxies for what underlies so much of this worrisome political realignment.
What is causing this realignment is what FDR so aptly described as “Fear Itself.” FDR knew that “Fear Itself” is the deepest and most dangerous state of what scholars have sometimes described as “anomie,” or disaffection from society. It is the result of living in a society in which one has lost control over one’s own life chances, as defined by the society itself. It is the result of the accumulation of years and lifetimes of aggressions, injustices, economic insecurity, and indignities that breed disillusionment, hopelessness, and despair. (NB: “Deaths of Despair” is a phrase used to describe the unprecedented rise in suicides among middle-aged people over the last few decades.)
The working class has endured decades of increasingly intolerable economic insecurity and the consolidation of an elite-centered opportunity structure that has continuously “defined indignity down” (to borrow a phrase). It has become clear that America is stacked against the well-being of the working-class — or at best indifferent to it. The working-class have largely lost control over their own life chances. As a result, they are disaffected, resentful, and distrustful of American institutions and of American political leaders. FDR knew that, in the right circumstances, the spread of Fear Itself would lead beyond resentment and outrage to societal upheaval and revolt.
That is why FDR finally seized all of the reins of power he could to head off societal breakdown and to effectively re-structure our society and social compact. FDR understood that the cumulative development of “Fear Itself” cannot be assuaged by conventional campaign promises or by partisan wrestling over piecemeal programs and policies. The solution for Fear Itself is a “new deal.” (Perhaps it’s analogous in current parlance to what is sometimes referred to as “centering” the affected people.)
In this moment, the big difference between the Party of Trump (POT) and the Democratic Party (DP) is that the Party of Trump is centering those living with Fear Itself. The POT is not simply railing against “the Libs” and stoking racism and bigotry or merely promising better policies and programs. On Trump’s model, the POT is working on an increasingly “any means necessary” basis to literally capture and recast many of the key mechanisms of electoral politics and power. This represents the negation of politics, replacing political competition with raw power, or in other words, autocracy. This direct line to power gives people the sense of a path out of an intolerable societal position. The revolt against masks and mandates and more is clearly a way for people to assert control over their lives. There is dignity in opportunities for self-determination even when they can be dysfunction within a larger community.
This is what FDR did in the New Deal. Concrete, though differently structured self-actualizing and “share the wealth” measures were the deal that was struck — and again after WWII, between capital and labor and the political parties (for example, the G.I. Bill) in the aftermath of WWII. On a smaller but still meaningful scale, it’s what Lyndon Johnson accomplished by bull-wrestling Congress and big business into the impactful New Society programs. And, in this similarly transformational moment, it is what the POT is built for and what the Democratic Party is failing to achieve.
Collectively, our society has dropped the ball that FDR put into play. It has been only sporadically picked-up since. We are now, once again, at a manifest “Fear Itself” tipping point. And while extremely dangerous, such tipping point moments also provide opportunities born of new insight.
To succeed electorally (not to mention morally and with Justice), the Democratic Party needs to do much more than simply Build Back Better. “Infrastructure” is not an answer to the experience of Fear Itself. Voting rights measures are not an answer to people for whom the right to vote does not deliver them from Fear.
To enable lasting, progressive change for the better, Democrats need more votes in a lot of states. To find these, Democrats must target the Fear Itself, not the symptoms. And Trump has shown how it is possible to act concertedly and concretely to target fear, real or imagined.
Democratic leaders must get concrete. They must take every risk and every opportunity to make a difference for the disaffected. They must get past putting all their eggs into one big indecipherable, incomprehensible, unfathomable business-as-usual basket. They must instead be very creative and explicit about fighting for and cutting deals for disaffected America. Think Public Works Administration rather than “Federal Subsidies.” The time is now.
One promising example was described recently by Erik Levitz in New York Magazine:
“Given the value of expediting a green transition, it would be worth paying an astronomical price for Manchin’s vote. In the recent past, the West Virginia senator has suggested that he does not want his state’s coal jobs to be replaced with comparatively low-wage “transitional” jobs, such as those in solar installation, but might be amenable to a transition that enabled coal miners to get jobs in wind and solar manufacturing. If Manchin were willing to trade his vote for some kind of federally funded, high-paying complex of wind-turbine factories in West Virginia, then Biden would be well advised to pony up.”
— https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/manchin-biden-climate-clean-electricity-progressives.html
We may never know how FDR came to the insight that, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” But what an extraordinary insight it was. Fear Itself is now broadly manifest in a significant swath of American society. To prevail in the struggle to sustain our Democratic experiment, President Biden and the other leaders of the Democratic Party at every level must acknowledge and own how far we, as a society, have defined indignity down and how dangerous is the resultant disaffection and fear. This must become a real clarion call for extraordinary efforts to make things right.
Much of what can help make things right is embedded within the infrastructure bills and others. But Democrats need to pivot: from Bleeding Hearts to Leading Hearts. Democrats must lead people out of the personal and societal hell of living with Fear Itself.