Pharmakon I: Post-Mortem

“The country is no longer predominantly rural but urban, and the frontier mindset has been largely superseded by a cosmopolitan one.”

Make America great again. The catchphrase of the populist candidate is distinctly un-American, the first after a long line of anodyne presidential campaign slogans to explicitly admit that the glory days are gone. Escaping the lips of any statesman, these words would have comprised the unwitting reading of a political suicide note, an anathema to perhaps the most patriotic people in the world. And yet half the electorate cheered at the words, hurrahed at the rallies, proudly donned the hats and voted then-candidate Donald Trump into power. Soliciting raucous applause for words of concession is no small task—being the best is the American brand, and a willingness to concede weakness is an understated bellwether of the national sentiment. Wresting this frank admission from the American people remains one of his few victories to date. But why would his voters subscribe to such a message? After all, the United States is still tentatively the world’s sole superpower, has the largest economy, and remains, deservedly or not, the standard-bearer for democracy.

There are a few narratives that have emerged in the aftermath of the 2016 election. President Trump’s rise to power represents the boiled-over anger of rural voters, long marginalized by policies catering to urbanites. Who has not seen the map? A desert of red, choking slivers of blue along the coasts and waterways. Or maybe the scales were tipped by former supporters of President Barack Obama. “Hope” did not inspire their wages to rise, but the cost of living ensnared them tighter than ever. They felt hoodwinked that their embodiment of change bailed out Wall Street in the Great Recession at their expense. It was poor blue-collar and slipping white-collar workers, overworked, tired of being ignored and at a loss for how to make ends meet, who propelled then-candidate Trump to the White House. Undoubtedly, some of President Trump’s support came from the Rust Belt and coal country, where globalization, automation, obsolescence, and environmental regulations have decimated entire industries and emaciated company towns built around single factories.

That the contentious social issues that dominate American media—abortion, access to birth control, gay marriage, and transgender rights—are most visibly championed by celebrity activists and young college students perhaps led some moderate conservatives to interpret the liberal agenda merely as catharsis for the overwrought consciences of the privileged. They likely resented that their voices, hoarse from calling attention to real, everyday issues affecting Americans—health care costs, the stress of being laid off, having to work two jobs to make ends meet—were drowned out by the indignant rallying calls of those with the luxury of nitpicking over what must seem like fringe issues and frivolous contrivances. President Trump was likely a welcome bull in this china shop of political correctness and identity politics, as well as a fitting foil to out-of-touch, idealistic limousine liberals.