Why are we so politically polarized? The GOP elite engineered it that way.
John feels like a wilting flower in the blazing sun of Florida’s climate changed sun. He is confronted by the Black Lives Matter movement, the global #metoo social movement, and by the LBQBT+ movement’s demand that he use the pronouns of they/them. John feels that he is now at the bottom rung of the affirmative action ladder. He is being bypassed. He needs someone to champion him—make him visible—to push back.
He has found his champions and they are the neo-Republican Ivy League elites (i.e., Trump, Cruz, Pompeo, Bannon, DeSantis, Rufo, etc.). These Republican elites are fueling his angst by telling him that life is a “zero-sum game”; every demand that “others” (e.g., Blacks, women, and LBQBT+ members) make are at his expense. That he needs to “wake up” to his perceived injustices and join them in their war against “woke”.
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However, ironically, it was the Republican party of old, that proffered a more uplifting “trickle down” ideology. Their old ideology argued that the free market was always expanding allowing anyone or any group to go from rags to riches. The only thing holding people back was their own efforts; the harder you worked the more you gained. The less government the greater individual and group successes. Support business and businesses will grow. Indeed, everyone will profit from the gains that “others” make. Their gains created more ideas, technological breakthroughs, cancer cures, jobs, cash, profit; it was all good.
The question then becomes why has the base message of the Republican party changed to warring on “woke”? Apparently, today’s Ivy League conservative elites have read the research on what motivates the white vote. The research shows that whites—particularly white males—will oppose policies that benefit them if they perceive that they will relatively advance “others”—more specifically, Blacks. In short, the research shows that white males would rather be poorer absolutely than become relatively poorer to “others”.
The Ivy League Republican elite are using this research to fuel their personal ambitions at the expense of polarizing our country into warring “cultural” camps. These elites now stress that it is a zero-sum game. Any gain made by “others” is at the personal expense of whites. Whites are being “replaced”. They push this polarizing ideology, which becomes institutionalized within the siloed walls of social media. Thus, what Republican elites champion are “feel good” anti-woke policies (e.g., no pronouns). Some whites buy into these anti-woke policies believing that their rightful place will be restored while, in fact, their absolute economic well-being declines.
In sum, everyone is wondering what is happening to our country. How is it that hatefulness and meanness are becoming the norm? Why are we so polarized? The answer is hiding in plain sight. The hegemonic conservative Ivy League elite have purposefully rejected the old Republican dogma of everyone benefits from a rising tide and replaced it with their new ideology that the gain of “others” comes at the expense of whites. So, the next time you hear someone being hateful to an “other” please remember that they are just the victim of the conservative Ivy League elite’s message that it is “us against them.”
James D. Unnever is a retired professor of criminology for the University of South Florida. His research focused on how racism and other factors influence death penalty opinions, and racial discrimination and crime.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: America's political divided is polarized by Republican elites
