Thirty years ago, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich saw something on the horizon most of us missed. He spoke to the 1994 Democratic Leadership Council:
My friends, we are on the way to becoming a two-tiered society composed of a few winners and a larger group of Americans left behind, whose anger and disillusionment are easily manipulated. Once unbottled, mass resentment can poison the very fabric of society, the moral integrity of society, replacing ambition with envy, replacing tolerance with hate. Today the targets of that rage are immigrants and welfare mothers and government officials and gays, and an ill-defined counterculture. But as the middle class continues to erode, who will be the targets tomorrow?
It’s a near perfect description of the social dynamics that nourished the Trumpism that currently rules the Republican Party and haunts the nation.
Richard Conville
“Two-tiered society.” Income inequality. “Americans left behind.” The so-called angry white male “whose anger and disillusionment are easily manipulated.” The attempted coup d’etat on January 6, 2021. The mass resentment has been unbottled, and society’s fabric has been poisoned by envy and hate, as Reich predicted.
Watch the news, any news. And the targets are unchanged: 30 years on, they remain immigrants and welfare mothers, government officials and the LGBTQ community. And the middle class continues to erode. It’s scary.
Reich’s predictions were ignored. Last year, Israel was presented a similar opportunity. Seems Hamas’ invasion plans fell into the hands of the Israeli government. According to the New York Times, “The translated document … described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases.”
But Israeli military and intelligence officials “dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.” Like Reich’s predictions, the plans were ignored, and we know how that turned out.
Last March, at the Conservative Political Action Council, the ex-president gave us his plan for a second term: “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”
So first, his plan is to govern with revenge. He will punish those who have provoked the mass disillusionment, resentment and anger. And who are his targets? Still immigrants, welfare mothers, government officials and the LGBTQ community. Who is next?
Second, his plan is to implement that two-tiered society that Reich predicted. On the lower tier will be his enemies, otherwise known as vermin, fools, globalists, war mongers, communists, fake news media, RINOs, villains, scoundrels, freaks, neocons, open border zealots, fascists, Marxists and radical left thugs.
“The ex-president’s plan is to govern by intimidation, ridicule and cruelty.”
He, of course, would be in the upper tier because, well, he knows what is best for all of us. You may recall his astounding assertion from the 2016 presidential campaign: “I alone can fix it.”
Finally, the ex-president’s plan is to govern by intimidation, ridicule and cruelty (see numbers one and two above). Which is why I am puzzled that more than 80% of white evangelical Christians voted for the ex-president in 2016 (Pew Research Center) and continue to support him now.
Jesus did not call on the Roman government to protect him from his opposition, the Pharisees, who early on decided he needed to be silenced. Nor did Jesus incite violence against the Pharisees. He and his followers did not storm the temple. Rather, he preached community based on love (your neighbor as yourself) and loyalty to the God who brought his people out of slavery in Egypt.
None of Trump’s governing plan above is disputed by his supporters or his detractors. The public record is clear. What we have is like that document that fell into the hands of Israeli military and intelligence officials. He has given us a blueprint, a plan of action. Now, we have the same choice they had.
Do we choose to see the ex-president’s plan of action as merely “aspirational” and “too difficult” to carry out? Or do we take it seriously? The choice is ours. Unless it is already too late.
Richard Conville is a retired professor of communication studies at the University of Southern Mississippi and a longtime resident of Hattiesburg. This column previously appeared in The Pine Belt News, Hattiesburg, Miss.
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