For those unfamiliar with this Catholic meme, it is the opening sentence Catholics whisper to the priest to start confession.
My confession is that I find this particular point in our history fascinating.
We have a President who appears determined to self-destruct, a party that is uncertain they are willing to go down with him, and his supporters who have swallowed the kool-aide and have lost touch with reality.
So here’s a little bonus coverage courtesy of one of my favorite academics, Jonathan Haitt of Righteous Mind fame. He has a great article in The Atlantic which explains the widespread negative reaction to Trump’s Charlottesville comments.
This IS NOT a political rant.
It is simply an explanation of a taboo that Trump broke.
All societies have taboos. I won’t go through why, though Haitt does in his article. Suffice it to say that we use a common set of deeply revered values, people, or places to hold all our citizens together in a shared bond. That bond is our willingness to sacrifice our individual interests for the greater common good.
Charlottesville was a clash of sacred symbols.
The far right displayed their sacred symbols including swastikas, confederate flags, and guns – lots of guns. They were marching to defend another symbol – the statue of Robert E. Lee. The goal of the rally was to bind white people together with a shared hatred of Jews, African Americans, and other minorities using claimed white victim-hood and racial purity. (BTW racial purity is a myth. Skin color is the result of a not well understood interaction between about 100 genes rather than the presence or absence of a particular set of genes. Commonly available genetic ancestry tests are causing real problems for those advocating a “pure white” society.)
For UVA students, “the lawn” in the center of campus is also hallowed ground. Students rushed out, unarmed, to defend the Jefferson statue from the approach of the torch-bearing armed white supremacists. The marchers weren’t planning on vandalizing the statue, but from the student’s point of view these particular marchers would have “contaminated” the statue if allowed to approach unopposed. That’s because for a Jeffersonian, neo-Nazi’s are taboo.
That’s what the country saw. Unarmed students spontaneously opposing an organized group chanting the worst slurs against Jews and African Americans and making Nazi salutes. It was a desecration of our most cherished American story based on the belief that “all men are created equal”. We all know that this creed is aspirational, but we demand that all of our political leaders accept this premise as a requirement to hold office. Denying this premise is blasphemy. As a result white supremacists, the KKK, and neo-Nazis are widely regarded as blasphemous outsiders.
We treat our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution as sacred texts. We erect monuments to our martyrs. We punish or shame anyone who ignores our documents or dishonors our martyrs. We expect our president to play the role of high priest and chief unifier in times when those texts and martyrs seem under attack.
In Trump’s press conference on Tuesday August 15th, Trump fumbled his opportunity to play the role of the high priest and chief unifier because he failed to condemn the blasphemers exclusively. In response to the public outcry, the President read a staff-written speech to right that wrong. If it had stopped there, perhaps he could have recovered. Instead just 24 hours later, he committed the greatest sacrilege of his presidency by saying that there were “very fine people on both sides”. That’s because our basic belief is that Nazi’s aren’t just bad – they are taboo.
Trump has become taboo by embracing those that we have decided are taboo. The moral stain of the blasphemers has rubbed off on him. That’s why you saw such a scramble by all those who understood what he had just done. Those who fail to distance themselves from the taboo will also become taboo, just as Trump has done. That’s also why most people in this country were willing to condemn those who just walked in the march. They didn’t have to carry a flag, shout a slogan, or salute. Just being there made them taboo too. They got fired. They were disowned by their families. People won’t want to live next to them any more than they would a sex offender.
You can’t apologize for breaking a taboo, particularly one as deep as the Nazi or KKK. You can’t even use the excuse of ignorance because that would suggest ignorance of our basic values. In Trump’s case, it doesn’t matter, because he is not going to admit that he did anything wrong.
the stain, the moral pollution, the taint, will linger on him and his administration for the rest of his term. Business leaders have quit his panels and projects; artists who were due to receive honors from the president have changed their plans. Pollution travels most rapidly by physical touch, so be on the lookout for numerous awkward moments in the coming months when people refuse to shake the president’s hand or stand next to him. It is unclear how far the contagion will spread, but it will surely make it more difficult to attract talented people into government service for as long as Trump is the president.
Further this is going to do generational damage to the Republican Party.
people’s political orientations are shaped for life by events that happen when they are young, particularly between the ages of 14 and 24. The young generation—iGen, as Jean Twenge calls them—is extraordinarily progressive and passionate about matters of race and prejudice. If Republicans stand by their tainted president rather than renouncing him, an entire generation of voters may come to see the GOP as eternally untouchable.
It’s hard to say what will come next, but right now the country is unbalanced.
Extraordinary sacrilege has occurred, but divine retribution has not yet come down from the heavens. We have no priest and no scripture to guide us. The country may suffer for failing to remove this apostate.
What I can see in the not too distant future, however, is an emotional pivot toward impeachment as a cathartic recovery of purpose and balance. Trump will be blamed. Some in his administration will go to jail. All will be disgraced. The country will heal. I saw this happen with Nixon. It could very well happen with Trump too. All that is missing is the smoking gun of corruption or scandal and the game will be over.