What Do We Do Now?

One summer, while I was in college, I sold encyclopedias door to door.  My territory was in the south Bronx.  This was why I was walking along the Grand Concourse, not far from Yankee stadium.  It was, therefore, where I encountered my first face-to-face death. 

The concourse is a broad, multi-lane boulevard.  On this day the traffic was about as usual.  Therefore I don’t know why it caught my attention, but I noticed a woman driving by with her two young sons playing in the back seat.

Then all of a sudden the back door flung open and a preschooler came tumbling out.  At this point, his mother panicked.  For some reason, she threw the vehicle into reverse.  And then she drove backwards trapping the boy under the car.

To this day I can call up the image of the child bouncing up and down like a sack of potatoes between the tarmac and the undercarriage of the sedan.  I am not sure that this killed him, but it is difficult to imagine how he survived.

In any event, I froze in my tracks.  My horror was such that I did not know what to do.  I did not run toward the vehicle because I was too terrified of what I might find.  Instead I ran into a nearby apartment building to call the police—who in short order arrived.

Nowadays I have experienced much the same feeling in witnessing the car wreck that has been the Republican primary process.   That Donald Trump has emerged as the nominee designate strikes me as unbelievable.  So unexpected—and unwelcome—is this outcome that I do not know what comes next.

Donald Trump is not a conservative.  He never was, and I don’t believe ever will be.  That voters, who are unhappy with their party because it is insufficiently conservative, should have selected a man who is mildly liberal makes no sense.

Over the last few weeks I have participated in intense conversations with several Trump supporters.  In each case, I was amazed at how indifferent these folks were to the facts.  All of them liked the Donald because they perceived him to be honest and strong.  None were concerned with his political convictions.

For me, this is one more piece of evidence that we are in the midst of an ideological crisis.  Many people, who describe themselves as conservative, care precious little about the goals promoted by conservatism.  Either they do not understand these—or they don’t give a darn.

Something similar seems to be true on the Democratic side of the ledger.  The enthusiasm, such as it is, is on the side of Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton.  Bernie is liked, whereas Hillary is distrusted.

Evidently many Democratic voters do not care that until recently Sanders was no more a member of their party than Trump was of the Republicans.  He was, and is, a declared socialist—a man who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. 

In other words, Sanders represents mainstream liberalism no better than Trump represents mainstream conservatism.   And yet people are unconcerned.  It is enough that Sanders is regarded as honest and authentic.

Let’s put this into perspective.  The two major parties are supposed to champion conflicting political agendas.  They are ostensibly distinguished by the clear-cut doctrines to which their partisans subscribe.

And yet their supporters don’t subscribe to these ideologies.  Perhaps this is because they have lost faith in them.  The Republicans have come to see establishment politicians as RINOs (Republicans in name only) who have not delivered on their promises to roll back Obama’s programs.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have also lost faith in their establishment figures.  However much they defend Obama, they know that he has not produced “hope and change.”  In short, they too are disillusioned.

Can it be that neither conservatism nor liberalism is capable of fulfilling its promises?  Perhaps these ideologies have become hollow dreams.  They may not deliver because they are unable to deliver.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University