During the 2024 Presidential campaign, the #1 issue for American voters was money. It was inflation, grocery prices, and money spent on immigrants. The second issue for many conservatives was the culture wars. And the culture wars revolved around the equal rights for the LGBT community.
Now what is the #1 issue of conservative Americans? The polls tell us that. We could say that the #1 issue is the same for Americans in general; it is money. But that is not entirely accurate. The #1 issue for conservative Americans is oneself. How are conservative Americans concerned about themselves? They are concerned about themselves in terms of money issues including jobs, taxes, and prices. They are concerned about themselves in terms of whom they will share society with. They want the LGBT community to be put back into the margins of society. They are concerned about non-Christian influences on the lives of their families. They see themselves as being victims of illegal immigration. In general they see themselves as being victims because their leader, Donald Trump, tells them so. And because they are victims by so many people and even countries, remember the Trade Wars, they could care less if Trump does not follow the rules to save them. And in thinking that way, they not only ignore history.
How America got to be this way must be told so that others might avoid our plight. It starts by thinking that one's own group is above all others. Because of America's great wealth, it starts by leaning toward finding more significance in what one consumes more than in what one contributes to others and society.
And though I am no longer a conservative American, I am not innocent of these charges. As I was talking with my best friend, she was talking about how her husband has always been a very hard worker. I had to tell her that I wasn't raised that way. I was raised to be a consumer and so hard work and how it contributed to others was, to me, the price of admission for consuming rather than a reward in and of itself. And so I didn't always work as hard and with the right attitudes as I should. I still struggle with having a good work ethic for the right reasons.
We Americans, especially conservative Americans, want two things in life. The first thing we want is to believe that we are special in a way that makes us and our nation superior to all others. Listen to conservative talk radio if you doubt that part of my analysis here.
And because we are special, or perhaps when we doubt ourselves, we want to consume as much as possible. So we make consumption the center of our lives. That is because, for us, consuming is both a reward for being so special and an assurance that we are.
In an article (click here and use Google Translate if necessary) written by Richard Martineau for Le Journal de Montréal, Trump is described as the leader whom we all deserve because of our obsession with entertainment--something which we consume in great quantities. And so our consumption of entertainment results in our entertainment replacing culture. Our consumption of entertainment means that we eventually become attracted to the spectacle and no one makes more of a spectacle of himself than Trump.
Read the comments on capitalism made by Martin Luther King Jr in his book, Stride Toward Freedom (click here and read pg 94-95). When describing what Marx saw as the danger when the profit motive becomes the 'sole basis for an economic system,' King said that Capitalism 'inspires' people to focus more on 'making a living' than on 'making a life.' That capitalism causes us to 'judge ourselves' more by our income and possessions than by what we contribute to others.
If we want to get Biblical about it, note what the prophet wrote in Ezekiel 16:48-50):
48 As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done! 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, plenty of food, and carefree ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. 50 So they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.
Paul wrote, in his letter to the Galatians, that the desires of the flesh oppose the desires of the Spirit . I believe that a secular parallel to that conflict can be found in the conflict between consumerism and Democracy with equality. Certainly not all consuming is bad; a certain amount of consuming is necessary for both individuals and society. But when consuming becomes a main way of defining oneself, then we start caring less and less about Democracy with equality. When our own possessions and consumption of material and immaterial goods becomes too important to us, we start to care less and less about the injustices and inequities that those outside of our own tribes suffer. And the more we love to consume, the more we will see those outside of our own tribes as threats to our way of life. And so the more we care about consuming, the more we are likely to fall prey to authoritarian leaders who promise us pie in the sky while warning us, or using fear mongering, that those outside of our tribe are threatening to steal our slice of the pie from us. And the thing about authoritarian leaders who tell us what we want to hear is that they don't have to be rational, they just have to stroke our fears and egos to be persuasive.
America has already been caught in consumerism's vortex because of what we believe about ourselves. How we can escape alive I do not know. But perhaps our example can serve as a warning to our dearest neighbor to the North and our former allies to the East and to the rest of the free world.
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