Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

  Endnotes

  1: Traveling to the Heart

  5 to cross the empathy wall Progressives and Tea Party advocates have different tacit "empathy rules," as I call them. People of the right tend to empathize with the rich; those of the left, with the poor worker (Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders being favorites). During the summer of 2015, I found the Facebook pages of my right-wing interviewees to be filled with positive stories of white police officers, and those of my Bay Area friends to be discussing the Black Lives Matter movement. Each side has its own empathy map. See "Empathy Maps" in my book, So How's the Family? and Other Essays (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012 [1983]).

  6 33 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans answered "yes" Shanto Iyengar and Sean Westwood, "Fear and Loathing Across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization," American journal of Political Science 59, no. 3 (2014): 45; Shanto Iyengar, Gaurav Sood, and Yphtach Lelkes, "Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization," Public Opinion Quarterly 76, no. 3: 405-31.

  6 partyism, as some call it, now beats race Cass R. Sunstein, "'Partyism' Now Trumps Racism," BloombergView, September 22, 2014, http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-22/partyism-now-trumps-racism; Jonathan Chait, "Confessions of a 'Partyist': Yes, I Judge Your Politics," New York Magazine, October 30, 2014, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/im-a-partyist-and-yes-i-judge-your-politics.html. One reason for the split is that as Democrats and Republicans become more internally consistent, those with non-straight-ticket viewpoints have become Independents.

  6 to live near others who share their views Bill Bishop and Bobert G. Crushing, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008).

  6 According to a 2014 Pew study Charles Babington, "A Polarized America Lives as It Votes," Pew Research Center, summer 2014, http://magazine.pewtrusts .org/en/archive/summer-2014/a-polarized-america-lives-as-it-votes.

  7 some 20 percent of Americans Christopher S. Parker and Matt Barreto, Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 14. Surveys find between 18 and 30 percent of Americans sympathize with the Tea Party. Steve Coll, "Dangerous Gamesmanship," New Yorker, April 27, 2015.

  7 politics is the single higgest factor determining views on climate change "Not All Republicans Think Alike About Global Warming," Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/article/not-all-republicans-think-alike-about-global-warming. Also see "Three out of Four Believe Climate Change Is Occurring: Views of Key Energy Issues Are Shaped by Partisan Politics," University of Texas News, October 20, 2015, http://news.utexas.edu/2015/10/20/views -of-key-energy-issues-are-shaped-by-partisan-politics; Sheril Kirshenbaum, "Political Ideology Continues to Be the Single Greatest Determinant of Americans' Views on Climate Change," http://news.utexas.edu/2015/10/20 /views-of-key-energy-issues-are-shaped-by-partisan-politics.

  7 "strengthening the unemployment insurance system" Amanda Terkel, "GOP Platform in Years Past Supported Equal Rights, Higher Wages, Funding for the Arts," Huffington Post, September 24, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/gop-platform_n_1852733.html; Christina Wolbrecht, The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).

  7 Under Dwight Eisenhower, top earners were taxed at 91 percent Joshua Gillin, "Income Tax Rates Were 90 Percent Under Eisenhower, Sanders Says," PolitiFact, November 15, 2015, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/15/bernie-s/income-tax-rates-were-90-percent-under-eisenhower-/.

  7 fifty-eight House Republicans voted to abolish the Internal Revenue Service "South Dakota House: Abolish U.S. Department of Education," Tea Party.org, January 29, 2015, http://www.teaparty.org/south-dakota-house-abolish-u-s-dept-education-80153; Pete Kasperowicz, "Who Wants to Abolish the IRS? So Far, 58 House Republicans," The Blaze (accessed August 16, 2015), http://www.theblaze.com/news/2015/01/07/who-wants-to-abolish-the-irs-so-far-58-house-republicans/.

  7 Some Republican congressional candidates call for abolishing all public schools Nick Bauman, "Tea Party Frontrunner: Abolish Public Schools," Mother Jones, October 13, 2010.

  8 This would include forests, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas Will Rogers, "Our Land, Up for Grabs," New York Times, Editorial, April 2, 2015 (accessed August 16, 2015), http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/opinion/our-land-up-for-grabs.html.

  8 called for the end of the Environmental Protection Agency Jaime Fuller, "Environmental Policy Is Partisan. It Wasn't Always." Washington Post, June 2, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/06/02/support-for-the-clean-air-act-has-changed-a-lot-since-1970.

  8 a majority of Americans turned away from it Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza, "A Broken Public? Americans' Responses to the Great Recession," American Sociological Review 78, no. 5 (2013): 727-48.

  8 is the same as that between the United States and Nicaragua The average U.S. life expectancy is 78.9, and Nicaragua's is 74. The nine states with the lowest life expectancies, all red, range from 75.0 (Mississippi) to 76.3 (Tennessee). The states with the highest life expectancies, all blue, range from 80.3 (New jersey) to 81.3 (Hawaii). World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository [2073 data] (accessed August 12, 2015), http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.688. Also see Social Science Research Council, The Measure of America: HD Index and Supplemental Indicators by State, 2013—2014 Dataset (Brooklyn, NY: Measure of America, 2014); Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2009 Kids Count Data Book: State Profiles of Child Weil-Being, http://www.aecf.org/resources/the-2009-kids-count-data-book. Also see Gallup-Healthways, "State of American Weil-Being," 2014, which ranks Louisiana 40th in overall well-being.

  9 in overall health ranked last United Health Foundation, Americas Health Rankings, 2015 Annual Report, 8, http://www.americashealthrankings.org.

  9 whites in Louisiana are worse off Social Science Research Council, The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008—2009 (Brooklyn, NY: Measure of America, 2009).

  9 $2,400 is given by the federal government After Mississippi, Louisiana is the state most dependent on federal dollars. David Freddoso, "State Government Dependence on Federal Funding Growing at Alarming Rate," State Budget Solutions, April 14, 2015, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/state-government-dependence-on-federal-funding-growing-at-alarming-rate/article/2547209.

  10 try to scale the empathy wall Katherine Kramer Walsh, "Putting Inequality in Its Place: Rural Consciousness and the Power of Perspective," American Political Science Review 106, no. 3 (2012): 517-32.

  10 "Who Turned My Blue State Red?" Alec MacGillis, "Who Turned My Blue State Red?," New York Times, November 20, 2015.

  11—12 among college-educated whites, the increase was higher still Larry Bar-tels, "What's the Matter with What's the Matter with Kansas?" Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1 (2006): 211. In the nation as a whole, between 1972 and 2014 more whites were calling themselves Independent. But of white American voters who identified with either party between these years, Democrats plummeted from 41 percent to 24, and Republicans inched from 24 percent to 27. In the South, Democrats fell lower and Republicans rose higher. If we focus on how people identify themselves, not on how they vote, the numbers point in the same direction. According to the General Social Survey, from 1972 to 2014, among Southern whites, Republicans rose from 19 percent (in 1972) to 34 percent (in 2014). In the country as a whole, they rose from 24 percent (in 1972) to 27 percent (in 2014).

  Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia have also produced more than their share of 2015 presidential aspirants—Ted Cruz and Rick Perry (both from Texas), Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio (both from Florida), Lindsay Graham (South Carolina), Mike Huckabee (Arkansas), and Bobby Jindal (Louisiana).

  12 I would need to get to know the white South Among whites with a high school deg
ree or less, 36 percent voted Republican, 26 percent Democrat; among whites with a bachelor's degree, it was about the same. Only among postgraduate whites did the ratio favor the Democratic Party. A.D. Floser, "A Closer Look at the Parties in 2012," Pew Research Center, August 23, 2012, http:// www.people-press.org/2012/08/23/a-closer-look-at-the-parties-in-2012.

  12 it was 14 -percent—a smaller proportion than in the South as a whole Henry Wolff, "Race and the 2012 Election," American Renaissance, November 9, 2012, http://www.amren.com/features/2012/11/race-and-the-2012-election. In 2012, only one state, Mississippi, had a smaller proportion of white voters for Obama—10 percent.

  12 half of Louisianans support the Tea Party According to a Clarus poll of 602 likely Louisiana voters, 46 percent supported the Tea Party. Associated Press, "Obama Approval Ratings Low in Louisiana," New Orleans City Business, October 13, 2011, http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2011/10/13/obama-approval-ratings-low-in-louisiana.

  12 the highest proportion of state representatives in the U.S. House of Representative's Tea Party Caucus The two candidates were among seven—now reduced to six—members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana, three of whom—John Fleming, Steve Scalise, and Jeff Landry—were members of the House Tea Party Caucus in 2014.

  13 to create an "astro-turf grassroots following" Isaac William Martin, Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

  13 populist anti-government rage was orchestrated by corporate strategy Taki Oldham, The Billionaires' Tea Party, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2JO0vZvwI.

  13 The New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (New York: Random House, 2016). According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2014 election the oil and gas industry gave 87 percent of its political contributions—and coal companies, 96 percent—to Republican candidates. Alternative energy went 56 percent for Democrats. Paul Krugman, "Enemies of the Sun," New York Times, Op-Ed, October 5, 2015. Also see Miriam Diemer, "Energy and Natural Resources: Industry Influence in the Climate Change Debate," OpenSecrets.org, last updated January 29, 2015, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/issues/energy.

  13 to direct $889,000,000 to help right-wing candidates and causes in 2016 alone Fredreka Schouten, "Koch Brothers Set $889 Million Budget for 2016," USA Today, January 27, 2015, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/26/koch-brothers-network-announces-889-million-budget-for-next-two-years/22363809. In Invisible Hands, Kim Phillips-Fein traces contributions from David and Charles Koch and Bupert Murdoch to the Tea Party. See Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007).

  13 "from idea creation to policy development to education to grassroots organizations to lobbying to litigation to political action" Jane Mayer, "Covert Operations," New Yorker, August 30, 2010. Also see Kenneth P. Vogel, Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp—on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics (New York: Public Affairs/Perseus Group, 2014); Daniel Schulman, Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2015).

  13 $138 million to Republican candidates and $20 million to Democrats Nicholas Confessore, Sarah Cohen, and Karen Yourish, "Buying Power," New York Times, October 10, 2015. Of course rich donors give to Democratic causes too, but, according to a Forbes survey of the fifty richest families, twenty-eight donate mainly to Republicans and only seven mainly to Democrats. Katia Savchuck, "Are America's Richest Families Republican or Democrat?" Forbes, July 9, 2014.

  14 "wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes" Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (New York: Metropolitan Press, 2004), 7.

  15 linked as that is to the defeat, 150 years ago, of the South by the North Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America (New York: Penguin Books, 2011).

  15 Resistance to federal taxation, the historian Robin Einhorn notes, also originated in the South Robin L. Einhorn, American Taxation, American Slavery (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).

  15 white, middle to low income, older, married, Christian Brian Montopoli, "Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe," CBS News, December 14, 2012, CBS/New York Times poll of 1,580 respondents.

  15 the Great Recession of 2008 and government efforts to forestall it, the presidency of Barack Obama, and Fox News In an excellent and early overview of the Tea Party, Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson {The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism [New York: Oxford University Press, 2012]) speak of making an "empathetic leap" (47), though the character of their interviews and their number is not stated. Their central focus is on the relationship between a mobilized grassroots group and the larger lay of the political land. They also focus on the confluence of factors that brought the Tea Party into being—the appearance of President Barack Obama, Fox News, and the financial scare of 2008. Other scholars have focused on the historical roots of the movement, as well as its being a reaction to the Occupy Wall Street movement. See Lawrence Rosenthal and Christine Trost (eds.), Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012).

  15 a full understanding of emotion in politics In The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism, Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson persuasively argue that since President Obama became president, America has seen a new confluence of three long-standing conservative trends. Older, white, middle-class conservatives felt unrepresented by Obama and sought an alternative to him. They combined forces with free-market advocacy groups—primarily Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks—and Fox News, they argue, spread their word. In Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party, Lawrence Rosenthal and Christine Trost (eds.) put the movement in a wider historical perspective as well.

  16 what I call a "deep story" I was inspired by Metaphors We Live By, by U.C. Berkeley linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Metaphors, they argue, shape how we think and act. They also shape how we feel, I think. If the government is "big brother"— bossy, overbearing, intimidating—then it inspires fear and resentment. If the state is a giant "nanny," then we are made to feel like big babies, and so we feel unwelcome shame. Metaphors are not a form of extra decoration on ordinary speech; as the authors rightly point out, they are embedded in ordinary speech and so continually guide our feeling. For Lakoff and Johnson, metaphors come to us as proposals for how to see life, one by one, each static. In chapter 9 of this book, 1 extended a metaphor of waiting in line into a story, then I checked back with my right-wing friends to see if they felt as if it was true—and they did.

  16 Three percent were foreign-born A third of those I interviewed were the progeny of Cajun settlers whose French Catholic ancestors had fled France in the 1600s and settled in Acadia, a colony of New France in what is today Nova Scotia, Canada. Over time, they became prosperous farmers and traders. Then, in the 1740s the British required them to pledge allegiance and pay taxes to the British king. This they refused to do, initiating the Grand Derangement—the tragic Great Expulsion of 1755—described in William Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Evangeline: The Tale of Acadia." The British burned homes and forcibly loaded Acadians onto ships to be offloaded at various stops along the American coast. Half died of cold and smallpox.

  Once in Louisiana, Cajuns (from the French, les Cadiens or les Acadiens) faced a second, more gradual expulsion. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, other, more prosperous groups, including the Creoles (who descended from French, Spanish, and African colonial settlers), pushed them westward, off the prime farmland of the Mississippi levees. According to one historian, besides wanting the land, many sugar planters wanted the Cajuns to leave the vicinity so that
slaves would not see the Cajun example of freedom and self-support. While a few Cajuns themselves became slave owners, as did some freed blacks, along the plantation-studded Mississippi River most Acadians were pushed to southwest Louisiana (where they raised cattle and grew rice, corn, and cotton), and south to the swamps in which they fished. On issues of Tea Party politics, Cajuns differed little from the non-Cajuns I talked with.

  20 student clubs included College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty but not College Democrats On December 7, 2015, I searched under College Student Life, "Special Interests," http://www.southwestern.edu/offices/studentactivities.

  20 are named after Confederate officials of the Civil War Beauregard Parish is named after a Confederate general who helped design the Confederate battle flag; Jefferson Davis Parish is named after the president of the Confederacy. Allen Parish is named for a former Confederate States Army General, Henry Watkins Allen. For monuments, see "Louisiana Confederate Monuments and Markers," http://www.scvtaylorcamp.com/monuments.html. or see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monuments_and_memorials_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#Louisiana