America loves a good story. We tell a lot of them to ourselves. There’s the story of the clean-cut army of American hunks saving the world from the Nazis, the story of the brothers in blue and grey going to war over state’s rights and many many more. We tell these stories to our children and to ourselves, immortalize them in film and television (Leave it to Beaver, anyone?), because as George Orwell will tell you; if you control the stories that are told, you control history.
Revisionist history is common in America. I could go on for pages about the stories we tell ourselves and what they mean, but I’m going to focus on a specific myth today. It’s the myth about Real America.TM This myth is as old as America itself, and it has catapulted into the spotlight again following the Garbage Fire Year that was 2016. Let’s begin with a profile of this mythical land. Unfortunately, there are no wizards or unicorns.
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| A few Real Americans(TM) in their natural habitat |
Real AmericaTM is white, first off. Never mind that America has always been immensely diverse and grows more so by the decade, and people of color, especially black Americans, built the country from the ground up. Real AmericaTM is whiter than a Fox News panel on race relations.
Second, Real AmericaTM is Christian. Preferably evangelical. Those icky Catholics are allowed in only on probation, and Jewish people and Muslims definitely don’t qualify as Real American.TM Neither do black churches, because as I mentioned before, only white people exist here. God is white in Real America, and so is Jesus, even though he lived in the Middle East.
There are no cities in Real AmericaTM, only small towns with white picket fences. Real American jobs are manly jobs--steelwork, coal, construction--and this will never, ever change, regardless of technological revolutions and thousands of scientists pointing out the unsustainability of these Real AmericanTM Jobs. Only men have these jobs.
Women in Real AmericaTM are mothers and daughters and wives. They are only defined by their relationship to men, or to children, because that’s what women are good for. They support their men and have babies. If they must have jobs, they’re further limited by race. White women can be secretaries or arm candy and women of color can be maids. Occasionally, a white woman--Ivanka Trump is a great example-- can get a higher up job, because Real America believes in equal opportunity. To succeed as a woman, however, you have to throw other women under the bus, to prove you’re truly one of the guys.
People with an education in Real AmericaTM are just showing off. What matters in Real AmericaTM are feelings. Sure, everyone can see that the sea levels are rising dramatically, but if you feel like global warming is just invented by the (not real american) Elites to keep you down, then your opinion matters just as much as anyone’s. After all, you’re a Real AmericanTM and they aren’t, because they’re educated snobs. So there.
Real AmericaTM is hetrosexual. If someone identifies as something other than hetrosexual, they are clearly rubbing their elitist education in everyone’s faces and betraying the Real American white Jesus. Gender is two neat little boxes on a form, with no gray area in the middle.
Self-sufficiency is important to Real AmericansTM. Anyone who gets government handouts is looked down upon as a Judas, someone who plunged a knife into the heart of the American dream by sucking taxpayer’s money away from those who deserve it. Unless you get the handouts, in which case it’s fine, because you’re white a Real AmericanTM.
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| One of these pictures is more American then the other. Who can tell me why that is? |
The narrative of Real AmericaTM has been spread as an explanation for Donald’s win. He won because Real Americans are tired of the godless liberal elite being in charge of the country and taking it away from them, so they elected a baseball hat wearing man of the people who would bring back gritty RealTM jobs to the heartland.
The problem is this isn’t true. It’s a fairytale as fake as white Jesus, and it’s being told as fact. I’ve talked about the Democrats kowtowing to the idea of the “White Working Class,” and how it’s damaging to the people who make up the core of the Democratic Party. These two quotes highlight the heart of the myth.
"It is not good enough to have a liberal elite. I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to where I came from."--Bernie Sanders
“The silent majority stands with Trump”--Donald Trump campaign slogan
While Donald and Bernie Sanders differ greatly on a number of issues, they do both buy into the Real AmericaTM myth, and it’s not somehow more accurate when a liberal says it. Bernie, my dude, the Democratic Party is not a bastion of liberal elitism. They won plenty of working class voters--just not the white working class voters. They didn’t win the Real American base. And so their popular vote victory, the incredibly detailed jobs plan that Clinton put out for the working class, the union endorsements Clinton got are all canceled out. When you say that it’s not the fault of the racism of the white working class, it’s the fault of the clueless liberals, you allow racism to continue to define politics.
Donald’s quote is even more telling. It cites the infamous “Southern Strategy” practiced by Richard Nixon, which played directly to white resentment. Nixon won because he promised the “silent majority” of Real Americans that they would be his only priority and he would fight to keep America theirs and only theirs.
One of the most frustrating parts of this myth is that Donald doesn't have a mandate of Real Americans. He doesn't have a mandate at all. He lost by nearly three million votes. The real “People’s President” is an educated woman wearing a pantsuit who declared that a diverse America is a stronger America. This doesn't fit with the narrative, so it’s largely ignored. But that doesn't make it less true.
Real America has never been the maligned America. It’s the America in power, so it controls the narrative and makes itself the underdog, but that doesn't make its ideas true.
The truth is that HRC fought tirelessly for the working class (all people in the working class, not just whites). She had a detailed jobs plan that promised to revitalize both American cities and small towns. She wanted to help more people get health care, a living wage, a stronger economy, and she had real, concrete plans for all of that. Donald had none of the above. But while HRC’s plans promised to help everyone, Donald promised he would focus only on the Real Americans. He is painted as the champion of the underdog, she is painted as an elitist who knows nothing about the common (white) man. You can draw your own conclusions as to why that is.
I’ll let Langston Hughes close us out.
