Strangers in
Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on
the American Right
by Arlie
Russell Hochschild
Review by
Dave Gamrath
One-liner: Sociologist
Arlie Russell Hochschild’s findings
from a five-year journey into America’s Deep South to learn why white, working
class Americans tend to vote so strongly conservative, even as they rely on
governmental financial support and environmental protections.
Book Review:
When
Donald Trump won the 2016 election, my question was why many working-class
Americans would believe a corrupt New York developer would ever support the working
class? What were they thinking? Berkley Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild had a similar question: why would Southern working-class Americans so
feverishly support Tea Party candidates that preached government as evil, and
free markets as the solution to most everything, even when these same working-class
voters relied on government financial support and had suffered devastation from
industrial pollution? What gives? Why vote against your own self-interest? To answer these questions, Russell Hochschild dedicated five years of research to southern
Louisiana, and her findings were quite astounding. She shares these findings in her book Strangers
in Their Own Land.
A key
reason Russell Hochschild chose Louisiana was the
extensive (and I do mean extensive) industrial pollution there, mostly from the
petrochemical industry. Russell Hochschild befriended many individuals and families that
had been devastated by industrial pollution, resulting in the condemning of
their houses and land, spoiling their bayous, and cancers ravaging their
families. Often they pursued retribution
for these harms through the normal legal channels, and most often they
lost. Yet even in the face of these huge
losses, these folks still believed government was the biggest problem and
actively campaigned for the Tea Party. Louisiana
ranks last in the country in overall health, and 44% of its annual budget comes
from the federal government. So why hate
the government so much, and why hate EPA regulators most of all? Russell Hochschild
calls this “the great paradox”. Her
reporting tactic was to befriend and embed herself with multiple locals to
truly get to know them and their personal stories, and through these stories
she was able to decipher this great paradox.
Russell
Hochschild found common themes why working-class white
Southerners hated government and supported the Tea Party, including governmental
limits on church, intense hatred of taxes, and the belief that the government was
stripping them of their honor.
Most
people Russell Hochschild met were deeply religious
and feared America was moving away from religion. “We vote for people that put the Bible where
it belongs” was the norm. Many
Southerners felt it was God that helped them to survive their ordeals, not
government. Many also felt that it will
be God who will fix environmental disasters, through the rapture and “End
Times”, leading views about the environment such as “it don’t much matter how
much man destroys.” According to Pew
Research, 41% of all Americans believe the Second Coming “probably” or “definitely”
will happen by the year 2050. These
folks are highly concerned about how they will be judged by God and having
their soul saved. Stopping abortion is a
critical element of this belief. In case
Northerners didn’t know, God is antichoice.
Regarding
taxes, the common opinion was that tax money was being given away to
non-deserving people, taking it from workers and giving it to the idle. At least the companies that polluted their
bayou provided jobs and paid wages. The
government takes your wages, from people of good character, and gives them to undeserving
people. Sure, if government handouts
exist “why not take them?” they ask. But
they don’t like handouts to the “underserving”.
Russell
Hochschild developed what she called “the deep story”
behind how many white Southern folks felt about life in America. She described this as “standing in a long
line leading up a hill, and just over the hill is the American Dream”. The white, working class folks she met felt
they had played by the rules and have been patiently waiting in line. But over recent years there have been all
these “line cutters” including women, immigrants, refugees and public sector
workers. And now endangered species are
in line! Where will it end? They feel government has betrayed them. Many feel that they are being ridiculed by
much of America for being crazy rednecks, white trash or Ignorant Southern
Bible thumpers. The feel they are a
“stranger in their own land”, and find it hard to find honor. They believe that through no fault of their
own they are slipping backward. They are
angry and want to fight back. They found
a political party of people that shared their deep story: The Tea Party. And now they have a new leader, willing to
fight for them and put those liberals in their place. His name is Donald Trump.
Russell
Hochschild sees three key elements coming together
allowing the rise of Trump: economic
stagnation of the working-class, the feeling of being culturally marginalized,
and a demographic decline with “fewer and fewer white Christians like us.” At his rallies, Trump almost magically makes
these folks feel that they are no longer strangers in their own land. Trump has been able to unify them, the white,
evangelicals who fear that “those cutting ahead in line” are wrecking
America. And Trump supports what they
want: small government (theoretically), low
taxes, guns and prohibition of abortion.
So,
there you have it. Never mind that
Louisiana’s environment is a disaster, that their quality of life indicators
are amongst the worst in the country, or that their public health and education
programs have been decimated to fund oil company handouts. What matters more to these folks is
preservation of their way of life, and upholding this way of life as
respectable.
Strangers
in Their Own Land did well explaining this paradox to a Northern Liberal like
me. Now I get why they will never
support a progressive like Bernie Sanders, or even a moderate like Joe Biden, who
to me seem much more a friend to the working class than Donald Trump. I now feel more equipped to have difficult
conversations with them. We may find
something to agree on, like the general screwing of the working class that has
taken place over the past forty years.
Can we even agree to somehow work together to support this cause? Like Russell Hochschild
found, it’s worth having a conversation.
Reviewer Opinion:
Very enlightening. Glad I read
this book.
Reviewer Rating of Book: