Sin and its Liberal Deniers

The US elections loom above everything these days. There is a profound anxiety and exhaustion present in even the most ordinary public encounters. If this is the state of things in Canada, I can only imagine what our neighbours to the south are going through. Everyone seems to be holding their breath and shaking their heads, hoping that somehow things will turn out alright, knowing that even the best possible outcome is still quite terrifying. How did things get like this? How did a man who is objectively incompetent and singularly unsuited for elected office come this close to becoming the next President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world?

While most liberal elites will shrug their shoulders and tell some story about the "uneducated whites" who form Trump's base, the answer is both more simple and more nuanced than that. The basic liberal belief is that education can and will solve all of society's problems. Lost your job? Re-educate yourself to fit into the knowledge economy. Public health crises (smoking, obesity, etc.)? Launch a public awareness campaign. Persistent racism? Broaden your horizons, meet new people, and educate yourself about the history of racism that forms the bedrock of American society. Obviously, and empirically, education can improve situations, yet despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to educate society fully away from deviant behaviour nor does it appear that we will ever be able to. What liberals lack is a doctrine of sin, and the Augustinian realism that recognizes that sometimes we do things because its evil and we love it (cf. Confessions).

What does the liberal failure to articulate a vision of sin have to do with the current nightmare that is American politics? It is precisely this liberal failure that has created Donald Trump and his campaign of outrage. For decades, the liberal elites (with Hillary front and center) have told the country what will be best for them - from trade deals to acceptable patterns of speech. In the belief that all social ills can be "cured" through re-education, the pundits and chattering classes express outrage and shock when they encounter a large percentage of the electorate that still exhibit and celebrate various forms of deplorable behaviour and dialogue. Instead of understanding the real problems, media personalities and politicians alike rush to say things like "I can't believe in 2016 we are still having these kinds of conversations," assuming of course that these "problems" have been definitively dealt with, and now we all speak and think "properly" about them.

By not acknowledging a classical doctrine of sin, liberals cannot understand the persistence of evil in a world where therapy has replaced confession. The basic effect of sin is alienation and displacement. Sin represents a rupture in the created order that separates and destroys the interconnected systems that creation represents. Trump's supporters largely come from the parts of America that have most profoundly experienced the alienating and displacing effects of the globalist focus of the neo-liberal ideology that has dominated both sides of the aisle since Reagan. Jobs have been exported, traditional forms of life have been critiqued, mocked, and discarded leading to the disintegration of family and community in less than a generation. The prophetic voice of agrarian authors like Wendell Berry serve as the overarching lament of the destruction and profound alienation that has come to the heartland of America as it struggles to maintain global military and economic dominance. Government deficits rage out of control, American lives are sacrificed in futile and never-ending wars, and those who survive are left to deal with their trauma in communities that have been hollowed out by the demands of an economy that has amassed capital along the coastlands and left the mid-west to rust.

The American Empire has many sins to atone for, but the left has exchanged the notion of sin for that of disease and the right denies the existence of corporate sin, being increasingly outraged by the existence of private (read sexual) sins. Injustice is the norm, but because we deny the reality of sin, we know neither what is wrong, nor how to solve it. And so Trump calls for a new wall and stop-and-frisk while Hillary lambastes the so-called basket-of-deplorables.  Rene Girard is surely right that when a community or nation experiences this level of anxiety, a scape-goat must be found. For the left it is the caricature of Rockwell's America, for the right it is the dangerous colored other. Neither sacrifice addresses the real problem nor do they provide a solution, but the Empire demands a sacrifice and if Americans can agree on anything, it is that it is good to sacrifice oneself for the sake of "God" and Country.