By Anne Southern
My natural optimism has deserted me at the moment. I always liked to believe in progress though some say that the worst aspects of human behaviour are set in stone. They say acting in self-interest and not for the greater good is just human nature. However, as an educator you need to believe in the power of knowledge and reason to change these attitudes and improve the lot of mankind.
But just as when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize it was said, “Satire is dead”, so with the election of Donald Trump, criminal, liar and all-round weirdo, I could say “logic is dead; empathy is dead”.
I am sure that those who voted for Trump had their reasons, but most were entirely selfish and even misguided. Though the Biden administration had improved the US economy and increased the number of jobs, voters weren’t feeling it in their pockets. Things possibly beyond the government’s control like inflation and especially the price of fuel made them feel that voting for Trump would make them better off, and so they supported him, in spite of his dangerous failings.
When faced with a ballot paper many people forget the bigger picture and put their perceived immediate financial interests first. It’s interesting that Trump didn’t win the majority of college educated citizens’ votes, because this group could see beyond the slogans and use reason to see the dangers. Forget the racism and misogyny (though these are immensely important). Where is the money for the tax breaks, that will mainly benefit the rich, to come from? Healthcare? What will be the impact on a planet where the climate crisis has reached tipping point if he implements his pledge to “drill, baby, drill”?
And as for his appointments, you really couldn’t make them up. I’ve just been listening to Radio 4’s Dead Ringers, where they had Trump put “the late great” Hannibal Lecter in charge of Health. But the truth is hardly less absurd. He has appointed prominent anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr, which global health experts fear will lead to deaths around the world. Other appointments, like that of defence secretary having been accused of sexual assault are equally jaw-dropping. Former Republican communications director, Tara Setmayer describes them as “a gallery of degenerates”. Trump is already talking about how it may be “fixed” so he can have a third term, and during the election said, worryingly, that if people voted just once they would never have to vote again.
This won’t be the first time that a democratic vote has led to the end of democracy. Are the majority fit to have been given the privilege of voting?
My book club is reading a novel by George Eliot, Felix Holt the Radical, set at the time of the first Reform Act, when a limited number of people were voting in some towns for the first time. Eliot’s range of characters demonstrate attitudes to voting that would be recognisable today. There is the farmer who gives his two votes to candidates with opposing views “to be fair” like the Trump voter who also voted for left-wing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress.
Others vote for their landlords whose interests are not their own. Still others don’t want to be involved because they don’t want to fall out with their neighbours. The candidate who most represents the interests of the majority is not elected. Our hero, Felix, opposes giving the vote to more people until they are better educated, and dedicates himself to teaching the children of working men. Now, 150 years after universal education, with hard won universal suffrage, what would he think?
After the Second World War people in the UK did vote in a Labour government that by introducing the National Health Service, improving education and raising pensions really did improve the lot of the majority, but it was voted out next time, probably because people felt they had less money in their pockets. Again, they couldn’t see the bigger picture.
In the UK we at last have another Labour government aiming to improve workers’ rights and public services but there are howls of anguish from pensioners losing their winter fuel allowances and farmers worried about inheritance tax. Few are seeing beyond their immediate self-interest; few are able to think long term, though the government claims it will take ten years for their policies to bear fruit.
When we gave the vote to 16-year-olds in Jersey, I was hoping that as they were still at school they could be educated to make informed choices when voting, but it seems that schools became even more reluctant to mention politics.
And yet until people can see beyond what is in their pockets today, until they can think long-term and globally, there is little hope of improving our wellbeing, or even our existence, tomorrow and into the future.
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Anne Southern has taught all ages and stages before retiring as head of English at Hautlieu. She was president of the Jersey Teacher’s Association for eight years and a founder member of Reform Jersey. She is chair of the Jersey u3a and an unrepentant morris dancer.
