Who Are We, Really?
The not-so-strange connection between immigration and gas prices, in the mind of our leading Presidential candidate
Fewer than eleven months remain until Americans — my own people — choose their next president. Already the campaign is dominated by one man, and I don’t mean the guy who has overseen the recovery of our COVID-stricken economy, rebuilt support for NATO and our European allies, and helped enact the most significant climate- and jobs- related legislation to date.
No, it’s that other guy who is soaking up media attention as he continues to air his grievances about the last election and promises revenge against those who booted him from power.
Today’s news contains another snippet of Donald Trump’s ongoing disregard for the conventions of American democracy. In a speech to the Young Republicans Club of New York, Mr. Trump doubled down on the notion that he would like to be dictator, although only for one day. The reasons he gave? Because “I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
This is a curious choice of goals for our dictator-for-a-day. They don’t seem much related to each other, although both carry serious consequences for the natural environment of the Southwest, where I live. The fifty-two miles of new wall that was built along the U.S.-Mexico border during Mr. Trump’s presidency, along with another four hundred miles of wall that replaced existing barriers, may have served to deter some illegal border crossings, but is also destroyed a great deal of important desert habitat, crossed numerous protected natural areas, and blocked the migration of terrestrial animals such as jaguars and gray wolves.
Mr. Trump’s promise to accelerate drilling for oil and gas on our public lands will also heavily impact the Southwest. “Drill, baby, drill” is a mantra out here, never mind that U.S. oil production is already on track to reach a record high this year.
So why does Mr. Trump prioritize these actions? His obsession with building a “big, beautiful” border wall speaks to his supporters’ deep antipathy to people of color “invading” our country, stealing good Americans’ jobs, and worse. Increasing energy supplies is also popular out here in the West, where a lot of folks drive enormous pickup trucks, tow even bigger RVs, and speed over the landscape in powerful recreational machines. These people are concerned about the price of gasoline and diesel fuel, as they ought to be, given the kinds of machinery they favor.
But how, you may wonder, are these twin aims of our would-be autocrat related? And why are they so different from the usual aims of dictators, which run to things like jailing their opponents, declaring martial law, and disbanding the judiciary? Well, Mr. Trump has dropped hints of doing those things, too, but nonetheless in his speech to the Young Republicans he chose to highlight energy supplies and illegal border crossings.
These are issues that resonate with a great many Americans. Immigration is a perennial concern among working people who fear their jobs may be lost to those who will work for lower wages (never mind that this is a feature of capitalism). Cheap energy is a mainstay of our American way of life — you might say it’s what distinguishes us from almost every other country on Earth.
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What Mr. Trump is saying, in effect, is we can go on living as we always have. We can draw on the labor of Latin American migrants, but only in our farm fields, our restaurant kitchens, and our landscaping crews. Other jobs — the ones we ourselves want — are reserved for white folks.
And we can go on buying our pickup trucks and SUVs and driving them without regard to the carbon they emit or the air they pollute.
Let’s grant, out of courtesy to Mr. Trump, that he is sincere in not really wanting to be dictator for years and years, like most dictators do. Assume he was using this term jokingly, as he is so good at doing. Also set aside the question of why a presidential candidate has to reassure Americans on network television that he does not desire to bring an end to our 240-year-old experiment with constitutional democracy.
Mr. Trump’s statement to the Young Republicans shows that he has no comprehension of the state of our environment, from the wonderful desert regions along the U.S. — Mexico border, to the crisis besetting Earth’s atmosphere. He knows we’re addicted to cheap energy and so he is promising to keep our pipelines full. He also knows that we’ve grown used to cheap food and cheap goods — which depend on low-cost, compliant labor, meaning workers from south of the border, who will remain here in large numbers regardless of whose immigration policy is in force.
What he is promising us is that we will not have to face up to our responsibilities to other countries that bear the brunt of American consumerism and the land destruction it entails. We can also ignore the climate scientists’ warnings that our profligacy will wreak havoc right here in our country, through flood, drought, wildfire, and disease.
Those of us who find the road we’re currently on to be deeply disturbing know that cheap and easy has to give way to a wholly different approach to living on this Earth. Yet the man who is currently leading the polls is telling us we don’t have to change — not now, not ever.
Donald Trump’s followers embrace him because he offers a point of view, or properly an attitude, that they are not hearing from other politicians. He assures them that they will not have to give up the kind of life they’d grown used to, with all that it implies about our use of energy and our relationship to people of color. We can go on living the way we have, and maybe have even more of what we want. And for a large number of Americans, that means living among people who look and act like them, as well as being able to enjoy the independence that individual auto ownership brings.
It may seem strange to imply that there is a parallel between racist attitudes and gas prices, but when you look at the mechanisms at work here, the pattern that emerges is pretty basic — elemental, even. We crave safety, comfort, and convenience in our lives. The automobile delivers that, and it enables millions of us to live in the suburbs, where we do not have to mix with people of other nations or colors. In its current, bloated, over-powered form, the auto (especially big, powerful pickup trucks and SUVs) cocoons us from others on the road and gives us a sense of mastery and command. It allows us to live far from downtown, with all its strange and sometimes scary residents, and it means we won’t have to ride the bus to work, where we might have to rub shoulders with people who don’t look like us or talk like us. Those are elemental prejudices, deeply baked into the human psyche.
These basic fears and desires all boil down to the essence of conservatism: that nothing should change, that the old ways of doing things are best. I myself often ascribe to such views, for the changes that are coming to our lives — from globalized economies to artificial intelligence — are truly frightening. But on top of this basic conservatism lies this peculiarly American obsession with comfortable, convenient living, free of responsibility to other peoples or even to our own future. This, I believe, is what lies behind Mr. Trump’s choice of actions for his imagined first day on the job. It is a promise he will try his utmost to deliver, for it is the basis of his power, and it cements his lockhold on so much of the American electorate. It is a seductive promise, and any politician who refuses to endorse it will have a very difficult time holding office.
So keep an eye out for more statements like Mr. Trump’s, and see how they play in this American political theater. I think you’ll find that they work very well, indeed.
