John Michael Greer sees this election as the hint about the coming of the postliberal (post-Transcendentalist liberalism of Emerson, Thoreau, Brook Farm and that “Golden Day” of the 1830s).
John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report: The Coming of the Postliberal Era
Over the decades ahead, in other words, we can expect the emergence of a postliberal politics in the United States, England, and quite possibly some other countries as well. The shape of the political landscape in the short term is fairly easy to guess. Watch the way the professional politicians in the Republican Party have flocked to Hillary Clinton’s banner, and you can see the genesis of a party of the affluent demanding the prolongation of free trade, American intervention in the Middle East, and the rest of the waning bipartisan consensus that supports its interests. Listen to the roars of enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump–or better still, talk to the not inconsiderable number of Sanders supporters who will be voting for Trump this November–and you can sense the emergence of a populist party seeking the abandonment of that consensus in defense of its very different interests.
What names those parties will have is by no means certain yet, and a vast number of other details still have to be worked out. One way or another, though, it’s going to be a wild ride.
Greer argues that the politics of principles was split by the religious right’s alignment with modern conservatism into two moral spheres. The gridlock between those moral spheres now has frustrated voters to the point that they are returning to a pure politics of interests. It won’t be totally accomplished in this election, but the cracks in the way business as usual is done are definitely there.
It is worth consideration if only to move the political philosophy conversation forward after this election. And it is going to be a very dangerous time going forward for those people who have benefited from 180 years or so of American political liberalism.
For Boomers who came of political age in the 1960s, it is going to seem like the end of our world. And it shakes the foundations of both New Deal liberalism (and its rearguard movements) and modern conservatism (and its rearguard movements like the Tea Party).
That trend likely will be there after the election no matter what happens. It will erase what is looked upon as a unique American heritage likely even as it clings tighter to the superficial symbols of patriotism.
