George Packer, in a much-noted article in The Atlantic, divides America into four ideological groups: Free America; Smart America; Real America; and Just America. Does this scheme have merit?
Some, but not as much as he thinks. Here are my observations:
- “Free America” roughly corresponds to my CL and PBP factions, and “Real America” is an appropriate description of Reactionaries, so his GOP categories are consistent with mine.
- However, Packer doesn’t seem to realize that the supposedly freedom-loving January 6 rioters have little in common with regulation-hating businessmen; they are really Reactionaries who hate this government, but not governments they can control. Their libertarianism is purely opportunistic and situational.
- Packer’s “Smart America” and “Just America” categories omit two large groups of Democratic voters. The first is Sanders supporters whose votes were motivated, not by identity, but by class considerations; the second is the large mass of moderate Biden voters–largely elderly and black–who just want as much positive incremental change as they think is reasonably possible without trying to overturn the system. The primaries show that these people represent a majority of the Democratic Party.
- It is of no little importance that not a single Democratic presidential candidate ran as a pure and passionate “Just American,” because there aren’t many voters in that category–just Twitter activists.
- Packer appears to buy into the notion that “Smart America” consists of a self-satisfied, self-perpetuating elite that has no interest in assisting struggling “Real Americans.” That is not only a caricature–it isn’t even true. “Smart America” consistently votes for politicians who support programs designed to help “Real America” even though the money for those programs will come out of their pockets. Part of the problem is that these programs haven’t worked consistently; the other part is that “Free America” has persuaded “Real America” to prefer nostalgia and culture wars over its economic self-interest.
- The numbers don’t lie; the 10 percent of “Smart America” has only broken even in the knowledge-based economy. The real beneficiaries have been the one percent, who are mostly “Free Americans.”