Grievance Politics Is a Dead-End Road

Conservatives must stand up to those who peddle victimization.

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President Donald Trump’s post-election circus of denial casts in bright relief the damage Trumpism has done to conservatism. The ease with which so many Republicans and supposedly conservative thought leaders have parroted his specious election fraud stories underscores a deeper problem: the all-out embrace of grievance politics, which is the rhetorical and epistemological cornerstone of Trumpism. 

Victimization, the core of grievance politics, has captured much of the conservative mind, and in case anyone doubted that it could produce real destruction, the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 settled the matter. Trump’s populism has always been more about an aggrieved anti-elitism than bolstering the economic situation of the working class or whatever other worthy cause we have been told repeatedly he was elected to fulfill. By embracing Trumpism, his supporters have discarded the virtues of responsibility and prudence that have long characterized conservatism.

There is a famous Ronald Reagan quote that some Trumpists probably recited in their pre-Trump careers: “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” Trumpists have proved willing to disregard and even break laws because they believe themselves to be the victims of a guilty society masterminded by activists and elites.

In a January 6 tweet, removed by Twitter before the president was permanently banned from the platform, Trump proclaimed after his supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” (emphasis added).

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  1. AF

    Wonderful article, and right on the nose.

    The thing that really is getting to me right now is that, of my friends who are engaging in "conservative grievance politics," by far the worst and most unhinged are those who profess to be devout Christians, particularly Catholics. (I'm a fairly devout Catholic myself, FWIW).

    Just leaving aside the insane notion that Joe Biden and a 50-50 Senate are going to bring about the second Diocletianic Persecution, it seems completely against the spirit of genuine Christianity to engage in grievance politics. Isn't our entire faith founded on someone who willingly submitted to an unjust execution at the hands of the state? Aren't Christians supposed to welcome a little spiritual and social hardship, not just marginalization, but even genuine persecution, with grace, fearlessness and unwavering commitment to moral uprightness rather than fear, paranoia, and latching onto to the nearest amoral strongman?

    I just find this particular type of grievance to be particularly disturbing. One of the things that I find the most comforting about being a Catholic Christian is the knowledge that no matter how low this life gets, God is with us and will make all things new, on heaven and earth, so we should not fear, do good and have faith, and all shall be well.

    It really, really astounds me how many people in this country ground their Christianity on the possession of political power.

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    C C Writer

    The "way of thinking and acting" that needs to be recovered may seem totally new to some people, because there are those who have never encountered it, it was lost so long ago. That could be an advantage, especially if it doesn't seem to belong to any one political camp. So if we're going to try to sell it, let's not put the emphasis on who may or may not have invented it. Put the emphasis on why it's better regardless of where you may stand.

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    O gosh, just go over to The American Conservative and you can get a bucket of grievance politics in a single sitting. Rod Dreher alone is worth two buckets.

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    Conservatism, when it is a temperament, rather than a program - an arranged marriage of metaphysics and partisanship - is an essential component of good governance. But "Conservatism" as a program, historically, has always been a polemic. It always took up some grievance against the spirit of the age.

    The suggestion that Liberalism is all about grievance and Conservatism is about responsibility is the wrong interpretation. And it lends itself to the "dependency" obsession of some conservatives and libertrians who would rather people pull out thier own teeth than be dependent on a dentist. And that obsession is tied to all kinds of notions about the undeserving poor and that nagging suspicion that somewhere someone is getting away with something at thier expense.

    It is perhaps a consequence of the Conservatives pessismism about human nature that they accept the imperfections of mankind and society with more equanamity than thier liberal brethren. While the Liberal "see things as they are, and ask why", they "dream of things that never were, and ask why not" and imagines that perfectibility of man and society - meaning that gradual improvement of the species - where the Conservative sees only monsters. An d better the monsters we know than the monster's we don't.

    Which makes it somewhat contradictory that so many conservatives are caught between "government" they hate, chaff at any restrictions to thier autonomy and optimistically assume that this corrupted mankind freed of restraints will responsibly pull through by some "invisible hand". Liberals on the other hand seem to believe that people are essentially good and when they are not that we "can create systems so perfect that no one will have to be good". It is that latter compulsion to correct the onerous weight of life's injustices that compels the Liberal to embark on the sometimes quixotic campaigns to kiss all of life's boo-boos.

    For the great mass of mankind making a living and maintaining some semblance of a decent life is difficult enough without these grand polemics and projects. And we are suspicious in our more serious moments that the "freedom" we possess is a contrived freedom and the policies these competing programs offer are designed to make us better consumers and more productive labor inputs for an economic system rather than citizen's in a polity. It is an idea that bothers me.

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  5. Scroop Moth

    Should we be surprised? The Declaration of Independence is a list of grievances, not all of which merit sympathy. Grievances are enshrined in the 1A along with religion, speech and peaceable assembly.

    Although the Constitution gives us the right to petition Congress for the redress of grievances, conservatives are dedicated to stopping Congress from doing anything about it. No wonder we're a nation of whiners.

    The whining is what's bad. The cure however is not to shut up but to translate complaints into demands for specific actions in law. The cure is electing Democrats!

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  6. Scroop Moth

    Reagan’s claim that the precept of individual accountability was depleted was as bad a lie as Trump’s claim the election was stolen. Americans uphold personal responsibility exceptionally well. No one is more zealous about assigning blame to individuals. The corollary to Reagan’s big lie is the lie that acknowledging community responsibility for the marginal effects of our system is incompatible with personal responsibility. Reagan’s lie fed into Reaganomics and a generation of misgovernance on the precept that “government is the problem.”

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    Ethans Dad

    "Conservatives,” he says, “tend to begin from gratitude for what is good and what works in our society and then strive to build on it, while liberals tend to begin from outrage at what is bad and broken and seek to uproot it."

    This is an interesting and instructive quote. I would ask which approach has proven to be more successful in moving our society forward? Women's rights, minority rights, gay rights. The rights that animate our supposed core belief of life liberty and pursuit of happiness. Who has moved those forward. The high-mindedness of conservative intellectuals has never really been put into practice to build on anything. Instead the idea of prudence patience and caution has been used to maintain a social order that denied to many people basic human dignity and equality for to long. Moreover, these principles of prudence and personal responsibility that conservatives claim for themselves are lived out individually by all stripes including progressives. The difference is that progressives don't sit on their hands and wait for institutions to complete their slow arduous journey to right wrongs they see in society. They act because they know that power priviledge and the social order conceded nothing without proactive movements that exert social pressure. So with all due respect to American institutions, they have never been the place where real social changes starts. They've only codified the positive changes that have been borne and nurtured in progressive movements.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    Grievance politics works for no one but the politicians. THEY benefit greatly from it by getting votes and money. The people don't.

    Breaking politicians of this EASIEST way to get votes is gonna be very difficult. But it must be done. Our votes must go to those that either don't play to grievances at all, or to those that play to them the least.

    But the article is right on. Republicans should be called "grievanceublicans". I suggest every single conservative and every liberal that runs for office, should call their opponent, if they run on grievance politics, that name.

    In fact, this should be broadcast on the news every nite, that those who follow Trump and his ilk, are just grievance addicts. That anyone who votes for someone like him, that accepts those politics, is a grievance addict. Addicted to the idea that someone has it out for them.

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  9. Jaybrown

    Excellent essay. I believe conservatives can and must recover the Republican Party. Some smart and influential conservatives need to step up and make the case both to conservatives who've recently left the Party, and those who remained and either kept their heads down or attempted to accommodate Trumpism. The RCP poll average has Trump approval at 39.7% and the trend line is in freefall.

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    Victor Clairmont

    I would be happy to see republicans stand up to grievance politics. Same with Democrats. But alas, the culture war is not to end so soon. Maybe the republicans will take the chance to clean house a bit, but that might be me being hopeful. I would like to see two healthy parties, not two sick ones.

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