Who’s Really in the Zoo?

The Atlantic has published an article titled On Safari in Trump’s America.  While primarily focused on the “safari” undertaken by a DNC affiliated group called “Third Way,” the article includes mention of the many other “anthropological journeys” taken by left leaning groups attempting to understand “the mysterious ways” of Trump supporters. 

Now, the image this all conjures up for me, a Trump supporter who yes, actually reads and even reads articles in publications like the currently left-leaning Atlantic, is an image of a group of gawkers on a trip to the zoo to see unusual beasts who are strangers to their everyday lives and that are generally viewed as not as intelligent as or enlightened as are they.  What does this say about those coming to look?  Are they really that isolated?  Sadly, it seems that they are.

According to the article, those on safari had assumed that their assumptions about the best path for the country were uncontested.  But, just three days into their “safari in flyover country” they were hearing “some things that disturbed them greatly – sentiments that threatened their beliefs to the very core.”

Guess what people?  One of the beauties of this country is that we do not all have to think and believe the same thing.  If you were to get out of the elitist east-west coast bubble, remember your roots, and study the history of this country you would realize that we are made up of good people who formed this country and its government that protects us from your form of group think.  We formed a country that prides itself in individual responsibility and avoids a large central government that controls every aspect of one’s life.

These safaris, these trips to the zoo, reflect the isolation of the country’s elites and leaders of the DNC.  Since last year’s election, “[g]roup after group of befuddled elites has crisscrossed America to poke and prod and try to figure out what they missed.”  Well, I can tell them what they missed:  they seem to have the inability to accept that everyone does not agree 100% with them; they cannot believe that others might have differing views and values and approaches that are reasonable and sometimes perhaps even better or more effective than their own.  They missed the fact that they are so impressed with themselves that they assume that anyone who holds differing views is somehow inferior – perhaps even “deplorable.”

In many ways it is these elites who are living in a zoo – in cages that restrict them from seeing, hearing, or understanding anything except their own world view.  Interesting that a featured member of the “safari” had to remind herself that she “was there to listen, not to judge.”  For isn’t that what these people tend to do:  judge anyone who holds differing views, who doesn’t see the wisdom and brilliance of their views, as somehow inferior, misled, uneducated, racist, etc.?

In a zoo the animals are kept happy – they are provided with the food and environment that they like.  The elites encaged in their bubbles do the same.  They find news and stories that support them and their beliefs, ignoring anything that contradicts them.  I recently pointed out to someone that a story they were sharing was proven false.  Their response was “even if it isn’t true it should be” as they continued to spread that false news.  

The elites feed themselves only what pleases them.  Today we are hearing hours and hours on the main stream news sources about Flake’s words, as he withdrew from a race he was losing, suggesting that this was somehow the fault of the terrible Trump.   His words about Trump support the belief system of the left, so they will relish in them while ignoring other important breaking news stories.  Stories like the fact that Hillary and the DNC paid for the false dossier on Trump that suggested Russian connections, or the Russia-uranium details that implicate Clinton and the Clinton foundation as well as then president Obama, or the email evidence that the Obama/Holder DOJ prevented settlement payouts going to conservative groups.  None of those stories support their belief system; they are unwanted food and so they keep it from their cages.  

And, even the report of the most recent safari, according to the article, is written so as to give the elites only the food they like.  The author states, “The report surprised me when I read it.  Despite the great variety of views the researchers and I had heard on our tour, the report has somehow reached the conclusion that [the group interviewed] wanted [the same goals as the researchers].”

In a zoo, the animals are kept separated; only the same species are in the same cage.  The zebra knows nothing of the camel and both are perfectly content in their ignorance.  Only if one were to threaten the living space of the other might they become interested, and only with the goal of self-preservation.   The elites and their establishment and ultimately their power are threatened by the strange beasts called Trump supporters and so suddenly they are interested in this group that until November of 2016 were not really worth their attention.  Obviously, Trump does not walk or talk like the “refined” elites.  He talks instead like so many of those “fly-over” Americans that the elites are on safari to view.   He says what he thinks, he doesn’t pussyfoot around with empty phrases or sugar coatings.  He admits he is not perfect.  And he’s proud to be an American.  Clearly, he does not belong in the cage with the elites; indeed, he does not even belong in the same zoo, or so they believe. And, so, for their own preservation they have suddenly become interested in the trump-supporters.

These elites think they know how to remake America.  In Obama they had a president who did much to begin that remodeling, much of it by executive order.  That, alone, is a switch from the interactions of the three co-equal branches of government which is how we normally do things in our democracy.  Now that Trump is using his pen to undo much of those single-minded orders, to return lawmaking to its appropriate branch and in so doing to re-establish our democracy,  the elites complain.  Yet those complaints show nothing but their ignorance of how our government works:  it is not theirs to shape as they will using the power of one man, for that would be a dictatorship.  Rather, the government and this country belong to all of its people.

So, the elites go on safari to “Trump country” (basically all of America except the coasts and large cities).   “Safari” is defined as “an expedition to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat.”  These expeditions of the left are, then, properly titled safaris, first because the goal is to observe strange beings but not really understand or interact with them.  The term is also well used because the goal is really to hunt these beings; that is, the left is hunting for their votes.  They don’t really want to hear them or understand who they are or what their views, values, and goals are for themselves or for the country.  What they really want to do is to figure out how to get their vote which they need in order to retain their own power. That they see these trips as “safaris” just shows how ignorant these travelers really are, for not only is this concept incredibly insulting to those being observed, it also reflects the demeaning view that these elites have of anyone who is in the least bit different from themselves.  And yet, what they don’t realize, is that they are the ones caged within their own zoo.

Elitism

When I was in high school I had some friends who were a year ahead of me.  Over the Christmas holidays during my senior year I went to a party where my older friends had just returned from their first semester in college.  As with most college freshmen, these students were alive with their new-found knowledge, both academic and of the world.  That is fine, but what I recall is being disgusted by the arrogant attitude that they had taken on.  Somehow they believed themselves superior to most of the world because they could discuss the intricacies of classical music and knew in detail the distinguishments of composers and their symphonies, that they could discuss the depths of Plato and Aristotle, that they could rattle off psychological or economic theories, etc.  Understand, I was not offended by the knowledge or the education, but by the condescending airs that the new holders of this knowledge had adopted.  For I did not then, and still do not believe that the possession of education and knowledge makes anyone person superior to another.

Sadly, though, so many who obtain some education believe that it makes them somehow better than those who do not have the same knowledge base.  How often have I seen my fellow professionals treat their secretaries or assistants as if they were simply another office copy machine and not a human being.  Perhaps this is why, despite my own professional status, I would prefer to spend time with those secretaries than the self-proclaimed elites.

What is especially annoying to me is that these elites not only think they have every right to look down their noses at and be patronizing to those who have acquired less than they have (be that knowledge or money or status), but that they also believe that they know better than the people themselves how those people should run their lives.  They speak without any knowledge or understanding of the circumstances of those different from them as they tell them how to raise their children, what to eat, and even what to believe.  They proclaim that they are helping those less fortunate than themselves by taking over their lives, but what they are really doing is showing their belief than these people are too stupid to manage their own lives, that they are second-rate or second-class and need those better than them, those first rate, first class elites in order to survive.  Gifts from the elite that control one’s life are not gifts of kindness, but a demand for love and a creation of dependence as a means to power for those elites.

Many in America understand this; they are the Americans who have been referred to as deplorables and worse.  The people who would rather have a casserole potluck in a church basement than attend a black-tie affair where they are served arugula lettuce, range fed filet mignon, and caviar.   These people would rather talk with plain (and sometimes colorful or politically incorrect) words than the ten-dollar carefully chosen and always proper language of the elite.  These are real Americans, not plastic people. 

And there is one thing that is especially notable about these real Americans:  they are tolerant.  Tolerant of everyone, not just those who have attained their status.  And, unlike those elite who think they have the answers for everyone, these real Americans do not demand that everyone think like them or do things their way.  They tolerate the lifestyles and views and values of others and assume that others will return the favor.  And, in their world, others do. 

But, the world of the elites is different.  They do not tolerate those who are different in life style or knowledge base or world view.  And, they take the very un-American position of demanding that all others accept and conform to their positions; those who do not are branded as deplorable, as less than, as lacking in education and understanding.  But the understanding that these elites see as lacking is really just a willingness to agree that they are somehow better and therefore should be in control, control of the country and all those who do not meet their standards. 

Personally, I detest this attitude.  But, let’s be clear:  I do not detest the education or the other successes that those with elitist attitudes often have.  Education is good.  Success is good.  Many people have these things without becoming the haughty and disdainful elites I here describe.  But to use those things to bolster a self-centered belief that one is somehow better than those who do not possess such education, status, or success is disgusting.  Worse yet is to believe that because of one’s elite status one has a right to power and even worse is to believe that power includes the right to direct fully the lives of those that one sees as somehow inferior.    

In Washington today, and on the East and West coasts, we see far too many elites of the type I describe.  And we have the rest of America and the president they elected who are trying to right the ship back to a country where all people are equal and where an elitist power structure does not try to rule every aspect of every person’s every day life.  Let’s just hope that America stays strong and that we can go back to a country filled with respect and tolerance for everyone, not just those who are members of the elite power class.