Why Do We All Feel Like We're Losing?

As David Brooks says in this essay, the reason some Evangelicals are rallying around Roy Moore is that they feel besieged by the rest of society, and when you are in a war for your very existence you can't worry about little things like decades-old allegations of molesting teenagers:

The siege mentality starts with a sense of collective victimhood. It’s not just that our group has opponents. The whole “culture” or the whole world is irredeemably hostile.

From this flows a deep sense of pessimism. Things are bad now. Our enemies are growing stronger. And things are about to get worse. The world our children inherit will be horrific. The siege mentality floats on apocalyptic fear.

The odd thing is that the siege mentality feels kind of good to the people who grab on to it. It gives its proponents a straightforward way to interpret the world — the noble us versus the powerful them. It gives them a clear sense of group membership and a clear social identity. It offers a ready explanation for the bad things that happen in life.

Most of all, it gives people a narrative to express their own superiority: We may be losing, but at least we are the holy remnant. We have the innocence of victimhood. We are martyrs in a spiteful world.

Nothing new about this, of course. To me the weird thing about America today is that activists of every sort seem to feel the same way: all the sides feel like they are in the same dangerous position, threatened by powerful enemies that are both nefarious and nebulous. As Brooks points out, a Pew Poll taken after the election found that 64 percent of Americans think their side has been losing most of the time.

To me the most important divide in America is the one between the people who feel besieged by dark forces and worry about the continued existence of what they believe in, and those who think that despite our problems things are basically ok. The reason both political parties are having so much trouble is that both are divided between complacent and revolutionary wings, with most of the energy at the extremes. This is especially true for Republicans, since a bigger part of their base seems to be up in arms. It's a bad situation for everyone because the large radical wings never really get their way, since even if they can dominate their own party they are still a minority in the nation, and that leaves them ever more embittered and ever more threatened.

I think the biggest political question for America now is, what is driving this widespread fear, and can we do anything about it? Part of it may be just because the country is close to evenly divided on a lot of issues, which leaves everybody feeling uncertain; it can't be true that every side is losing, but it does seem to be true that no side is getting most of what it wants. Hey, that's democracy. But does that have to mean we all feel threatened?

I worry about the ever-escalating cycle of anger and hate, the constant wars between liberal comedians and conservative talk-show hosts, the vitriolic rhetoric that pours from everywhere. We need someone to stand up for moderation and peace. Who will that be?