Rod Dreher: "America was humiliated in the eyes of the world"

Rod Dreher is an American journalist and writer, columnist at the American Conservative. He published How to be a Christian in a world that is no longer a Christian: le pari Bénédictin (translated into French by Ed. Artège, 2017).

Words translated from English by Marine Carballet.

FIGAROVOX.- After having aroused lively media attention, including in Europe, has the Black Lives Matter movement run out of steam?

Rod DREHER.- Black Lives Matter (BLM) arose in 2013 after the acquittal of the man who killed Trayvon Martin in Florida, a black teenager who died after an altercation with a white man. After this Martin affair, the movement that was founded by three women gained ground in the United States. Then in 2014, a Ferguson, Missouri police officer shot and killed a black man named Michael Brown, sparking rioting for days. The official investigation conducted by the Justice Department of the Obama administration, however, revealed that Brown had attempted to disarm the police officer and that the latter was in self-defense. But the truth doesn't matter much when it comes to political propaganda… and BLM has gained even more influence.

The movement then faded at the start of Trump's presidency. It's hard to explain why. Undeniably, the left became radicalized with the arrival of Trump, but its energy was initially focused on subjects concerning the rights of LGBT people, and by extension perhaps on the economic reforms of Bernie Sanders. George Floyd's death resurrected Black Lives Matter and made it more powerful than ever. This movement today is much more radical than what people can think. At least two of the founders are Marxists. And if you go to their official site, they are talking about dismantling the traditional pattern of the family, which is seen as oppressive. They are very strongly in favor of "transgenderism". Most of the people who support BLM in the US don't know this or don't care, but this movement has become a symbol, not only of people's exasperation with racism, but more importantly the focal point of anger. of the left in the face of the plight of many minorities in the United States.

This week in Portland, video of a white woman standing outside the Federal Courthouse was circulating. She said she was furious that she couldn't go down the street to shout "Black Lives Matter". The scene was surreal: this woman in front of armed federal agents, was doing exactly what she claimed not to be allowed to do. With this kind of image, we realize that something much deeper is happening than a protest against racial discrimination.

What strikes me about this movement is that many activists claim that the United States is a country of white supremacists. Which is not true. Since the civil rights victories of the 1960s, things have improved markedly for black Americans. Of course, there are always a lot of problems. For example, since the 1960s, the black American family has fallen apart. Almost three in four children born in America today do not know their father. And social science studies say it's harder to get out of poverty when you come from a single-parent family. It is also a factor in criminality among young men. And if the black community remains in poverty it is above all for reasons related to their personal culture and community. But we don't have the right to say that.

I do not deny the fact that slavery and racism have a role to play in the weakening of the African American family. Simply, in the eyes of activists and sympathizers of the BLM movement, and particularly for the media, the only cause of their suffering is racism. There is a denial there that I find frankly dehumanizing. In addition, these ideologues behave as if all white people are privileged, as if there is no difference in wealth, in living environment between them. From their Marxist reading grid, a black professor of literature at the university is an oppressed and a white factory worker is an oppressor. Certainly, this ideology will awaken the demons of the nationalist right.

What a terrible decline in the evolution of civil rights in our country. This civil rights movement was led by black pastors who promoted liberal democratic values ​​as well as the country's Christian heritage. America is now a post-Christian country. The Black Lives Matter movement is led by academics and professional activists. Without these Christian virtues which animated the civil rights movement, I fear for the future: politics tends to become a politics of races. Without Christian values, or at least the secularization of these that we owe to the universalism of the Enlightenment, we will fall into the abyss of power rivalries.

Joe Biden trying to recover the movement to his advantage?

He barely comes out of the silence. Then, one cannot say that he needs to communicate too much. He benefits from the economic crisis blamed on Covid-19, and Trump's incompetence. It is true that BLM is helping Joe Biden by restoring momentum to the left, but above all it has helped reveal Trump's limits. Race riots and the iconoclastic rage that has gripped statuary debunkers are expected to boost the popularity of a conservative president who advocates nationalism. But Trump mismanaged his blow. The majority of Americans, even those who call themselves right-wingers, were disgusted with the way George Floyd was killed. Trump was unable to recognize the moral stakes of this event and to show empathy. It was indecent. And then from the White House, he couldn't figure out how to deal with riots and violence. He ordered the use of too much force, and even some conservatives believe he has gone too far.

Then the US president lets it be known on Twitter that maybe we should postpone the presidential elections because, he says, they risk being unfair and fraudulent. Trump puts Richard Nixon and Saint Louis on the same level. He is in the process of delegitimizing the foundations of the Republic to protect himself from the embarrassment of losing the election.

So I get the feeling that Biden is playing a well-known card in politics: when your opponent destroys himself, don't interfere.

Are the police able to guarantee respect for the law in the towns most affected by the movement?

No, because the police are under the orders of local officials. In leftist cities like Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and New York, governors have weakened the police. Recently in Seattle, the police chief sent a letter to all local businesses warning them that the city government will not allow police to use strong measures to protect their property from rioters. It is quite shocking. Generally speaking, the police are demoralized.

Donald Trump invoked the "silent majority" and wants to represent it during the campaign for his re-election. Do you think he actually represents this "silent majority" against a more radical minority?

A lot of Conservatives would like that to be the case, but I don't think so. There is no doubt that the election will tighten before November. But he's come so low that I can't believe he can close the gap. The economy is deeply shaken by the epidemic and it is very difficult for a president to be re-elected when the economy is bad. Its response to the pandemic has not inspired confidence and its foreign policy has been erratic, with very little concrete results. As a conservative, the idea that Trump can rule the country for another four years annoys me. We need a strong, pragmatic and capable president who is able to stand up to the left. The only thing we can find in Trump is that he was able to prevent the dangerous radicalization of the left. But I fear that after four years of this circus, the elections of 2022 and 2024 will completely destroy the Republican Party.

It is heartbreaking because the Democratic Party has never been so radical. Joe Biden is a normal man who doesn't scare anyone. It does not symbolize the real radicalization of the party. He is the perfect example of the weakness of the liberals of the 1960s in the face of the new militant left. It is so normal that ordinary people do not associate him with this radical left. But that doesn't mean he will stand against them. In universities across the country, presidents of colleges and other institutions are lining up behind activists simply because they are terrified of being labeled racists. Most Americans are not that radical, but the Achilles heel of leaders of important institutions such as newspapers, universities, and big business is the fear of being seen as conservative.

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I think the overwhelming majority of the United States does not understand the danger in which the left is taking it. Most conservatives believe that if they vote Republicans, they will silence the left. This is a huge mistake. The left controls culture, as well as most institutions. Even some large companies that were conservative or non-politicized today claim to be left. A Marxist could say - rightly so, I think - that big business embraces the cultural left as a way to preserve their economic privileges. Either way, the left walks with American institutions, and even with Donald Trump in the White House. I think we are heading towards a kind of soft totalitarianism, an American version of the “social credit” system in China. Republicans are unable to resist this. Some political and media personalities have mentioned it. Notably Josh Hamley, a young Conservative senator from Missouri, or Fox News anchor Trucker Carlson, but they are too few. If Donald Trump loses the election, the good news is that these populist voices will have the opportunity to take the reins of the Republican Party. We don't need to find the party as it was before Trump. Now Republicans need strong, stable and capable leadership. And this cannot emerge until Trump is gone.

What do you think of the way Trump handled the coronavirus crisis?

He was terribly bad. To be fair, almost every government in the world tackled the coronavirus badly at first. But Trump did not have a clear policy and failed to inspire confidence. I don't think he understood the nature of the crisis from a scientific point of view. It is impossible to know what to expect from him. Sometimes he contradicts his own experts. In recent days, he said of an African female doctor who lives in Texas who claims that gynecological problems are sometimes caused by women having sex with demons that she was "awesome", all because she praised his statements on hydroxychloroquine and delegitimized the use of masks. After that, how do you have confidence in his leadership on Covid-19? America has been humiliated in front of the world, in part because of this leadership problem.

I must say that there was also a failure of the "followership", if you pass me this neologism. Many politicized people on the right refused to wear masks and believe the coronavirus was a real threat. The left made fun of these people, and when the protest movements in honor of George Floyd started, all of a sudden, most of those same leftists, including scientists and doctors, came out to protest, ignoring health rules. Which is utter hypocrisy. Not all of the coronavirus issues America has experienced have to do with Trump, but as head of state, during a serious crisis, he has been in the way.

Can the coronavirus come into play in the choice of voters in November?

Of course. I don't think it will be as important an issue as the government's general public health policy. But there will be a real effect in the anger and frustrations of voters in the face of this never-ending crisis. I feel the anger is building. People want change and want to see the end of the crisis. Unfortunately, the virus does not make politics. If Joe Biden wins the election and the coronavirus crisis is not contained, we may find ourselves in a situation of political instability that no American could have imagined. My biggest fear is that future historians will look at our period of American history by comparing it to Spain in 1931 ...