Guess who's winning the upcoming US election so far? Patriarchy is. I don't just mean Trump, posting semi-naked pics (sorry to make you throw up what's left of your thanksgiving dinner.)
Do you remember when women led the pack in the running for the next American President? I do. And it was a beautiful and awesome thing — because they were the best candidates by far? It wasn't so long ago. So how did we get right back here…to this dismal place…yet another dude…of just the same kind…in the lead…all over again? How come patriarchy's winning the election…all over again?
On the Democratic side, the top two contenders in the polls are currently…Joe Biden and Mayor Pete. The two men. The two white men. The two white men of a certain kind. Leaving a long trail of more brave, courageous, thoughtful, and bold women with far more transformative and intelligent ideas behind them.…while not having any ideas themselves at all…and being applauded and cheered for it.
What the? Patriarchy strikes again, that's what the.
America's a classic patriarchal society. A band of brothers bonded together in violence, by aggression, through cruelty, for power. If you think I exaggerate, consider for a moment that America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the largest number of kids in concentration camps (what a phrase to have to write), or the least gender equality and progress in the rich world, all by a very, very long way. A patriarchy is a caste society of gender — where men are on top, and women beneath them — and America's a textbook example. That's why, for example, there are more CEOs named "James" than all women CEOs of blue chip companies. It's why America still doesn't have formal constitutional gender equal rights. It's why America has a higher maternal mortality rate than…Russia. The evidence is endless — if, that is, you care to look.
Patriarchy is a band of brothers. And the brothers protect themselves and their hierarchies of power and aggression first. Hillary got but-her-emailled…while America's entire thinking class…and I use the term lightly…ignored the dangers of Trumpist authoritarianism and fascism…when they weren't laughing it off. Trump was a laughingstock — the lowest man on the totem pole. But he was still a man, and all men are above women, and therefore, the real threat was Hillary. Not to democracy — who cares about that? — but to patriarchy. So the band of brothers turned on Hillary viciously and violently. The much-vaunted James Comey himself — that noble, steely savior of democracy — pronounced her a bigger threat than the man who was at that precise moment demonizing minorities and saying "grab 'em by the pussy." What the? Maybe you see what I mean.
What do good bros do? They give other bros the benefit of the doubt — always, no matter what. "He's a good dude! Relax!! Jesus. Chill out. He's my bro!!" How often have you heard that? And yet it's exactly the logic (LOL) that America's entire thinking class applied to…Donald Trump…over Hillary. He was given the benefit of the doubt over and over again, literally announcing things like "I could kill someone on Fifth Avenue…grab em by the pussy…" and so on. That's how the band of brothers works. In a patriarchy, you're a bro first — and a citizen of a democracy a distant next, and last, if at all, a functioning human being. Nothing matters than being a good bro, first. And being a good bro is always putting bros — no matter how repugnant they are — first. (Did that make you a little sick? Good. It should have.)
The band of brothers isn't just the bad guys — more perniciously, more dangerously, it's also many of the good guys. It's important to understand just how far America's ruling band of brothers really goes. It isn't just Trump and Bill O'Reilly and whatnot. It's also Ezra Klein and Jake Tapper and Nate Silver and the rest of the putative good guys. These men might see one another as ideological opponents. But — maybe unconsciously — they still obey the rule: ye shall never harm a bro, because you harm the whole band of bros when you do. That's why, for example, all the putative good guys were on the but-her-emails train when it came to Hillary…and they all, to a man, dismissed the dangers of a Trump Presidency. Some of them who are "opponents" of Trump now were even admirers and supporters not so long ago — like a Morning Joe, that useful dope. Bros being good bros, always willing to give another bro the benefit of the doubt over anyone else, even if he was as disgusting as a Trump: that caused a catastrophic election to be lost.
And that brings me back to why patriarchy's winning the election, all over again.
Now, it's true that the women have made some mistakes. Some big mistakes. Take Warren's healthcare plan. She sank in the polls the day after releasing it, and she's never stopped. Why eliminate private insurance? Every other rich country has public and private insurance. It's a mistake — and that, ironically, itself is because she's being advised by the same kind of elite white guy who thinks he knows everything about political economy, but can't tell the French pension system from the German one..
But so what? The fact is: the men have even worse policies, by a very long way…if they even have any ideas at all. Warren's healthcare plan might be questionable. But at least she has a plan to give everyone healthcare. Do you know who doesn't? The men who are currently leading the field, Mayor Pete and Joe Biden. They don't really have any plans…at all. Much less transformative, bold, and radical ones. What do they have? I'll come to that (but you already know the answer: what they have is what they are, which is that they're bros in the dumb, violent, aggressive patriarchy that rules America.)
What could have happened, and what should have happened is this. Pundits and thinkers and intellectuals should have looked at Warren's healthcare plan, and sure, pointed out it's minor-league deficiencies. And then cheered and applauded and celebrated her for being bold, courageous, empathetic, and visionary. But exactly the opposite happened — because, in large part, she is a woman. They attacked her and demeaned her and mocked her.
Let me put that much that much more sharply. Mediocre men are celebrated and cheered on for having no vision, no agenda, no plans, and no insight whatsoever into fixing a badly broken society. The women, on the other hand, are criticized and attacked the moment that they display those very qualities. Here's a prime example.
It's patriarchy's old dilemma, all over again. Be a strong, daring, thoughtful, persistent woman, and you're a bitch, a problem, difficult (proportionally so) — someone who threatens the existence of the tribal band of brothers. But display just the tiniest shred of those qualities as a man — be utterly mediocre — and you'll get showered with rewards, praise, attention, money, influence, power. That is exactly what's happening in this American election — again. Hence, mediocre yet elite dudes at the top…yet again. The tribal band of brothers is reasserting its power as the only real institution left in America.
The pundits and columnists and talking heads love Mayor Pete and Joe Biden these days. But you'll rarely, if ever, hear a kind word said about the women. The bros have circled the wagon — and now it's bros celebrating bros for being bros cheering on their bros. Mediocre yet elite white men are doing what they do best — rewarding mediocre but elite white men. While the women are treated as threats and dangers. That is why, for example, Liz Warren gets attacked for a healthcare plan that covers everyone…instead of celebrated for daring to try…while Mayor Pete and Joe Biden get lauded for…not having a plan at all. A good bro always puts another bro first.
The truth is that the women are threats and dangers. Not to democracy. But to patriarchy. And that's the way it should be. Why?
Joe and Pete are literally the same person when it comes to politics and economics, just in a different body. The old man and the young man are the same man — patriarchy's man, neoliberalism's man. Mayor Pete, at the end of the day, is a died-in-the-wool neoliberal, typical of Harvard and McKinsey. He's literally the same old failed ideas in a newer younger, body as…Joe Biden. There is not a whit of meaningful political difference between them. Neoliberalism and patriarchy rule America with such an iron grip are literally running an old guy and a young guy…who are the same guy. It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but for politics. It'd be funny if it weren't so tragic.
Those ideas that the old man and the young man who are the same man are running on go like this: let's not have universal healthcare, education, retirement, safety nets! Nope! Self-reliance! Markets! It's the same old same old, my friends. The strong should survive, and the weak should perish. Markets should take the place of social systems. A society should never have any true public goods. The rich should be allowed to become ultra super duper mega rich, while the average person struggles to pay for housing, food, and utilities. Nobody has any inherent or intrinsic worth, and therefore, there's nothing, really, that everybody deserves as a basic right.
That is the sum total of their thinking — however they might brand it differently. But that's exactly the same ruinously collapsed society that decades of neoliberalism and its market fundamentalism and its abuses and its disregard for human rights and its rank misogyny and bigotry led to. It's what led America to collapse and become a global laughingstock. How can it then save anything?
It's not a surprise that the old man and the young man have the same set of ideas. Neoliberalism is just patriarchy, in equations. The values are exactly the same, if you think about it. Cruelty, dominance, aggression, hostility. The adolescent form of "self-reliance" that still needs mommy to do the dishes and daddy to take out the trash. (Note, for example, how Mayor Pete has to be a "war hero" to prove he's a real man.) Neoliberalism is patriarchy, and that's why the old man and the young man both express only those ideas. They are bros before they're anything else. Therefore, as good patriarchs, they're neoliberals, too.
The truth is that the women are — still, yes — vastly, radically better candidates than the men. But the average American is growing more and more distant from that basic truth. Because every day, the band of brothers protects its own. The pundits and thinkers and intellectuals and columnists and journalists celebrate mediocre yet elite men for being mediocre yet elite men. Patriarchy goes to work, like it's under a sudden, heated attack. It circles the wagons, to defend against any incursion on its turf. It attacks the women for having plans to fix a broken society — but rewards the men for not having any. It criticizes and devalues the women for being thoughtful, courageous, daring, and strong — while applauding the men for literally the smallest possible shred of those things imaginable.
Bros will be bros. And America's bros — though they might not consciously know it, or think it, and say that it's ridiculous if asked — are doing what bros do. They are closing ranks. They're high-fiving each other over beer pong, while the frat house burns. The band of brothers is rejecting the idea of a woman President, by rejecting the ideas of the women running for President.
The patriarchy is choosing a new patriarch. And that, my friends, means the rest of us had better get real and recognize it, if we don't want to live in a society ruled by the most violent, aggressive, and cruel men, for a change. This election is a crucial turning point. It shouldn't just be decided by bros, for bros, among dumb, cruel, foolish bros. Because that, my friends, is exactly how we got here. A democracy isn't just a patriarchy.
Umair
December 2019
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