It is, of course, lazy thinking and moral abdication to hold government responsible for your woes. After years of denying that minorities were entitled to perpetual victim status, they now demand it for white males. If you want families, communities and individuals to have the lead role in building a vibrant and prosperous economy, it is best not to infantilize them.

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In addition to a nasty strain of racism and xenophobia (and economic illiteracy that would horrify Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan), there is the matter of culture, something that used to concern conservatives before evangelicals decided to give Trump a bear hug.

Here Robert P. Jones has it right: The reduction of white Christian protestants to minority status has freaked out a good chunk of white America. Why must everyone say, “Happy holidays!”? Why can’t we go back to the 1950s? It’s the theme of loss — which infers entitlement — that permeates Trump’s message. The apocalyptic vision of the end of America and bemoaning that Christianity is under assault bear virtually no relation to actual economic results or to flourishing Christian worship. It is rather a sort of primal scream in recognition that they no longer are demographically or culturally dominant. They aren’t mad at government so much as they resent secularism, diversity and new demands (e.g. multi-lingualism, technological sophistication, willingness to move to where jobs are).

Even the search for the hidden white view is an expression of demographic denial. How can whites not be able to determine the president? They are entitled to a certain standard of living regardless of their education and skills. They are entitled to have everyone assume that everyone else is Christian. They are entitled to discriminate against gays. Actually, they are not.

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