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The American Dream, Black Sheep, and the Rise of Trump in Blue States
How the Puritans and Quakers Form Today’s Battlegrounds
On February 2, the Chicago researchers Robert A. Pape and Keven Ruby published their findings on the arrested January 6 insurrectionists in the Atlantic. They discovered that a majority were well-educated and well-to-do, from liberal bastions such as San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Their research couldn’t identify why this new wave of radicalism came forward, but I’d like to propose a reason that could move some, apart from racism or white supremacy: The American Dream, interpreted by the black sheep of our families.
When most of us think of The American Dream, we think of the inspiration that, if we work hard enough, we can achieve anything and make our lives better. It’s a fundamental part of our culture, drawing our ancestors to this country like a lodestone. Regardless of where we start, the sky’s the limit.
This ethos comes to us from the Puritans, one of the influences explored in David Fisher’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. They heavily influenced our ideas of how productivity equates to social stature, as well as our concepts of sobriety, the importance of family, and a lack of caste.
