Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

The idea of the deep story is at the crux of the author’s project to understand and explain the rise of the Tea Party. The deep story allows her to explore one of the central themes of this book: how emotion and affective responses shape political belief formation in the contemporary United States. The deep story refers to narratives of self, society, and nation that are felt rather than analyzed. They reveal a set of ideas that individuals (and groups) feel to be true about themselves. The deep story about Tea Party supporters that the author uncovers reveals a subset of the population that believes itself, in spite of its work ethic, faith, and “American” values, to have been left behind by liberal politicians who, in the form of government “handouts” like welfare and affirmative action, reward minoritarian groups at the cost of working-class white people. They resent the use of their tax dollars for these handouts and additionally resent their characterization as “backwards” and “racist.” Understanding deep stories such as this one, the author contends is the path toward bridging the political divide in contemporary America, and by the end of her study, she does feel as though she both understands and has empathy for Tea Party voters.