The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?

Contemporary politics are plagued by partisanship and the inability to break away from distinct party lines, but there is large agreement that things are not going well. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 was a sign that a rising populist movement was gaining steam thanks to widespread feelings of dissatisfaction, disenfranchisement, and a sense of a lack of agency on the part of individual citizens: “The hard reality is that Trump was elected by tapping a wellspring of anxieties, frustrations, and legitimate grievances to which the mainstream parties had no compelling answer” (17-18). What is more, “these grievances are not only economic but also moral and cultural; they are not only about wages and jobs but also about social esteem” (18).

The issue is to diagnose the root cause of these feelings and issues. On the one hand, one could view the rise of populist discontent as stemming from a rejection of increasing diversity in the American populace. On the other hand, one could see it as a result of increasing anxiety over globalization and the loss of things previously taken for granted in a more localized economy. Regardless, what is clear is that the solution needs to be careful and nuanced: “Construing populist protest as either malevolent or misdirected absolves governing elites of responsibility” (19)—the truth of the matter is far more complex.