Author
dr. Denis Mancevič
Arriving in Newark, one of the three nearby New York airports, might not be as dramatic as landing at the more famous JFK, but in terms of functionality and access to the Big Apple, it's entirely sufficient. It's about a 45-minute drive to the city center, of course not in the rush hour. Because at the wrong time, you could spend two hours or more just getting to Manhattan across the Hudson River. Well, we were lucky this time. But before we could even load our luggage into the Uber, an elderly man approached the vehicle. He had a shiny reflective vest over a tattered jacket, similar to those worn by security guards or construction workers at official events. He was eager to help with the luggage, but the taxi driver sternly told him to leave the luggage and his vehicle alone. They exchanged some sharp words, and we just exchanged glances. "Oh, those are beggars pretending to be security guards. Occasionally they steal pieces of luggage, but mostly they just want some change and can be aggressive. It's best to ignore them," explained Mumtaz as he drove off. The full name of the airport is Newark Liberty International Airport, and it's not entirely clear whether "Liberty" in the name is generic American or if the airport authorities take freedom extremely seriously and (consciously) allow beggars to dress up as airport security guards. Who knows, welcome to the USA.
"Where are you from?" after ten, fifteen minutes of driving, Mumtaz asks. "Europe, Slovenia... Maybe you know Luka Dončić?" is the standard answer that served us well during our previous visit to the USA. But not with Mumtaz. He just looked puzzled—and when we explained that he's our fellow countryman and currently one of the hottest NBA players, he calmly remarked that he doesn't follow basketball, only soccer. The classic, not the American kind.
The sports conversation doesn't take off, but a new opportunity arises soon as we drive past one of the gas stations. That's when Mumtaz, the son of Arab immigrant parents, starts boiling over: "This administration wants to tax everything, they've jacked up gasoline taxes so much that it's become unbearable. Idiots. They've caused a drop in crude oil production; now we have to import it again from Canada, and prices are going up. It's all because of that old senile idiot!" There was no point in getting into a debate about which senile idiot he was referring to, as the answer was obvious. I expressed mild skepticism about his other claims, suggesting that the US is far from European prices and taxation of fossil fuels, but he wouldn't be swayed. Consequently, I judged that the argument about the US significantly increasing crude oil production in recent years (even reaching a historic maximum in 2023, which is not directly attributable to the current administration) and becoming by far the world's largest producer would likely fall on deaf ears, so it remained unsaid.
It's hard to fight against truths that aren't truths, but are so easy and simple to believe and even easier to loudly present around.
It's hard to fight against truths that aren't truths, but are so easy and simple to believe and even easier to loudly present around. Trump not only knows this but has elevated such populism to a new level. Even in New York, traditionally a liberal stronghold on the northeast coast, it can be felt almost at every step. This, of course, contributes to ever-new and sharper contradictions in an already extremely divided, diverse, and heterogeneous society beyond the Atlantic. A society where it's entirely normal for the expected values of an individual, which are usually culturally or class-conditioned, to be turned upside down. When, for example, the son of immigrants fervently defends the policy of a former president who not only announced the construction of a wall on the Mexican border but also restricted entry into the US for citizens of certain Muslim countries.
With Chris, the owner of the apartment in Harlem where we were staying this time, we engage in a conversation about the upcoming presidential elections. The conversation flows quickly; we belong to the same generation. He doesn't want to reveal directly who he'll vote for, saying that the situation in the US is so politicized that it's hard to maintain normal friendships or family relationships if it turns out that the other person's political preferences are different. Then he continues meaningfully: "The Democrats have fallen into an ideological rabbit hole that is politically correct to the extreme, from which they cannot find a way out and which has little or almost nothing to do with the real problems of the average American." As an example, he mentions the famous Harvard University, his alma mater, where, according to him, the main topic of discussions in 2023, before the situation in the Middle East worsened again, was mainly about gender-neutral bathrooms. "Don't get me wrong, gender equality is very important and we need to talk about it. But not at the expense of other issues pushed into the background. If gender-neutral bathrooms become the key topic of discussions in liberal educational circles in the northwest, then it's no wonder that a considerable part of the democratic political agenda is tied to it. And consequently, a significant portion of voters feel completely played and alienated." And in such a space, Trump's populism truly shines.
The problem that we in liberal-democratic corners of Europe still can't seem to overcome is that we can lament Trump's populist rhetoric and its consequences all we want, but unfortunately, we (still) can't make a serious analysis and self-reflection of how we got here. Because the phenomenon of Trump is not new; we've seen it in history, and a prerequisite for its emergence is certain socio-political conditions. Such conditions chew only ideological issues in the toothlessness of current (blasphemous: established) politics without addressing any other issues; for example, those that directly address the key questions of the average American. And the latter is more interested in personal income levels, security, and free economic initiative than anything else.
Read the rest of the text (in Slovene) here.
The column was originally published in the newspaper Večer on January 27, 2024.
Read also the column 'Why do (also) men wash burnt pots today?' written by Tamara Pevec Barborič for the magazine Super Brand.