As an undergraduate, a smart professor as soon as instructed me that what occurs between elections issues simply as a lot because the elections themselves. It’s on the town halls, neighborhood associations, labor unions, PTA conferences and volunteer drives the place the habits of self-government are shaped — and the place a tradition of pluralism, empathy and shared accountability is cultivated. That tradition has been eroding for many years. Now, into the vacuum steps President Donald Trump.
Trump’s rise didn’t occur in a vacuum. His grievance-fueled politics discovered fertile floor in a rustic the place belief has collapsed, civic establishments have hollowed out, and too many Individuals really feel unheard, unseen and unmoored. When individuals cease exhibiting up for one another, somebody like Trump — providing identification with out accountability and loyalty with out civic obligation — turns into not simply doable however inevitable.
What Putnam warned us about
In his 2000 e-book “Bowling Alone,” political scientist Robert Putnam warned that Individuals have been disengaging from civic life. Church membership, union participation, membership involvement — all have been plummeting. We weren’t simply bowling alone; we have been dwelling alone, voting much less and pulling again from the establishments that after knit society collectively.
Putnam distinguished between two sorts of social capital: bonding ties inside close-knit teams and bridging ties that join throughout traces of distinction. The previous builds solidarity. The latter sustains democracy. In latest many years, we’ve preserved the previous — and misplaced an excessive amount of of the latter.
The numbers don’t lie
The civic infrastructure is in tatters. Since 2000:
● Belief in authorities has dropped from 60% to underneath 20% (Pew Research Center, 2023).
● Union membership has fallen beneath 10%, half of its early ’80s fee (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024).
● Spiritual attendance is at historic lows (Gallup, 2023).
● Over 2,500 native newspapers have closed (Northwestern College, 2023).
● Volunteerism and native election turnout proceed to say no (AmeriCorps, 2023).
The Washington Submit famously warned that “democracy dies in darkness” — nevertheless it additionally withers in neglect. As Individuals retreat from shared civic life, we lose the areas the place we meet throughout variations, resolve battle and observe democracy on the bottom.
Enter social media: The digital arsonist
As civic areas dried up, they have been changed by dopamine machines — social media platforms constructed to not domesticate group however to monetize consideration. Fb and YouTube promised connection however delivered tribalism. Algorithms reward outrage, not deliberation. Hashtags simulate activism whereas draining it of any substance.
As a substitute of speaking politics with neighbors, we carry out for strangers. As a substitute of listening, we scroll. The consequence isn’t group — it’s grievance, curated and affirmed in isolation. This dynamic impacts each the proper and the left. As Jamelle Bouie famous in The New York Occasions, the MAGA proper thrives on zero-sum pondering: if another person beneficial properties, I have to be dropping.
When civic life breaks, identification politics rush in
Trump provided what conventional civic life not might: a transparent sense of who’s in, who’s out and who’s in charge. He didn’t name residents to a shared function. He promised to punish enemies. That wasn’t a glitch — it was the design.
Working-class voters didn’t essentially love Trump — they believed he was the one one chatting with their issues. And people issues weren’t simply financial. Many felt elite establishments — universities, media, the tradition trade — had turned towards them. Trump tapped into that resentment with surgical precision. Democrats, against this, typically introduced a sprawling to-do checklist and not using a story.
Trump projected “alpha vitality” — what U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-N.Y., likens to coach-style management: blunt, emotional and tribal. In communities hollowed out by civic decline, the place individuals felt ignored or dismissed, that mattered greater than coverage. Trump didn’t supply belonging within the conventional sense — he provided its echo, a efficiency of group rooted in exclusion.
Conclusion: The spectacle replaces the republic
That very same professor — Theodore Lowi, the legendary political scientist — as soon as instructed our class that democracy isn’t only a system. It’s a behavior. It must be practiced. After we cease exhibiting up for one another — at PTA conferences, union halls, council boards — we turn into simpler to divide. We develop extra suspicious of neighbors and extra accepting of the strongman who guarantees to repair all the pieces.
Trumpism didn’t hijack a wholesome democracy. It capitalized on one already hollowing out.
To be clear, efforts at civic renewal nonetheless exist — group organizing, mutual help networks and even a reinvigorated labor motion have pushed again towards this erosion. However they continue to be fragmented and too typically remoted from formal political energy. The bigger pattern is unmistakable: the regular collapse of the establishments that after anchored civic life.
If we need to forestall what comes subsequent, we’d like greater than marketing campaign wins. We have to rebuild the civic scaffolding that makes democracy resilient.
As a result of Trump didn’t rise in a rustic that cared an excessive amount of about civic life.
He rose in a rustic the place too many stopped caring — till they not acknowledged what had been misplaced.
