Hillary Clinton’s latest contribution to the public discourse has plenty of lines that resound with rank partisanship and old axe-grinding. Conservatives who can look past the flaws in her latest Atlantic piece will find some important lessons about community, family, and the amazing opportunity conservatives and the GOP have at this moment thanks to the past few decades of cultural decline.
My eyes almost rolled out of my skull when Clinton lamented “the influence of dark money and corporate power, right-wing propaganda and misinformation, malign foreign interference in our elections, and the vociferous backlash against social progress.” Nobody in America has less credibility than Clinton on corporate power or foreign influence, and “backlash against social progress” clearly means “parents upset about radical new ideologies being proselytized in public schools.”
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A few paragraphs after a reference to the “vast right-wing conspiracy” she blamed for her husband’s problems, she had the temerity to complain about conservatives “sowing division and alienation.”
These partisan lines from Clinton are lamentable, but the cleareyed reader who cares about the future of the country and who loves his neighbor should shrug them off and appreciate that Clinton is settling on an important issue: the collapse of local community institutions and the ensuing alienation, especially among the working class.
Clinton wrote many true and important things in this piece. Start with her subhead: “To defend America against those who would exploit our social disconnection, we need to rebuild our communities.”
This is exactly right. Many journalists, politicians, and activists have fashioned themselves in recent years as Democracy Defenders. They really need to focus their attention on the local level — and I don’t really mean local politics. I’m talking about Little Leagues, library advisory boards, or just going to church.
Man is a political animal. We are made not only to live our lives, but to shape the world around us. The natural way to shape the world around you is to belong to something small. If you volunteer at your kids’ school or at church or as an assistant volleyball coach, you will soon find that you matter, that you have influence, and that you can change the way things are done.
If you don’t belong to anything like this, you will feel frustrated. You might think that national-level politics is the only game in town, and then you’ll inevitably feel powerless and angry. Our political brokenness is a direct result of alienation and the desiccation of local institutions.
Clinton also repeatedly comes back to the most important function of community: helping adults form families and raise children. Remember, “it takes a village”?
Conservatives need to take Clinton's message to heart for a few reasons.
Firstly, the individualistic knee-jerk response to Hillary Clinton — “No, it takes a family to raise a child” — is totally inapt. Every single parent in the world will tell you that it takes more than four hands. Parents, more than anyone else, need neighbors, in-laws, siblings, teachers, coaches, pastors, mentors, and so on.
When parents don’t have that support system, commentators often turn to the state — increasing the welfare state — as a solution.
So many of today’s college-educated elites unthinkingly assume that their needs should be provided by either the market or the state. They fail to even consider civil society in this equation. Thus the things that don’t fit in a free market framework — such as raising kids — they consider governmental duties.
Turning to Uncle Sam to help with the tots is a mistake, but there is still a key insight here: families need community support.
And yes, it’s not only families — everyone needs community support. Hillary Clinton’s party has done plenty to erode communities, including centralizing governmental power, pushing churches out of the public square, and using dark money to place ideologues on local school boards.
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That shouldn't make us ignore the main observation here: Man is not made to be alone.
Just because Hillary Clinton says it, doesn't mean it's wrong.