to an entire country. It's easy, and more or less expected, to help neighbors shovel the snow off their walk or dig their car out - although even in an otherwise friendly neighborhood there will always be some who won't help (my entitled yuppie next-door neighbor, for example, who'd leave me lying face down in a snowbank rather than lift a finger to help; but don't get me started about him). Usually, though, people don't hesitate to help their neighbors - because those neighbors are part of their social group, tribe, whatever you want to call it. They are people you might see every day; in any event they are "good" or trusted or worthy of help because they are your neighbors. With respect to those who are not our neighbors, though, it's way too easy to think of them as "the other" - or not think of them at all. Sure, we'll send a few bucks to the Red Cross to help people far away who've been affected by a natural disaster. But comments on DU since the election make it evident that people often do not feel "neighborly" toward people in other communities. There's been a lot of outright hate expressed for people who voted for Trump, mainly those who live in rural areas. We don't want to help them because they were "too stupid" to realize what they were voting for. And at least some Trump voters were motivated by racism and xenophobia - they might love their proximate neighbors but not their national neighbors, and they don't want to help those people.
We're happy to shovel snow for the people on our block but we won't pay an extra dime in taxes to provide school lunches for the children of those people. I have no idea what the remedy for this situation is. Maybe there is none. Maybe angry tribalism is the basic human condition. I sure hope not, but Trump has turned over a rock and that's what seems to be under it.
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