In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, American scholars have pondered the question of why so many white people in the United States were prepared to abandon the liberal democracy which afforded them so many advantages for the uncertain promises of aristocratic rule or anarchy.
Jeremi Suri answers this question in the introduction of his latest work of American history, Civil War by Other Means:
Like many others in the mob, Seefried brought his son, Hunter, to the insurrection. It was a proud moment for a father who had spent many of his years in and out of work, living in an economically depressed area two hours from the Capitol. He and his son were taking back their country, showing that they could make a difference, standing up for fellow working-class families who felt forgotten. They would not accept a president elected by nonwhite voters. The Confederate flag was their battle flag.
It wasn’t love of country or the Constitution that drove them there. It was opposition to having to compete for jobs and political representation in a multiracial meritocracy.
Sussex County, Delaware, where the Seefrieds resided in a rundown house, fit the pattern. This rural region of chicken farms entered a tailspin that triggered higher crime and drug dependence, lower incomes, and diminished expectations for the future. Everything seemed to be going the wrong way, and the election of the first African American president in 2008 only made things feel worse. Barack Obama symbolized an emerging country that the Seefrieds believed they could never enter. They lacked the education and pedigree to compete in a multiracial meritocracy that promised so much for some, leaving many others out. Obama’s diverse supporters were winning, while the traditional white families in Sussex and other rural counties were not. The Seefrieds felt like losers.