Psychologism: the Intellectual Dishonesty of Progressives

What is Psychologism? 

We progressives use “psychologism” as a way to avoid confronting political views that we don’t agree with. It is our preferred form of intellectual dishonesty.  It treats the views of political opponents as symptoms of underlying psychological needs rather than as political views that we ought to take seriously. An example of may be found in a recent article called 'Psychological need for security': Why Trump supporters long for strongman leader (msn.com). The article says,

"Why would people want to live under an authoritarian's thumb?" … It's rooted, experts say, in a psychological need for security — real or perceived — and a desire for conformity, a goal that becomes even more acute as the country undergoes dramatic demographic and social changes. People also like to obey a strong leader who will protect the group — especially if it is the 'right' group whose interests will be protected."

This article locates the base of support for Trump in the psychological needs of his followers. They support Trump because they feel insecure, and he seems to be a strong leader who will protect them.

An explanation of this kind is convenient for progressives because it relieves us of the need to think about any underlying political issues. We don’t have to ask ourselves whether Trump’s followers have legitimate, political grievances. We don’t have to ask ourselves if the members of an entire class of society may legitimately feel that their needs are ignored by both major parties.  We don’t have to confront the possibility that we may have helped to create the situation in which we find ourselves.

The Grievances of the American Working Class

We live in a time of rapidly increasing concentration of wealth and income in a small ruling class and - to a lesser degree - in a patrimonial middle class. A large share of our working class has been shut out of the increasing prosperity of our country. Entire working-class communities in places like Milwaukee or Youngstown have been devastated. Millions of our citizens have legitimate reasons for feeling that our system is rigged against them.

We could listen to the grievances of the American working class. We could say publicly that we too see a rigged system. We could respond with policies in areas like education, housing and healthcare that would alleviate the distress of our working class, and in fact, such proposals have been talked about, but we don’t see the link between those policy proposals and the current, presidential campaign. Instead of hearing what working-class people have to say and focusing our campaign on things that would really help them, we talk about “saving democracy.” It is true that our democracy is in danger, and we really do need to protect it. However, we should not be surprised that such an appeal does not resonate with people who believe that our democracy is already stacked against them. 

The Appeal of Donald Trump

People like Donald Trump and his new running mate J. D. Vance present themselves as the champions of “ordinary” Americans. Their concern for ordinary Americans has, at least until now, been entirely fraudulent, but it has nevertheless drawn a very large following because many people feel that no one else in the political system is interested in them at all. Trump is able to say he is going to clean out our government so that it may again represent the interests of “real Americans.” Progressives see his proposals as attacks on democracy, but his followers see the proposals as necessary steps in the restoration of a democracy that works for them.

What We Must Do

If we want to appeal to white working-class Americans, we must couple the idea of saving democracy with an appeal to the class interests of workers. We must make it clear that we understand that the system as it works today is really rigged against workers of all races. We must show that we offer a path to changing our democratic system to make it fairer, and we must show why Republican populism is fraudulent.  

Bernie Sanders understands what needs to be done. (He is not the only one.) If we want to counter Trump’s appeal effectively, we must offer policies that address their concerns, but that is not all that we should do. We should also stop treating Trump's followers as if they were in some sense psychologically deficient. We should treat what they say not as psychological symptoms but as evidence that points to serious, political problems.  Treating people's concerns as psychological symptoms only confirms their feeling that we look down on them and do not take their concerns seriously.

We must find a way to talk with Trump's followers as equals and to behave as if we were taking them seriously. When we suggest that people’s support for Trump is due merely to their insecurity and not to any legitimate, political concerns, we merely reinforce Trump’s message that we are unconcerned about the problems of “ordinary” Americans. It tells them that he is right when he says that we don’t take their concerns seriously. That is the fatal flaw of psychologism. It alienates people and drives them away from us and away from everything that we say. When we refuse to take seriously the concerns of working-class people, we validate the idea that we don’t care about them and that we look down on them.  We have to stop doing that, and instead, we must take working-class people and their views seriously.