The concept of “gratitude” in American politics is an insidious one that implies a caste system where betters confer largess upon lessers and where those lessers must consistently pay homage to their betters. And there is always an implied threat that without proper homage the largess will stop.
I look at Vance in light of his recent conversion to Catholicism— and how nothing he says comports with Christian humility.
Having a platform with policy changes and problem-solving used to be the point of running for office, not a sign of being unpatriotic.
It's a complete abuse of the word.
And Vance does this constantly I wonder if he demands gratitude from his kids for feeding them. He strikes me as the sort who does.
This is particularly stark in the rhetoric about immigrants. Large swathes of the electorate sincerely believe that them being born in the country means they are granting an enormous favour to every immigrant and that immigrants should express gratitude over it for the rest of their lives.
In a less corrupted mind, the fact that Mamdani wants to serve in public service (rather than just be a Wall Street chud investment broker making free money off everyone else’s labor) would be a reflection of of gratitude and a willingness to pay it forward to make life better for others.
As I said, I think the framing is insidious. But you can also reflect on how many elite folks reject any kind of collective contribution to their ascents as a refusal to be grateful. But, of course, that’s not *really* what’s being done in these kinds of discourses…
What is with Vance and people having to be grateful. He never is thankful of grateful for anything
This is something that I’m on about all the time because it emphasizes so well how deep seated our need to categorize folks as deserving or undeserving actually is.
I once had a professor describe social welfare in the United States as politicians “Giving people shitty shit, and then getting pissed about the fact that people aren’t wallowing in gratitude for the shitty shit they got.” I kind of feel like that is relevant here.