Today’s strident populism, personified by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, is fed by voter frustration, anger, fear and despair. But, I would argue, at the heart of today’s strident populism is our moral abandonment of the poor. Americans give time, money and other resources to the poor but fail to provide the most important assistance: human dignity. We fail to see them as ourselves and, because we fail in this respect, the poor are effectively cast out, separated from the dignity we afford ourselves.
Every failed society has turned its back on the poor. Throwing money at the feet of the beggar (or mailing him a monthly welfare check) isn’t compassion, doesn’t convey any dignity and never saved a nation. Periodically volunteering to feed the poor is a nice gesture but is hardly the sort of impactful activity expected of people with moral imagination. Do you really want to heal the social divides plaguing us, from racial tensions to political incivilities? Address the disease, not just the symptoms, and “let every man esteem his brother as himself.” Aren’t we all beggars? Caring for the poor is how this nation can become one — in fact, it’s the only way.
