The politics of propaganda
By Jimi T Hardee, Rachel Major, & Ari Ochoa
Along the banks of the Mississippi in Louisiana, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, there is a stretch of roughly 85 miles where the diverse backdrop of the river’s natural ecosystem gives way to one defining feature: industry. This area of petrochemical plants and oil refineries has been called Louisiana’s “Industrial Corridor,” but environmentalists as well as residents of the area know it by another name, “Cancer Alley.” Cancer Alley is one of the most polluted places in America and the evidence of this is woven into the everyday lives of its residents. From tap water contaminated oil refineries, to the airborne contaminants throughout the region caused by industrial works, all this pollution is likely the reason that towns like Reserve, Louisiana experience cancer rates more than 50 times higher than the national average.
Coalition Against Death Alley on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol, desmogblog
Cancer Alley has been called the frontline of environmental racism, as the region is home to a disproportionately high number of Black residents. As we have discussed before in our blog, predominantly Black areas are often ignored when it comes to building infrastructure and providing support to impoverished residents. That is not, however, the focus of this piece. Today we will instead be examining how the American Republican Party continues to garner support amongst white residents of places like Cancer Alley, despite their continued environmental deregulation that often victimizes the very constituents that make up their base of voters.
In her 2016 book “Strangers in Their Own Land,” Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russel Hochschild chronicles the story of (among others) one Lee Sherman of DeRidder, Louisiana. An ex-professional football player and NASCAR driver, Sherman has led an interesting life. Still, what he is likely to be remembered for today is his place in the history of American environmentalism. Sherman worked for several years at Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) in Cancer Alley, fitting pipes. His work placed him in close proximity to hazardous chemicals like mercury and lead. Though he sustained personal injury at least once working with these chemicals, it was not until he was instructed by PPG to dump them into the Bayou that he said enough was enough. After the PPG chemical dump caused the mass death of fish in the nearby waterways, Sherman himself attended a public meeting wearing a sign that read “I’M THE ONE WHO DUMPED IT IN THE BAYOU.” Fed up with big corporations polluting his home with seemingly no governmental oversight or repercussions, Sherman had become a staunch environmentalist.
Sherman’s story is important to understand because among American liberals, it is a commonly held belief that rural conservatives vote against their own interests (particularly when it comes to environmental policy) because they simply don’t believe that there is a problem. In reality, many rural conservatives see first-hand the effects of environmental deregulation and, in general, they are not happy about it. Still, white residents of places like Cancer Alley overwhelmingly vote for Republicans who push for deregulation and fail to stop businesses polluting. Lee Sherman happens to be a perfect example of this because in addition to being an environmentalist, Sherman is a staunch Tea Party member. Though it may sound like a contradiction of terms to many, this is actually a lot more common than we might think.
So why do people like Lee Sherman rally against water and air pollution but support politicians who allow corporations to pollute the air and water? One key factor is the GOP’s habit of using social and cultural issues like abortion rights to garner support from single-issue voters.
Catholics at protest for abortion rights, 1973.
Evangelical Christians living in rural America are unlikely to vote for any pro-choice candidate and the GOP has leveraged this with great effect. In the 1970s, American Protestant groups were largely in support of the supreme court’s Roe v Wade ruling and the Southern Baptist Convention passed numerous resolutions in favor of a woman’s right to choose. It wasn’t until abortion rights were adopted as a hot button issue by the Republican propaganda machine that abortion rights took center stage as a partisan issue. The result of this propaganda was that white evangelicals who proclaimed their support for Roe v Wade just 4 years earlier in 1976, had been convinced by the 1980 election that abortion rights needed to go. The full history of abortion rights as a political platform is beyond the scope of this article (there is a great piece on it here), but this ideological shift speaks to a deeper strategy in American politics to turn social and cultural issues into political platforms.
Abortion became a hot topic issue not on moral grounds, but as leverage for politicians to push harmful legislation through with minimal consequences. As long as these politicians said they were against abortion, people for whom abortion was a single-ticket issue would vote for them no matter what. This support often continues despite what these politicians believe (or do) in private. By ignoring historical context or data surrounding the issue and instead focusing on an emotional response carefully crafted by propaganda, citizens may believe these representatives will make other decisions in good faith based upon this agreement of a singular topic. This is not typically what happens.
In her book, Hochschild describes another example of this. It is a frustration people like Lee Sherman often share, that they have worked hard for the American dream and have yet to see that dream come to fruition. Meanwhile, they believe, recipients of “hand outs” like affirmative action have seemingly cut them in line to receive the fruits of all their years of labor. While crony capitalists like President Trump have done their best to protect the economic interests of corporations and their executives, the GOP has employed a subversive strategy. They’ve convinced the white working class that their enemies are the recipients of affirmative action rather than the wealthy business owners who are polluting their homes and stagnating their wages. This often leads to racialized policies that enlist the support of disenfranchised voters like Sherman who may vote against their own self-interest in the long-term if it means championing the cause of a single issue in the short-term. The specific policies being propagandized aren’t really important for this to be effective, as the GOP uses the same method to bring issues like gun-rights and “LAW & ORDER” platforms under their umbrella.
All this has made voters like Lee Sherman and countless others in similar situations sympathetic to the rhetoric of politicians like President Trump, who has long billed himself as a political outsider that won’t bend to the will of the existing establishment. This sentiment has endeared him to single-issue voters who resent the existing political establishment for failing to champion their single issue, even if it means embracing the degradation of their homes and our shared natural resources. Still, as we have discussed at length in our last piece, Trump and the Republicans in congress have been responsible for more environmental deregulation than any administration since President Nixon formed the EPA. Residents of places like Cancer Alley will pay the price, whoever they voted for.
It’s not just Cancer Alley either: it’s violent windstorms in the midwest decimating crop fields, southern and northeastern states increasingly battered each year by increasingly stronger hurricanes, record-breaking wildfires burning up the west, waterways across the country poisoned by fertilizers used several states away, and much more. The intention here is not to vilify any single group of voters, because we are all ultimately victims of the GOP propaganda machine that has been operating for nearly a half-century.
In our last blogpost, we mentioned that we would explain in this piece how we as citizens can fight against deregulation, and the solution here is a simple one: vote. Ultimately, in the short term, it is unlikely that we will be able to undo the damage that propaganda has done to support environmental reform in rural America. What we can do is use our political voices to push for a better life for residents of places like Cancer Alley. Even if we weren’t careening towards global climate catastrophe, people would still deserve clean air and clean water and, frankly, neglecting to keep our world livable is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. The longer we ignore, the bigger (and more expensive) of a mess we’ll have to clean up. So with the general election less than a week away, if you are still considering staying home on election day, we implore you to reconsider.
Cast your ballot for candidates who will put an end to runaway deregulation crusades and propaganda machines. Cast your ballots for candidates who will improve education so that we can have a more informed electorate. Cast your ballots for candidates who will actually work to support Americans living in poverty. Cast your ballots for president, and for congress, and local elections. Take the time to learn the issues and get involved in the political conversations, get your information from diverse sources, and, when in doubt, trust the scientific experts - but do your research on their backgrounds too. (Hint: Some of the same scientists denying climate change also told us that cigarettes were safe.) If at any point in the last four years you have worried about the state of the nation, cast your ballots for change on November 3rd.
Follow the link to find your nearest polling location: