In traditional Judaism, anger as an emotion is deprecated, and Jewish history to this day shows that anger at legitimate oppression can be turned against Jews. However, Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller in a visit to St. Louis acknowledged that anger can sometimes be a reflection of a situation that is really unfair and the solution to anger is to resolve the unfairness. In a more secular context, Audre Lorde wrote, “focused anger can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.” 

Observers such as David Brooks have noted that American political culture as seen through Twitter and Facebook is a competition of which side can express anger more definitively and eloquently. Both Republican and Democratic voters are angry at a political and legal system that seems not to be responsive to everyday struggles in people’s lives. Republican base voters such as white men without a college degree and increasingly Democratic base voters such as college women have different circumstances based on identity to be angry about items such as the loss of manufacturing jobs and gender-based condescension/harassment at work and in their personal lives. Both fundamentally look to politics to address their perceived loss of dignity. Both groups claimed success in the 2018 elections. 

A record number of female candidates were elected to the U.S. House, and many of them did not run campaigns with strong differences from the campaigns run by male Democratic candidates. However, rural voters propelled candidates such as Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., to the U.S. Senate based on anger about the treatment of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and illegal immigration.

In the 2016 election, Donald Trump was able to exploit the anger of voters disgusted with politics as usual. Trump often campaigned on what statements at his rallies would get the greatest rise out of the crowd. During his presidency Trump and Fox News/conservative talk radio have reinforced each other in populist appeals aimed at the anger of the Republican base voters. For more than a generation, the Republican Party has developed messages of anger and anxiety that America is becoming less and less a white nation and about changing cultural norms such as legal abortion, same-sex marriage, and the notion of a gender spectrum/transgender rights. 

Some conservative gays in a recent New York Times Magazine correctly pointed out that Trump made a point of not campaigning explicitly against homosexuality or gay marriage, but in general Trump simply had to associate his campaign with the underlying fear of losing America. Republican base voters hold their anger and anxiety with enough tenacity to block any competing messages. Trump’s cultural seduction continues to stoke anger and anxiety, which leads to fear and individuals asking basic questions about democratic norms and institutions. He continues to be single-minded in screaming and roaring to his supporters on a visceral level to make the anger and anxiety immediately present. Anger and anxiety are also stoked by his widely divergent and rapidly changing political positions.

Democratic candidates should try to speak to the anger and alienation of those who really feel that they are voiceless instead of those who have figured out that yelling the loudest will get them the greatest social media rewards. The 2020 Democratic presidential primaries and legislation that the U.S. House is able to pass provide an opportunity for the Democratic coalition to express its views. These actions will show the mixture they will use to express the anger of their base voters and express hope and resilience. 

In a visit to St. Louis to stump for Claire McCaskill, former Vice President and potential presidential candidate Joe Biden described the middle class as being able to tell your children that everything will be all right. Most of the announced double-digit Democratic presidential candidates have opportunities to convince voters and develop policy ideas that everything will be all right. In contrast, the Hillary Clinton campaign began with many voters having preconceived notions about her personality and ideology that was stoked by the national media for more than 20 years. Democratic candidates and their voters should face questions about how democratic institutions create a society that has less political anger and is less polarized.

Leah Borden of University City is a political analyst and a computer scientist. Her father, Steven Puro, is professor emeritus of Political Science at St. Louis University with a specialty in elections and public policy.