Prodigal Son-ism — the tendency of the media to treat conservatives who have changed their minds about Trump or conservative causes as far more important than those of us who were right all along — is one of the most obnoxious of Trump-era tropes.
Case in point: Michael Gerson’s opening to a mea culpa on race(Gerson was a W. Bush speechwriter and a prominent neoconservative):
I had fully intended to ignore President Trump’s latest round of racially charged taunts against an African American elected official, and an African American activist, and an African American journalist and a whole city with a lot of African Americans in it. I had every intention of walking past Trump’s latest outrages and writing about the self-destructive squabbling of the Democratic presidential field, which has chosen to shame former vice president Joe Biden for the sin of being an electable, moderate liberal.
But I made the mistake of pulling James Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” off my shelf — a book designed to shatter convenient complacency.
Gerson actually had to turn to a book before he understood that he should never ignore racist speech from the president of the United States?
This is just one of so many reasons why this passage is so appalling.* It would take volumes, probably, to list them all (who exactly are “conveniently complacent?” Not the millions of Black Americans who are the direct target of racist presidential rhetoric).
Let’s be kind and say that Gerson has a lot of learning to catch up on. And that is the problem with Prodigal Son-ism. By paying so much attention to the Gersons of America, we don’t have time or space in the public discourse for the voices of people who don’t have to be taught the basics and really do understand the problems America faces, including race.
Even more serious: Every moment spent on the Gersons of the world is a moment not spent actually pursuing racial justice. We’re too busy getting people like Gerson up to speed on the basics.
Yes, now Gerson gets the basics of racial history. How long will it take before he finally understands why trans rights are so important? Or why, even at the time, opposing the invasion of Iraq was sensible and invading the country insane? Or why the economic system of the United States generates appalling inequality that only federal policies can mitigate and change?
Don’t get me wrong. Just as we should praise an infant who finally learns how to tie his shoes, Gerson deserves a very nice pat on the head here. But while Mike is slowly learning how to count, let’s put the grownups in charge and let them do the work that badly needs to be done.
*Yes, I’m aware that Gerson is using a literary device here — or at least I hope he is — no American should actually be this clueless. The point is that he actually thinks this particular literary device is somehow appropriate for this subject. And that is problematic. Only the Gersons of the world — white, highly privileged, deeply entitled — would start an op-ed about race in such a tasteless and smug fashion.