On the eve of Donald Trump’s first presidential victory, a public opinion poll found that 70 percent of his supporters believed the country had changed for the worse since the 1950s. The New York Times ran an article, “Voters Who Long for Leave It to Beaver,” interpreting the finding as evidence that Trump voters were nostalgic for the rigid social hierarchies and retrograde cultural values of the era — Ward Cleaver coming home from work to June’s pearls and pot roast, the only black character a domestic worker who appears for a single episode in the show’s final season.
This characterization wasn’t totally arbitrary, as Trump routinely gave direct voice to anxieties about race, nationality, and gender. But last year, another survey introduced some nuance into the picture. When asked about each decade, conservatives considered the 1950s to be the time with the happiest families, least crime, and highest morals. Liberals showed a more mixed view of the 1950s, but even they imagined it as the decade when communities were most tightly knit — no small matter, as neighborhood social cohesion and social participation are strongly associated with overall life satisfaction and well-being.
It’s true that society has become less cohesive since then, as evidenced by everything from plummeting group membership to the lost art of having people over to your house. In fact, Leave It to Beaver’s run from 1957 to 1963 coincided almost exactly with the height of social trust. Between 1957 and 1964, about 77 percent of Americans said most everyone could be trusted. That number has since been sliced in half.
Which cultural memory is more responsible for the romanticization of the ’50s: patriarchal authority, or knowing your neighbors? Are…
Auteur: Meagan Day
