Yes Magazine
Ann Gupta - A wealth of data shows Trump’s support is tied to economic and social distress. His backing is highest among whites who are affected by declining and stagnant wages, are less likely to have high-school or college degrees, have been knocked out of the workforce, or whose life expectancy declined.
The last fact, established by a recent study, is astonishing because declines in life expectancy are extremely rare in industrialized countries—even in wartime. It’s proof that middle-aged white workers are suffering in distinct ways from an economic war that’s waged as much by liberals as conservatives. The booming stock market of the 1990s did not soften the blows these workers suffered from Clinton policies like NAFTA, mass incarceration, restricting access to welfare, and deregulating Wall Street.
Donald Trump knows and exploits this. In Eugene, he lacerated the Clintons by calling NAFTA a “disaster [that] has destroyed big, big sections of our country.” Trump’s racialized economic populism thrives when both parties are in thrall to Wall Street.
Many of the white workers planning to vote for Trump would likely have supported a Democratic candidate in the past, but the party now offers them little. Adding insult to injury, liberals deride them as privileged and ignorant racists, rather than acknowledging their real economic grievances.
While I did not ask them specifically about Bernie Sanders, a few [Trump supporters] mentioned that he was their second choice after Trump. Those who liked Sanders spoke of their personal economic woes and supported policies such as ending corporate free-trade deals and creating public infrastructure programs.
Race, however, is the big stumbling block for the left-leaning Trump voters. A candidate like Sanders can’t do it alone. Stronger unions and social movements could help these voters develop progressive class politics, rather than leaving them vulnerable to Trump-style populism.
Providing class-based alternatives can help people unlearn racism.
The best way to defeat Trumpism is by fusing race, class, and gender issues.
4 comments:
Surprising to see this in Yes magazine. Less so that it does not call out American liberals and neoliberalism as key supports of the class awareness deficit.
Here's an economic cause against support for Clinton, today's New York Times is publishing what most folks suspect, Tim Kaine may have the lock on the VP slot.
What does that signal? Kaine, strongly pro Wall Street and staunch advocate of TPP, and therefore by extension TTIP and TISA, serves as Madam Slick's gigantic fuck you to the left, along with working class and former working class Americans.
The so-called trade agreements are as good as signed, and that spells disaster for every citizen outside the 1%. Hils is fooling no one on this.
"Many of the white workers planning to vote for Trump would likely have supported a Democratic candidate in the past, but the party now offers them little. Adding insult to injury, liberals deride them as privileged and ignorant racists, rather than acknowledging their real economic grievances."
This is why Trump will win....Hillary offers no real alternatives. One of the oldest adages in politics is, "you can't beat something with nothing".
The only thing she has to offer is hysterical Hitler comparisons. Trump has no Brownshirts...or Nazi party...he barely has a Republican Party, not to mention donors.
Clintonomics is the most direct cause of Trumpism. Hillary is uniquely unqualified to run against Trump - or almost anyone. Her strangle hold on the Democratic Machine may allow her to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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