Another relevant article
https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class
Frank -
Thanks for this article. Between bouts of thinking up
worst-case-scenarios and then how one man's Dystopia is another's
Utopia, I also struggle to understand the deeper causes and consequences.
I personally come from the true Rural America where extractive
industries (grazing/timber/mining) were called "honest work" before the
resources they were tapping began to dry up and/or show the unintended
consequences ( pollution, global warming, etc.). I can directly
sympathize with how they got into the untenable circumstances they seem
to be wedged in. Unfortunately, I *never* had a good apprehension of
the factory worker mentality, even though most of those people probably
left a rural lifestyle for WWII and stayed on to build what ultimately
became the rust belt.
I think it is unconscionable that the likes of Trump deliberately mines
their misery and fear with promises of returning those unsustainable
lifestyles to a new central place in the American self-image and
economy? I think I understand WHY this subset of the red staters are
so smug about this turn of events, I'm just not sure how to help them
use this to get (some of?) what they want without helping them shoot
themselves (and the rest of us?) in the foot. Can middle America be
great again without accelerating climate change, destroying the rest of
the aquifers and watersheds, acting out racist and xenophobic passion
plays? I hope so, but I think the latter is roughly what Trump
promised them, as self-defeating as it is.
The number of WWC women (62% according to the article) voting for Trump
is probably the majority of the unexpected difference in votes? Many
would ask "what were they thinking"... but I know a number of women in
this class and they are quite serious that this is going to be good for
them...
-Steve
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