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Part of my PhD work is on the ideological work of representations of the rural WWCPC (white working class and poverty class) in film and television and I find this to overwhelming true. The fact that the Left as represented by some on this listserv have rarely supported this sector and in fact continue to demonize and scapegoat them as rural hicks and rednecks has a long classist history connected to the idea of white trash, or working class whiteness. When the left refuses to hear these voices, expect them to turn to someone who will. In this case Trump. I am not surprised that this type of analysis is not getting much attention and will not be surprised if no-one addresses your comment. I just appreciated seeing it there and I'm too involved in writing my dissertation to defend about why calling out "white trash" is ultimately counterproductive and in fact, is a missed opportunity in gaining support from all sectors of the working class. Thanks for your post. -jeffrey On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 4:23 AM, Greg McDonald via Marxism < [email protected]> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > I honestly do not think the Trump campaign engineered the confrontation in > Chicago. Now, if Juan Cole's analysis is correct--that Trump supporters are > all Klan and biker gang wannabe's, then perhaps. But if we look at Thomas > Frank's analysis, the primary concern of the white working class voters who > support Trump is the economy. I'm pretty sure that above all the dog > whistle politics, the Trump campaign understands this. > > "People are much more frightened than they are bigoted"... > > “But there is another way to interpret the Trump phenomenon. A map of his > support may coordinate with racist Google searches, but it coordinates even > better with deindustrialization and despair, with the zones of economic > misery that 30 years of Washington’s free-market consensus have brought the > rest of America.” > > It is worth noting that Trump is making a point of assailing that Indiana > air conditioning company from the video > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ttxGMQOrY> in his speeches. What this > suggests is that he’s telling a tale as much about economic outrage as it > is tale of racism on the march. Many of Trump’s followers are bigots, no > doubt, but many more are probably excited by the prospect of a president > who seems to mean it when he denounces our trade agreements and promises to > bring the hammer down on the CEO that fired you and wrecked your town, > unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. > > Here is the most salient supporting fact: when people talk to white, > working-class Trump supporters, instead of simply imagining what they might > say, they find that what most concerns these people is the economy and > their place in it. I am referring to a study just published by Working > America, a political-action auxiliary of the AFL-CIO, which interviewed > some 1,600 white working-class voters in the suburbs of Cleveland and > Pittsburgh in December and January. > > Support for Donald Trump, the group found, ran strong among these people, > even among self-identified Democrats, but not because they are all pining > for a racist in the White House. Their favorite aspect of Trump was his > “attitude”, the blunt and forthright way he talks. As far as issues are > concerned, “immigration” placed third among the matters such voters care > about, far behind their number one concern: “good jobs / the economy”. > > “People are much more frightened than they are bigoted,” is how the > findings were described to me by Karen Nussbaum, the executive director of > Working America. The survey “confirmed what we heard all the time: people > are fed up, people are hurting, they are very distressed about the fact > that their kids don’t have a future” and that “there still hasn’t been a > recovery from the recession, that every family still suffers from it in one > way or another.” > > Tom Lewandowski, the president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor > Council in Fort Wayne, puts it even more bluntly when I asked him about > working-class Trump fans. “These people aren’t racist, not any more than > anybody else is,” he says of Trump supporters he knows. “When Trump talks > about trade, we think about the Clinton administration, first with Nafta > and then with [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] China, and here in > Northeast Indiana, we hemorrhaged jobs.” > > “They look at that, and here’s Trump talking about trade, in a ham-handed > way, but at least he’s representing emotionally. We’ve had all the > political establishment standing behind every trade deal, and we endorsed > some of these people, and then we’ve had to fight them to get them to > represent us.” > > > > http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/thomas_frank_all_those_trump_supporters_theyre_not_just_racist_20160312 > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mediacrusher%40gmail.com > -- J.A. Masko College of Communications Penn State University State College, Pa 16801 "The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned." Antonio Gramsci. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
