While there is little doubt that cynical, fear-based appeals to the worst impulses of working-class whites are an important part of the story, if we look at the content of Trump’s appeals to working-class voters, we see that a narrow focus on the darkest aspects of Trump’s rhetoric belies consistent and often quite powerful appeals that tap directly into decades of economic dislocation experienced by millions of American workers, bread-and-butter issues that many working-class Americans care deeply about and feel that Democratic and Republican politicians alike have been ignoring for decades.
https://jacobin.com/2024/08/trump-workers-trade-populism-rhetoric My 2 cents - After long supporting Democrats since The New Deal era, many working class people were devastated by the policies of "New Democrats" such the Clintons, Obama, Biden and others who formed the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). These policies sucked many jobs from one or two industry towns in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. These towns dried up and those who had finished or almost finished paying off their home mortgages were trapped - the value of their homes (most of their wealth) had dropped precipitously - where could they go? Jesse Jackson labeled them "Democrats for the Leisure Class." He was right but was never willing to take the next logical step and leave the party. Many of these victims of neoliberalism either stopped voting or were willing to take a chance out of desperation, on Trump. For them, he was "the lesser evil." The Left failed to be the real alternative - and are still failing! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31820): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31820 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108104997/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
