March, 2016 archive

Der Spiegel attempts to figure out Donald Trump’s appeal and leans towards the idea that he fills a vacuum created by the refusal to the powers that be (when I was a young ‘un, it was called “The Establishment”) to deal with very real social and economic problems. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):

The reason Trump’s promise to “make America great again” has been so effective is that it revives this dream and reaches voters who long ago turned their backs on the political system. A considerable share of his voters are based in rural regions and suburbs. They are likely to be poor, working class and lacking a college education. Trump appeals to the kind of voters who have been left behind by the forces of modernization — people disconnected from societal progress who have neither profited from wealth nor the digital revolution.

There is no lack of proposals for combatting social inequality. What is missing is the will of the elite. But for as long as those who profit from the division of society are not prepared to relinquish at least a modicum of their power, privilege and affluence, Trump’s sweet seduction will not diminish.

Keith Zakheim seems to have reached a have reached a somewhat similar conclusion. Here’s a bit from his piece at NorthJersey.com:

Trumpians are Republicans and Democrats, hawks and doves, evangelicals and atheists, urbanites and suburbanites and men and women. They are united by their class suffering: growing income disparity, stagnant working-class wages, subpar health care, failing schools, unaffordable college tuitions, blighted urban areas, underwater mortgages and massive youth unemployment.

They will no longer be fooled by the smooth-talking pol who harangues against Wall Street on the stump but uses its lucre to pay for campaign advertisements. . . .

Trump is a foul-mouthed bigot who lacks the intelligence, grace and humility to lead the greatest nation on earth. But he does have one redeeming quality — he is not a member of the political class — and a vote for him is not an irrational choice. In fact, if it is true that “insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result,” then Trump voters today are acting perfectly rationally in not pulling the lever for career politicians.

Click the links. Read the rest.

Again along the same lines, Chauncey Devega and Tim Wise recently discussed, among other things, the question that lefties and economists often ask:

Why do poor and middle class white voters so often vote against their economic best interest?

Wise theorizes that, in a racist and sexist society, whiteness and, to a lesser extent, maleness are themselves almost tangible property; if the folks who overtly incorporate them into their self-identities see them threatened, they will fight to defend and retain them, as they might chase an armed burglar without a thought to their own safety (the interview with Wise starts about 20 minutes into the podcast).

In other words, if you don’t got much, you hang on to what you got, however ephemeral and fantastickal it may may be.

Or, as Lyndon Johnson once put it:

If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll even empty his pockets for you.