By George Wilson, contributing columnist | Like a former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the Brexit crowd, Donald Trump tapped into a large number of people who are legitimately upset over the failure of status quo governments to deal with the economic fallout from the loss of jobs to the second and third world countries.
The shift to a more knowledge-based economy has not brought jobs to replace those lost by the middle class/blue collar crowd. In addition, automation of U.S. factories is a much bigger factor than foreign trade in the loss of jobs. Trade accounted for just 13 percent of America’s lost factory jobs.
They are understandably fearful of the future for themselves and their families. As Bernie Sanders says: “they are tired of having chief executives make 300 times what they do, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top one percent. Many of their once beautiful rural towns have depopulated, their downtown stores are shuttered, and their kids are leaving home because there are no jobs — all while corporations suck the wealth out of their communities and stuff them into offshore accounts.”
The Democrats did not address this in any substantive way other than platitudes. It will be interesting to see what Trump does because the cause is not simply trade agreements and immigrants. While Trump’s racism and misogyny garnered him support from many people, the fear and anger of the more mainstream ones was strong enough that it outweighed any distaste for the disgraceful Trump.
Like Rob Ford and Brexit voters, some of the so-called silent majority would not admit to who they supported and the pollsters were misled.
More fundamentally frightening than Trump himself are two things – the inherent level of racism that made Obama’s attempt to govern almost impossible, and the level of bias against women, and strong women in particular.
And lastly, maybe most frightening of all, the fact that Republicans got full control of both the House and Senate and will soon have a majority on the Supreme Court. There will be none of the “checks and balances” that we Americans always boast about in defending the Constitution over parliamentary democracy. Contrary to their pronouncements, Republicans didn’t get a majority vote and don’t have any kind of mandate. We remain a divided country.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Follow Us