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writing for godot

Progressives should be Aware of the Many Trump voters Who Thought they were Voting for Progressive Economic Policies

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Saturday, 11 August 2018 05:54

The book,The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics is a moderately Trump-friendly, well reported book on why people voted for Trump. A good one for people of the left to expand our perspective. It has three lessons, which I'll come to.

A flaw is that it ignores those who were motivated by racist/supremacist dreams. To that group, in polite terms, to heck with them.

For the many others, and there were many (13% voted for Obama), their motives were the same as past blue-collar Democrats who voted for FDR or Kennedy or Bill Clinton or who liked Bernie Sanders. Some had been lifelong Democrats and active in their unions. Luzerne county, Pennsylvania voted Democratic since the 80s but voted for Trump by 20%. Lake county, Michigan voted for Democratic presidential candidates since McGovern, and voted for Obama by 12%, but went for Trump by 23%. These were traditional Democratic voters who were just looking for someone to champion blue-collar economic policies.

In their own words:

Ed Harry, Vietnam veteran, union organizer and Democratic organizer, disenchanted with global trade deals, "It was more than about Trump, it was about people, it was about being part of something bigger than just me, I felt as though I was part of something important and worthy of accomplishing something better than what we have had."

Dave Rubbico, raised Democratic, voted for Obama twice, said, "I wanted Barack Obama to succeed" but later felt the party wasn't in tune with him, "And I am a union Democrat!"

Rose Zuba grew up poor in a coal mining town, dislikes the corruption in politics so much she hadn't voted most of her life, but when she heard Trump's speeches, "I was really excited to finally vote for someone, finally have someone I believed was good for the community and the country."

Gloria Devos also had not voted most of her life because she felt both parties were terrible, but of Trump, "He was not a politician. He was not part of the system, a system that has been failing a lot of people." Her vote made her feel, "that I could be part of changing something that I thought was going terribly wrong", that her vote was, "Doing something good and important and significant."

Cindy Hutchins, who grew up in a Democratic family and started a business, said, "Back in the day, the Democrats represented the working people. They actually represented them and their interests…Yeah, well, that’s just a thing of the past." One of her customers chimes in, "Yep, and that’s the way it was. A lot of older people don’t realize that’s not the same anymore."

Renee Dibble has two adopted black sons, is a lifelong Democrat, but when she heard Trump's speeches it was, "as if he had been part of my community all of my life; he understood the economic problems." She said politicians, "ignored the economic conditions that were deteriorating right before their eyes. ..This is every politician's fault for the past thirty years; they have managed the decline while getting reelected off of our empty promises." She supports Trump, "Not because I am blind to his faults, but because the other politicians' faults are so worse. Because their failures were our lives, and that is unforgivable."

"Their failures were our lives, and that is unforgivable." Can't put it any more poignant than that.

The three lessons: One, many Trump voters want the same things progressive economic voters want. Two, it is amazing and heart-breaking to see them put their faith in a con. If it wasn't obvious before, Trump's policies which hurt working peoples' economics, his tax cut for the top, his ending worker safety rules, and much more, show he really doesn't care about working people.

Lesson three, the failure of Democratic leadership is part real, part a failure of message, but regardless, the Democratic leadership for decades have been complete idiots.

 

Tom Cantlon has the interesting challenge of being a left-leaning writer for the paper in a small, right-leaning Western town, in a right-leaning state. He can be reached at comments at TomCantlon dot com.


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