Dear John,
Why did so many working class voters choose a selfish, thin-skinned, petulant, lying, narcissistic, boastful, megalomaniac like Donald Trump for president?
And how do we prevent future Trumps from seizing power?
These are two questions I unpack in my latest video.
The weaponization of racism as a tool to divide America is part of the answer. But racism and xenophobia aren’t exactly new to American life.
What has changed over the years to make the working class more receptive to Trump’s lies? The economy.
Since the 1980s, the wages and economic prospects of the typical American worker have stagnated. Meanwhile, most of the economy’s gains have gone to the top. Now Big Money calls all the shots in Washington.
In this week’s video, we’ll look at how Trump took workers’ legitimate frustrations with stagnant economic conditions and directed their anger at scapegoats that had nothing to do with the problem. Share the video with a friend, so together we can address these problems and prevent future Trumps.
In the years leading up to the 2016 election, I revisited many of the places I had visited when I was labor secretary in the 1990s. People told me the system was “rigged” against them. A surprising number said they planned to vote either for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump – the two anti-establishment candidates who promised to “shake up” Washington.
Trump isn’t the cause of what’s happened to America. He’s the consequence – the product of years of stagnant economic conditions and big money’s corruption of our democracy combined with a long legacy of racism and bigotry. If we really want to stop Trump and prevent future Trumps, we will need to address each cause of Trump’s rise.
And if America doesn’t respond to the calamity that’s befallen the working class, we will have Trumps as far as the eye can see.
Thank you for exploring how we got into this disaster, and how we can get out of it.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media
