RE: A good article for understanding what motivates Trumpsters from their point of view
November 16, 2016 at 1:24 pm
(November 16, 2016 at 1:03 pm)Whateverist Wrote: Anyone else read the article by Joan C Williams in the Harvard Business Review that came out on November 10th? I just came across it on Facebook where I saw that Robert Reich also had positive things to say about how it analyzes Trumps support among the white working class (WWC). Our liberal elite bias makes it appealing to see Trump's vulgarity as what appealed to these voters but this article, while acknowledging vulgarity is often acceptable among this group prioritizes Trump's emphasis on economics as the deciding factor - even if he is unable to deliver. Hillary, even though she has a policy position on everything including economics didn't emphasize it enough. Everything can't be the most important thing or you really aren't emphasizing anything in particular. Interesting to read that among those with just a high school education who work hard their resentment toward the poor isn't republican manufactured. That party just exploits the resentment that is already there. The WWC don't resent the rich, they want to be them. Who they resent is the professional class, those telling them what to do and managing them .. people like Hillary.
It's a good read but my questions now are how do you use this information to really help these people, not just exploit them like Trump. And, of course, how do you use it to get elected and pursue progressive goals?
https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-peo...king-class
Excellent point about Hillary: "... a policy position on everything..." Which meant that nothing at all stood out. But then again, the debates, where policy positions and plans are laid out in some decent amount of detail, were completely obscured by Trump's willingness to make shit up and be as obnoxious as possible. I didn't make it through the second one and didn't bother to watch the third one.
As far as your question about progressive goals go, energy always comes to mind for me. I imagine a green energy policy implemented on a Manhattan Project scale. Not a program where the federal government doles out money to different companies here and there, but a massive, coherent, united program that would hugely improve the efficiency of green energy and also create new ways of generating it. It wouldn't be a half-assed "Let's give it a shot" king of thing, but a "This is what we fucking do now" program that would make the U.S. the unquestioned leader in green energy production.
As for Trump, he spoke to these disillusioned people. Those with means want tax cuts; those without means hope like hell he can bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Back to the times when "blue collar" wasn't synonymous with "You're Fucked." Back to the days when there were pensions, college wasn't almost a necessity to make a decent living, and when being able to put food on the table from a skilled job was such an important part of one's identity. But they'll find out that almost all of his bullshit was just; illusory promises he shat out of his mouth. Ones that he didn't understand the power of. Or maybe he can. I wouldn't bet a wooden nickel on it though.
