And now your neighbors all know!
Posted on 01/31/2016 3:58:11 PM PST by Elderberry
It is by now a truism that Donald Trump poses a knotty conundrum for his competitors in the Republican Party, who can attack him and his retrograde sentiments only at the cost of alienating Trump's supporters, whose votes they need to win.
Less obvious, or at least less discussed, is the parallel conundrum Trump poses for self-styled progressives. How far can they go in decrying Trump's support among white blue-collar workers without seeming to write off what was once regarded as a core progressive constituency?
It could be argued that the writing-off has already occurred. There has long been a shift in left-liberal politics away from any broad identification with "the workers" - narrowly conceived as white, male and straight - in favor of specific social and environmental issues that pose no threat to existing economic structures. In that regard, Trump's blue-collar support might be viewed as a vindication: Workers of the world, take a hike. We never liked you much anyway.
Still, there remains the vexing question of how a billionaire demagogue can win the loyalty of the very people whose class interests he opposes. What possible sense can we make of blue-collar workers of any age, gender or race supporting a man whose very existence rests on their exploitation and, increasingly, on their obsolescence? It boggles the mind, or so we like to pretend.
The usual answers - fear of terrorism, resentment of immigrants, disgust with the Washington establishment - are sound enough, but they don't go very deep. It's as if the impossibility of depth were a given.
Imperialists and vivisectionists used to argue whether their victims had souls. The argument of the 2016 presidential campaign seems to be whether white blue-collar workers do.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
A whole lot of normal Americans are fed up?
Maybe working people think that the present policy of shipping manufacturing out of the US and importing 20 million workers into the US, is maybe not in their interests. And they are looking for someone who will reverse that course.
I guess that moron Hannity is smarter than the LA Times editorial board, as I’ve heard him say “I’ve never been offered a job by a poor man”.
Outside the beltway and the elites, American’s really don’t hate the wealthy. Most of us want them to succeed, so we can succeed too.
Man oh man . . . I’m a manufacturing worker, and if you identify us as white males, then you’re dreaming. (Don’t know about the “straight” thing, but let’s just say I don’t see any male pin-ups where I work).
Clearly, only people with Liberal Arts degrees should be allowed to vote.
/s
Deceitfully written.
Oh they wrote them off a long time ago, but Republicans also wrote them off. It's Trump who figured out how to make a campaign out of what was going on.
Anger and Populism.
A whole lot of normal Americans are fed up?
The problem with the above statement is that Trump does not "oppose" the class interests of the blue collar workers, in fact he has stated that their welfare will be his first priority. This could flummox normal one-per centers, but I actually was raised myself to believe in hard work and the natural goodness of anyone who earned a living. So I believe this suggestion is dead wrong.
Economy, jobs, powerful military, security, borders, America!
I’ve always lived in “flyover country” and I’ll guarantee you one thing. If you walk into any coffee shop anywhere in Iowa or anywhere like it and ask people what they think about stopping the sell-out of our country to China, you would get a standing ovation from everyone, Republican or Democrat.
Don’t think about the claptrap that is in this article.
The scary part is how many ‘leading intellectual voices’ groupthink the stupidity.
I just hate to think of our Grandchildren being strapped to pay for all of it as our Nation Debt grows and grows and grows.
Sick of getting screwed?
People are pissed off at lefties like you, LA Times.
Little unclear about that post. So you’re saying you are not a white male, and most of the people in your plant are not white males?
And now your neighbors all know!
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