Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Trump and the forgotten people: white men and other fringe types

Back in 2016 we had an election. many white people held a grudge against Obama for a couple of things. But I think the working and lower middle classes had a couple of things in mind while voting.

1 the poor are getting something from the government I’m not getting
2 the poor are getting more, even if I got something, in some way I was not aware of
3 the poor are just lazy bums and should find work

The last for sure is not correct. Most of the poor work, but one cannot survive on minimum wage.

All that alone would have caused these white working class males to vote Republican or even Libertarian. Then Trump brought the "foreigners" theme into the election. Foreigners are getting stuff too! The forgotten men then got excited. "We can show those lazy liberals! Take this! We are not happy!"

It's quite a group of disgruntled people he finally collected.

What I’m reading about white working class folks is that they are ”authoritarian.” The male is the authority, whether the father or Trump. Trump simply repeating things about Mexicans or Muslims made them true in the minds of his followers. They do not question the chosen leader.

The person of Trump seems to have collected behind him pretty much all the Alex Jones fans and all the right wing people who spend their spare time listening to AM radio. Or making Youtube rants. One divorced middle aged man I call the Red Pill and Blue Pill man. He is obsessed with women controlling men through sex. Many are discussing their pet issues on a website called Free Republic. Freepers they call themselves. It is the playground of people disgusted with minorities, feminists and political correctness. Conspiracies are all over the place:

The curious thing is, many Republicans thought these things as well. Women belong in the kitchen, abortion should be banned, illegal aliens are using up all our government benefits (they are not).

The issues are familiar to these groups and all Trump had to mention is some code words. The word American has entirely different meaning when Trump says it than when Obama said it. Brown skinned people are not necessarily included. Make America Great Again meant take all the special rights away from any fringe groups or minorities that are just like you or me but may get some special treatment such as when applying to college.

Aside from Democrats in general, the group aside from feminists that the Freepers oppose is Social Justice Warriors. Minorities and white people standing next to them trying to adjust prejudice and inequality. All the people marching against Trump this year.

Why do all this? How does it connect to right wing politics? "He speaks how I feel," said the voters that were polled after the election. Trump had to say all these things so that many right wing people on the fringe got angry enough to come and vote. They were willing to go with all that follows. Trump is a man who does not spend any time among these common people outside his rallies. But he gave them a voice. All that was secondary to political goals such as cutting taxes. The things Trump does always go with the bigger player. He favors corporations over workers, corporations over EPA and government agencies. Always Goliath over David. None of that matters. The poor white people will just go from working for one corporation to another. None of them are entrepreneurs other than the simplest and lowest earning  level of making cash from a business. Roofing contractors, lawn service. Those with no office, just a cell phone and an occasional accountant for help.

A minor point I will give to these simple rural and small town folk. The federal government is not very visible in many places in America. You go to a small town anywhere, and it is the state, city and county that take care of things. The US highway or the Interstate may be a hundred miles away. In this sense, they really do not see much benefit from the federal government. Unless you sign up for the military and then use the education credit later, you may not deal much with the government. But you pay federal tax.

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