The White Middle Class is Angry!

[maxrandb]

They joyfully supported a “Trickle-Down” economic plan, sold to them by a kindly, “aw-shucks” grandfatherly figure that has led to their destruction.

They gleefully supported the destruction of Labor Rights and Workplace Safety, because…if nothing else…they’ve learned that the “real” economic problems in our country are due to the average worker having “too much” power.

They enthusiastically bought into the notion that it was “their” Social Safety net, NOT the coffers of some multi-national corporation that had become bloated and ineffective and was “holding them back”.

They gave full-throated support to the notion that, if only those persecuted millionaires and billionaires had more money, they would surely share it with them.

Hell, they could even quote you Dr. “Seussian” stories of Grasshoppers and Ants, or the classic “Three Guys Go into a Pizza Shop” pop-up book to explain it all to you.

They’re Rubes!

They’re Fools!

They’re the chicken who votes for Colonel Sanders.

They’ve been played like Pete Townshend's smoldering Stratocaster.


In other words…

They’re Reagan Democrats!

[bklyncowgirl]

1. Both parties have sold them down the river and now it's payback time.

Some will vote for Sanders but way too many will vote for Trump

[meow2u3]

2. The white middle class has a right to be angry

But they don't have a right to take their anger out on those who'd put them back to work in jobs with good pay and benefits to boot. Instead, I've heard of many WMC* people flocking to a guy who blames the other for their woes instead of the real culprits--multinational corporations who shipped their jobs to overseas slave markets.

*WMC= white middle class

[Freelancer]

3. Love "Townshend's smoldering stratocaster." I'm going to use that.

It's a kind of class derangement syndrome.

I dunno when it happened, but my ethnic group -- middle-aged white -- stopped identifying with the little guy, even when they ARE the little guy.

Example: I've noticed that sometimes when I go to garage sales, when I put items on the card table to pay, another white guy (or woman) behind me will say "you're not charging nearly enough for that" to the seller. WTF???. This happens even when it's obvious they are there at the sale because they're barely getting by themselves. It seems that many white folks see themselves as being in the owner/operator class, no matter what strata of society they actually occupy.

It vexes me.

[Skwmom]

4. Hate to give you the bad news but it's a lot more than the white middle class who is angry and your

description of the angry white middle class being limited to Reagan Democrats is wrong.

[maxrandb]

7. My point was to try to illustrate

the complete idiocy of anyone who ever called themselves a "Democrat", voting for St. Ronnie Ray-Gun.

You can trace all the ills of the Middle Class back to the precise day that asshat took office.

[a kennedy]

5. and they seriously think this blowhard TV hawker is going to change their position in life???

[davepc]

6. I'm pretty sure I remeber Al Gore defending NAFTA and singing its praises

While Ross Perot basically predicted what would happen with uncanny accuracy.

[pampango]

9. Trade's not our problem. It's a distraction. We trade at 1/3 the level of Canada, Germany and Sweden

FDR would tell you that you solve the problems of the middle class with high/progressive taxes, strong union legislation, an effective safety net and effective regulation of business, then you expand trade. Modern, progressive Canada, Germany and Sweden would tell you the same thing.

Trump focuses on trade as an "US vs THEM" xenophobic campaign tactic that his base eats up. "It's the Mexicans! It's the Chinese! It's the Japanese! Just don't look at the man behind the curtain!" At the same time he opposes progressive taxes, strong unions, the safety net and business regulation. In that sense he is just like 1920's republicans like Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. They did exactly what Trump proposes and our middle class suffered - not that Coolidge or Hoover cared about them any more than Trump does.

[HereSince1628]

10. Not surprising, Al Gore was one of the early leaders of the DLC

And that's not to throw him under the bus, that's a matter of history.

But, remember, the DLC, and it's new dem descendants by whatever label, was and is a syndicate of politicians intended to promote election of politicians like themselves.

I can't imagine a more obvious lesson for voters on the Left from this primary than that party structures were established and exist to promote the election of politicians who are most similar to those who control the organization.

Apparently the Left needed that lesson because their righteous anger at the imposition of structural biases of the DNC suggests that they didn't know that prior to this election cycle.

[dembotoz]

8. and hrc appeals to these folks how?