The Working Class and American Politics

One of the great mysteries in U.S. politics is how the Democrats lost their connection to the working class.  Until very recently, there was a huge stasis in this country in which labor aligned with the Democratic party, and management aligned with the Republicans.

My theory, and I know I’m not alone here, is that:

• Almost all the new wealth that came into the United States over the last 40+ went to the upper 1%, which gutted the middle class, and left more than half the country with virtually no savings, living paycheck to paycheck, and deeply frustrated.

• Educational standards declined sharply over this period of time.

• Republicans, Trump in particular, exploited this combination of ignorance and frustration, blaming the Hollywood elite, the Deep State, Dr. Fauci and other “corrupt” scientists, immigrants, people of color, and liberal “wokeism” for the financial pain that is inflicted on white America’s workers.

Having said all this, it is quite possible that the great labor strikes of the day will be effective at alerting us to the plight of labor.

It’s also true that the GOP has gone too far for even the most poorly educated Americans.  Its leader by a huge margin is Donald Trump, who, by virtue of his status as a traitor to his country, doesn’t stand a prayer in the 2024 election.

In many ways, we’re a pathetic country, the butt of jokes from peoples around the globe.  But even many Trump supporters have a limit, one that was crossed when the former president came within a gnat’s a** of overthrowing the U.S. government.