Please don't shoot me when I say that not all Trump voters are moral misfits beyond redemption. Although his gang of religious zealots, White supremacists and conspiracy theorists fit that category perfectly well, I maintain that there are a number of Trump voters receptive to change. Data from past elections supports this: 12 percent of people who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries voted for President Trump in the general election and 13 percent who were past Obama voters voted Trump. Below, an article on Trump's appeal to the working class. If we're to change minds and help build a movement against Trumpism, we need to understand why working people went for Trump.
Yes, I see clearly, now, thru that article, that Trump hood winked the far-right working class by giving them a hope of good jobs, like factory jobs, that don't necessarily require a lot of training or skills.
They, meanwhile, are the descendants of the slave and serf class of Europe, whom have never gotten anything from the oligarchs, but the shaft.
They've been bamboozled by the mythical great Europe trope, which never was.
The Trump-types are the one's who sold them to the Ottomans (Turkey).
Trump, our Director of Nat'l Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and our FBI director, Kash Patel, are likely Russian moles, who are now in control due to the their misplaced racism, which has been purposely cultivated in America. Google and see their strong ties with Russia.
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Please don't shoot me when I say that not all Trump voters are moral misfits beyond redemption. Although his gang of religious zealots, White supremacists and conspiracy theorists fit that category perfectly well, I maintain that there are a number of Trump voters receptive to change. Data from past elections supports this: 12 percent of people who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries voted for President Trump in the general election and 13 percent who were past Obama voters voted Trump. Below, an article on Trump's appeal to the working class. If we're to change minds and help build a movement against Trumpism, we need to understand why working people went for Trump.
"Racism and xenophobia are part of why so many ordinary workers were won over to Donald Trump, but that's far from the whole story."
Of course it's not the whole story, but IT'S A HUUGE CHUNK of it! The white working class has always voted against its self-interest when it comes to America's electoral politics. They did so with Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump & Trump. Any white politician who can assure the white working class AND THE WHITE POOR that 'at least they're not black' and can trick them into believing they are superior to Black folks and that we present a challenge to their social status, whatever that is, will win the white working class & white poor votes. Even Dr King spoke on that white phenomenon.
I like Jared Abbott's writings - he's done a few things on Caribbean politics, but on this I think he's underplaying anti-blackness in American electoral politics.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that racism and xenophobia were huge factors in Trump's electoral success. Trump’s demagoguery is an old American tradition; he follows in the footsteps of other skillful demagogues like Woodrow Wilson and Stephen Douglas. Prepare now for the long fight against Trump's effort at eviscerating all of the New Deal reforms.
How do we fight these demagogues? At the risk of being an old broken record, the way to combat this is through solidarity. As brother Fred Hampton states: “We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity.”
However, much has changed since Hampton was assassinated by Chicago police. Gay rights, Gender equality, Black power, the Black movement, etc.- all noble causes which I endorse, but I'm an old school socialist that believes in the Marxist perspective of class struggle. I believe that's the road to liberation.
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"Racism and xenophobia are part of why so many ordinary workers were won over to Donald Trump, but that's far from the whole story."
Of course it's not the whole story, but IT'S A HUUGE CHUNK of it! The white working class has always voted against its self-interest when it comes to America's electoral politics. They did so with Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump & Trump. Any white politician who can assure the white working class AND THE WHITE POOR that 'at least they're not black' and can trick them into believing they are superior to Black folks and that we present a challenge to their social status, whatever that is, will win the white working class & white poor votes. Even Dr King spoke on that white phenomenon.
I like Jared Abbott's writings - he's done a few things on Caribbean politics, but on this I think he's underplaying anti-blackness in American electoral politics.
In the Caribbean because the structural anti-black racism was not such a factor, most of the revolutionary intellectuals of the time no doubt privileged class struggle. Guys like Norman Manley, Walter Rodney, and up to Maurice Bishop spoke in class struggle terms. My experience in the US forces me to also emphasize the race factor and how it can't be underplayed.
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I believe in the class struggle too.