Trump’s Unshakable Support and the Democrat’s Fatal Mistake
We on the Left — politicians, pundits, and people — seem endlessly dismayed and mystified by the strength and durability of Trump’s base of support. No matter what the guy does — what offense, outrage, apparent crime, mental failing or craziness — nothing seems to diminish his “numbers”.
In exasperation, there is a tendency to wave off the MAGA phenomenon as a result of poor education, general stupidity, malice, insanity, or simply bad/evil people. Unfortunately this leaves no recourse other than to fight, defeat, and restrain a growing hoard of malevolent citizens. That’s not a hopeful picture, and clinging to it many prove fatal to the progressive cause if not to civil society at large.
Yet, are we ready to believe that thirty to forty percent of the population is lost to evil or insanity? What else might be going on?
Note that despite Trump’s many appearances, tweets, interviews, and rallies, he rarely says anything of an actual, informational nature — no plans or proposals, no coherent vision or actionable goals for the nation. Consider instead that he is giving voice to something else, something legitimate, something that makes his audience feel heard — and then inclined to rally behind him as their spokesman.
What might that be? Consider the middle-aged blue collar worker whose job has been shipped overseas, or the small business driven under by a corporate megalith, or a company bought out and run into bankruptcy by a hedge fund. Consider the millions who lost their homes in the S&L crisis while no banker was held accountable. Consider the single mom whose utilities have been shut off in winter due to Junior’s mounting medical bills. Meanwhile, Wall St is booming, Jeff Bezos builds a $100M yacht to service his $500M yacht, and over the past century, our economy has gone from few if any to more that 700 billionaires (according to Forbes).
All of the above supported by an economic system and a political leadership class (on both sides) that appears to be fully on-board with the status quo. In this light, the so-called MAGAs have every right to feel lied to, cheated, exploited, stolen from, and disregarded. Even if misdirected, their anger is legitimate.
Of course Trump has no solutions, yet so far he is the only one giving consistent voice to their plight.
The Democrats ignore this at their peril. Yet they, too, are hamstrung by a system (Capitalism) that depends upon constant extraction of disproportionate value (a.k.a. “profit”). Even when the want to help, their hands are substantially tied.
Unfortunately, the path to destruction appears to have been set. Over the past century, most of the readily available value has been extracted. Now, the system can only become increasingly destructive for workers, communities, small business, the environment, the climate, Third World countries and international relations.
Transforming an entire political-economic system at this stage seems daunting, but at least acknowledging the legitimate pain of ordinary Americans, then actually doing something about it would be a start. To that end, perhaps attempting to bring inequality down toward mid-20th Century levels, by diminishing the income tax and replacing it with a progressive tax on wealth. That itself would be a challenge but is approachable, if the country has not already slid too far toward a plutocratic autocracy.
In any case, going forward, a truly viable leader must position him or herself as a leader for *all* Americans, not simply one “team” or the other. Boldness and vision are required — who at this stage is up to the challenge?