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From: John Hemington
From: John Hemington
Below is a link to an interesting article from the Allentown Morning Call describing the fact that many Democratic voters, particularly white working class voters, are switching parties in order to vote for Donald Trump. This seems to come as a surprise to many, but it shouldn't be at all unexpected given the way working class Americans have been both ignored and screwed by the elitist leaders of both major political parties since 1980. The reality is that these so-called leaders have come to represent only one class of voters – or, more accurately, donors – corporate rulers and the billionaire class. Working class voters, particularly working class white voters, had come to expect and depend upon the ever rising standard of living which persisted from the end of World War Two until about 1980. But that expectation began to dissolve with the advent of Ronald Reagan's presidency in 1980 and continued to dissipate during the Bush I years. However, it was during the presidency of Bill Clinton that the floodgates finally opened with the Clinton promulgated "New Democrats" or Washington Consensus version of the Democratic Party. This amounted to a deliberate sell-out of middle and working class Americans dreams and aspirations to the monied corporate and financial elites.
It also marked a total reversal of prior Democratic support for poor and minority populations in deference to myth-based ideas that the nation could no longer support or justify social programs because of their cost. It also marked the advent of "trade agreements" which were supposedly going to make American products more competitive, but instead made foreign lands more profitable as locations for corporate manufacturing At the same time the political mantra of both parties was cuts to taxes for the rich and social programs for the poor. During this period working class whites were told that their jobs were being eliminated because of unstoppable foreign competition and the unstoppable flow of immigrants from Mexico and Latin America; that undeserving Blacks and Latinos were gobbling up all of the money available to satisfy their desire to lay around and collect welfare payments for doing nothing. It was more of the old tactic of dividing those at the bottom and turning them against one another by claiming that one group was the cause of the problems of the other when both were victims of a system designed to keep them subservient to the rich and powerful.
The election of Barak Obama based on a campaign of "hope and change" with promises that he would change the basic tenor and operation of the system that had become so oppressive to the middleclass, working classes and the poor proved to be an illusion based on lies and distortions. Not only did Obama continue and expand upon the unconstitutional policies of the Bush II administration including more wars everywhere, he effectively completed the process of selling out the country to the financial elite which had begun during the Clinton administration – there could no longer be any hope for any real change in the political landscape.
So now here we are confronted with a new election cycle once again dominated by corporate and financial interest money with Hillary Clinton once again carrying the banner of the "New Democrats" for the financial elite – a woman who never met a war, an Israeli leader, or trade agreement she didn't love – competing with a billionaire real estate mogul who appeals to those working class voters who have been shafted again and again by a system gone berserk in the name of money power. Can there be any wonder that the Donald generates such a visceral level of support when he strikes out against the entrenched elitist political class? The surprise to me would be if those he didn't attack, the white working class people of this country, didn't flock to his side and support his candidacy no matter how irrational he might appear to many of us.
Yes, Donald Trump may well be an incipient Fascist. He certainly has the narcissistic need for adulation and control; but that is not going to dissuade those who feel that the entire political system is arrayed against them and their children's future – and with good reason. Most of these people are not crazies. Most are feeling a desperation which is rooted in years of declining living standards and years of false promises by the political class of both parties. They have been conditioned not to anything which smacks of socialism even though some socialist type policies would benefit them mightily (think Social Security – which the love – Medicare for All, unemployment compensation, postal service, infrastructure maintenance, and many others), but the mere word sends chills down their backs. Thus, in all likelihood, insufficient support for Bernie Sanders to overcome the fixed non-democratic Democratic Party primary system, even though Sanders is not a socialist in any real sense of the word. He is an unreconstituted Roosevelt liberal of the post-World War II vintage.
Thus, there is only one place left for those frustrated working class Republicans and party-switching Democrats to turn and that is Donald Trump. Unfortunately, it appears that people of color and Latinos are continuing to buy into the self-created Clinton myths that she has fought for Blacks and Latinos for years when the only thing she has really fought for is money and power. Perhaps someday they will figure out the "New Democrat" scam and finally rebel, shedding the political chains which bind them. For the rest of us there appears to be little or no hope for anything positive to come out of this election. But things could get much worse for all of us with either Hillary or Donald – not to mention Ted.
John
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