Dear White People and Trump is Evil

[BridgeTroll]

The anger is only going to grow among the former working and middle class.  And their anger couldn't be easier for politicians to hijack for their own interests. The pieces are in place for some very scary outcomes over the next few decades.

The key then is to acknowledge and address the causes of the anger rather than dismissing the middle and working class as unsophisticated rubes and racists in fly over country.  I noticed in Trumps speech last night that much of it was directed at Union rank and file and I think he was at least partially successful in pulling voters from that pool in the last election... 

[bill]

Flyover country will get virtually nothing from Trump but a few months of feeling vindicated*


*If they do get any benefit it will be due to programs that have been proposed and designed by democrats for many years yet have been obstructed by the GOP.  But now that the GOP can get credit for an infrastructure program or whatever?  Perfect idea Don!

This may be the perfect leftist quote.

He will not do anything for the middle class but if he does it will be because of democrats. Bravo 

[Tacachale]

The anger is only going to grow among the former working and middle class.  And their anger couldn't be easier for politicians to hijack for their own interests. The pieces are in place for some very scary outcomes over the next few decades.

The key then is to acknowledge and address the causes of the anger rather than dismissing the middle and working class as unsophisticated rubes and racists in fly over country.  I noticed in Trumps speech last night that much of it was directed at Union rank and file and I think he was at least partially successful in pulling voters from that pool in the last election... 

That is certainly true. And it's something a lot of Democrats miss entirely.

However, as jlmann says above, I doubt there's really a fix for the core problems of places like the Rust Belt, which is the decline of manufacturing that once provided good income and benefits. Some of it has been lost to outsourcing (which neither most Democrats nor the vast majority of Republicans will stop), but automation and technological changes are a big part too. I once read that Kodak used to employ 145,000 people. Today that number's 6400. Unless they start putting film in our smart phones, those jobs ain't coming back. Someone like POTUS can make a show of bringing a few thousand jobs back from Mexico or whatever here and there, but it's not going stem the tide. It's like King Canute trying to command the waves.

[Adam White]

Flyover country will get virtually nothing from Trump but a few months of feeling vindicated*


*If they do get any benefit it will be due to programs that have been proposed and designed by democrats for many years yet have been obstructed by the GOP.  But now that the GOP can get credit for an infrastructure program or whatever?  Perfect idea Don!

This may be the perfect leftist quote.

He will not do anything for the middle class but if he does it will be because of democrats. Bravo

Doesn't sound anything like any self-respecting leftist would say.

[BridgeTroll]

Well if those jobs "aint coming back" then no wonder the democrats have abandoned the unions... well except for the public sector and teachers... where there will always be job growth...lol

[Adam White]

Flyover country will get virtually nothing from Trump but a few months of feeling vindicated*


*If they do get any benefit it will be due to programs that have been proposed and designed by democrats for many years yet have been obstructed by the GOP.  But now that the GOP can get credit for an infrastructure program or whatever?  Perfect idea Don!

This may be the perfect leftist quote.

He will not do anything for the middle class but if he does it will be because of democrats. Bravo

This is the perfect leftist quote:

Most political pundits predicted that Donald Trump would face defeat in the Presidential Elections. Likewise with the European Referendum in June, they were confident that the Remain side would win. On both counts, they were wrong.

In next year's French Presidential elections the Front National, led by Marine Le Pen, is expected to make major gains. In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland, a far right populist group, may be in a position to challenge the ruling Christian Democrats. The Freedom Party of Austria gained most votes in the first round of the Austrian Presidential elections in April 2016.

Clearly, there is a surge in support for populist parties and politicians across Europe and in the USA who peddle nationalism, xenophobia and racism and pose as champions of the people against the establishment. Widespread disaffection with and mistrust of the mainstream political parties have emerged. It is not too difficult to see why this discontent has come about.

Over the years, due to the deregulation by governments of financial markets, capital has been able to flow more freely around the globe. Thus many relatively well-paid jobs in manufacturing and in industry have moved from richer to poorer countries where the labour costs are lower. At the same time, we have witnessed the erosion of trade union power. There has been increased impoverishment in former industrial areas, such as the 'rustbelts' in the USA. Impersonal market forces have penetrated into the everyday lives of working class people resulting in a feeling of powerlessness. Governments of whatever persuasion appear at best set against these forces or at worst conniving with them. Supranational institutions, that embody these impersonal market forces, like the European Union, have become increasingly unpopular.

Concomitant with this process of 'globalisation' has been the rise of immigration of workers to the richer countries. This has fostered unease among workers in the host countries who fear increased competition for jobs and scarce resources. Populists, like Donald Trump, UKIP and the Front National, exploit these anxieties for their electoral gain.

Over this period, there has been a rise in Islamophobia resulting from terrorist attacks such as the September 11 attacks, the London bombings and more recently the attacks in France and Belgium. Populists have not been slow in latching onto this fear of Islamic terrorism. Banning Muslims from entering the US was a central plank of Trump's electoral platform.

There is no doubt that the social and economic effects of the 2008 financial crash have increased the discontent of the working class. While workers have had to endure austerity imposed on them, the rich minority continue to become richer. Governments are seen to be complicit in this increasing inequality.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites and the failure of social democratic parties like the Labour Party to reform capitalism, socialism and communism have been seen by many workers to have failed. Therefore, when workers become angry with the effects of capitalism, many of them turn to right-wing populist parties. Ironically these parties usually champion the same free market capitalism which ultimately lies behind working class discontent. They offer no solution to working class problems, and like the Social Democratic Parties before them, they will inevitably fail in their efforts to transform capitalism should they come to power. Socialism is the only solution to working class problems.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2016/no-1348-december-2016/editorial-life-after-trump

[BridgeTroll]

That can be shortened to... "Socialism is the only solution to working class problems."

[Adam White]

That can be shortened to... "Socialism is the only solution to working class problems."

It could be, if you wanted to ignore the analysis. That's like saying, "sunlight is good for you" without explaining why.

[Tacachale]

Well if those jobs "aint coming back" then no wonder the democrats have abandoned the unions... well except for the public sector and teachers... where there will always be job growth...lol

I wouldn't say the Democrats have abandoned the unions. I'd say unions are declining along with the workforce they used to represent. I'd say the Democrats' bigger problem by far is with white working class folks who *aren't* in Unions. And of course the Republicans are pretty staunchly anti-union and are widely perceived as favoring the wealthy. That includes POTUS, though he's better at talking to the working class about those types of things than most Republicans.

[BridgeTroll]

Well if those jobs "aint coming back" then no wonder the democrats have abandoned the unions... well except for the public sector and teachers... where there will always be job growth...lol

I wouldn't say the Democrats have abandoned the unions. I'd say unions are declining along with the workforce they used to represent. I'd say the Democrats' bigger problem by far is with white working class folks who *aren't* in Unions. And of course the Republicans are pretty staunchly anti-union and are widely perceived as favoring the wealthy. That includes POTUS, though he's better at talking to the working class about those types of things than most Republicans.

Hmm... those rust belt states that Hillary ignored/lost are very union.  The dems certainly pay lip service to them but even those unsophistacated flyover folks know when they are being used and ignored... and it cost the democrats the presidency the house and the senate... oh and the governers.  Pelosi looked like she ate a turd last night...lol

[Adam White]

Hmm... those rust belt states that Hillary ignored/lost are very union.  The dems certainly pay lip service to them but even those unsophistacated flyover folks know when they are being used and ignored...

Wow. Now it's like you're practically quoting that editorial.

[BridgeTroll]

Hmm... those rust belt states that Hillary ignored/lost are very union.  The dems certainly pay lip service to them but even those unsophistacated flyover folks know when they are being used and ignored...

Wow. Now it's like you're practically quoting that editorial.

Which one?  It is a fairly common sentiment...

[Tacachale]

Well if those jobs "aint coming back" then no wonder the democrats have abandoned the unions... well except for the public sector and teachers... where there will always be job growth...lol

I wouldn't say the Democrats have abandoned the unions. I'd say unions are declining along with the workforce they used to represent. I'd say the Democrats' bigger problem by far is with white working class folks who *aren't* in Unions. And of course the Republicans are pretty staunchly anti-union and are widely perceived as favoring the wealthy. That includes POTUS, though he's better at talking to the working class about those types of things than most Republicans.

Hmm... those rust belt states that Hillary ignored/lost are very union.  The dems certainly pay lip service to them but even those unsophistacated flyover folks know when they are being used and ignored... and it cost the democrats the presidency the house and the senate... oh and the governers.  Pelosi looked like she ate a turd last night...lol

I agree with this. But Trump isn't exactly a traditional Republican. Romney, McCain, and even GW Bush lost most of Rust Belt states that Trump picked up, despite the fact Republicans had increasing success in Congress and the governorships. However, my Democratic friends would point out that on the congressional level, gerrymandering had as much to due with Republicans taking control as political positions.

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2017/03/01/trump_is_selling_snake_oil_to_the_rust_belt.html

Trump Is Selling Snake Oil to the Rust Belt
By David Ignatius March 01, 2017

WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump boasts that his "America First" trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That's probably his biggest "deliverable" to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and that renegotiating trade agreements would save the middle class.

What Trump is offering is a palliative that has raised false hopes. He implies that a few good trade deals will refurbish the Rust Belt and restore the good old days of manufacturing. It won't happen, and to pretend otherwise is a hoax.

Trump campaigned on a false argument that global trade was taking away American jobs. So he killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) his first week in office, and is now demanding changes in NAFTA and other trade agreements. He has dressed up a few announcements from jittery U.S. corporations to argue that doomed manufacturing plants are being saved and that jobs are "already starting to pour back."

Stephen Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, has inflated this economic nationalism into a full-blown ideology that posits a battle between workers who are being hurt by globalization and an elite that benefits. Referencing the TPP at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference, Bannon said that Trump "got us out of a trade deal and let our sovereignty come back to ourselves."

But the numbers show that Trump and Bannon are fighting the wrong battle. Manufacturing employment has indeed declined in America over the past decade, but the major reason is automation, not trade. Robots are taking most of the disappearing American jobs, not foreign workers. Rather than helping displaced blue-collar workers, Trump's promises of restoring lost jobs could leave them unprepared for the much bigger wave of automation and job loss that's ahead.

The most persuasive numbers were gathered in 2015 by Michael J. Hicks and Srikant Devaraj at Ball State University. They showed that manufacturing has actually experienced something of a revival in the United States. Despite the Great Recession, manufacturing grew by 17.6 percent, or about 2.2 percent a year, from 2006 to 2013. That was only slightly slower than the overall economy.

But even as manufacturing output was growing, jobs were shrinking. The decade from 2000 to 2010 saw "the largest decline in manufacturing employment in U.S. history," the Ball State economists concluded. What killed those jobs? For the most part, it wasn't trade, but productivity gains from automation. Over the decade, the report notes, productivity gains accounted for 87.8 percent of lost manufacturing jobs, while trade was responsible for just 13.4 percent.

Robotics allows manufacturers to create more output with fewer people. That's not a conspiracy imposed by Bannon's global elite. It's simply a fact of economic life and progress. And it's not just blue-collar workers who are suffering. Smarter machines kill jobs in finance, law and, yes, even journalism.

To see how Trump is mislabeling the causes of workers' anger, take a look at job losses in various industries. In motor-vehicle manufacturing, 85.5 percent of job losses came from productivity gains; in steel and other primary metals, 76.7 percent; in paper products, 93.2 percent; in textiles, 97.6 percent.

Trump proposes that we "buy American." But in a world of globalized supply chains, what's an American car? Does a Toyota Camry made in Kentucky count? Is a Ford F-150 truck assembled in Kansas City American even if some of its parts were made in Mexico? The interdependence of global manufacturing is part of why Ford and Toyota stay healthy and profitable, for workers and shareholders both. How does Trump propose to unthread this subtly woven quilt?

Trump wants to deliver on his campaign promises. Good for him. But by misidentifying the source of the Rust Belt's woes, he is doing his supporters a double disservice. He's giving them false hope that jobs replaced by machines will be reclaimed by people. Alas, economic history doesn't move in reverse. Perhaps worse, Trump is giving people reasons to avoid the job retraining that would prepare them for the next tsunami of automation, which consultants predict could destroy more than half of all current jobs.

What will Trump say then to the workers in Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia who believed in him -- who thought the old jobs were coming back -- and are savaged in the next round of job losses?

[Adam White]

Hmm... those rust belt states that Hillary ignored/lost are very union.  The dems certainly pay lip service to them but even those unsophistacated flyover folks know when they are being used and ignored...

Wow. Now it's like you're practically quoting that editorial.

Which one?  It is a fairly common sentiment...

The one I posted from the Socialist Party.