In this post, I present two articles for your consideration (they are not written by me). The first article, by David French, was published by the conservative publication, the National Review. David offers words of support for an article entitled “The Father Führer” (paid article) that was written by his colleague, Kevin Williamson. Williamson, known for his reporting from places in Appalachia and the Rust Belt, is expressing some rather strident feelings about working class white people who live in what he describes as “downscale communities” filled with welfare dependency, drug and alcohol addiction, and family anarchy.
The second article is a blog post written by Jack Metzgar, who is a Professor of Working Class studies in Chicago. Metzgar’s view is decidedly more nuanced as it draws into contrast the contradictions of white working class social identity. At any rate, there are some interesting rhetorical maneuvers on display here, so let’s have a look together.
Working Class Whites Have Moral Responsibilities – A Defense of Kevin Williamson (by David French)
“This weekend, my colleague Kevin Williamson kicked up quite the hornet’s nest with his magazine piece that strikes directly at the idea that the white working-class (the heart of Trump’s support) is a victim class. Citizens of the world’s most prosperous nation, they face challenges — of course — but no true calamities. Here’s the passage that’s gaining the most attention:
It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.
If you spend time, says Williamson, in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that. Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America. So the gypsum business in Garbutt ain’t what it used to be. There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down.”
They Deserve to Die
“The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities,” says Williamson, is that “they deserve to die.” And so he continues:
“Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster, There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. … The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles.
Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.”
David French, having reflected on the words of his colleague, admits they are strong words, but insists they are true and important to say.
“My childhood,”says French, “was different from Kevin’s. I grew up in Kentucky, live in a rural county in Tennessee, and have seen the challenges of the white working-class first-hand. Simply put, Americans are killing themselves and destroying their families at an alarming rate. No one is making them do it. The economy isn’t putting a bottle in their hand. Immigrants aren’t making them cheat on their wives or snort OxyContin. Obama isn’t walking them into the lawyer’s office to force them to file a bogus disability claim. For generations, conservatives have rightly railed against deterministic progressive notions that put human choices at the mercy of race, class, history, or economics. Those factors can create additional challenges, but they do not relieve any human being of the moral obligation to do their best.
Yet millions of Americans aren’t doing their best. Indeed, they’re barely trying. As I’ve related before, my church in Kentucky made a determined attempt to reach kids and families that were falling between the cracks, and it was consistently astounding how little effort most parents and their teen children made to improve their lives. If they couldn’t find a job in a few days — or perhaps even as little as a few hours — they’d stop looking. If they got angry at teachers or coaches, they’d drop out of school. If they fought with their wife, they had sex with a neighbor. And always — always — there was a sense of entitlement. And that’s where disability or other government programs kicked in. They were there, beckoning, giving men and women alternatives to gainful employment. You don’t have to do any work (your disability lawyer does all the heavy lifting), you make money, and you get drugs. At our local regional hospital, it’s become a bitter joke the extent to which the community is hooked on “Xanatab” — the Xanax and Lortab prescriptions that lead to drug dependence
Personal Responsibility
French advises compassion even as we call on people to do better:
I have compassion for kids who often see the worst behavior modeled at home. I have compassion for families facing economic uncertainty. But compassion can’t excuse or enable self-destructive moral failures. Nor does a focus on personal responsibility mean that the government or cultural elite are blameless. Far from it, and I’ve written at length about the role of progressive culture and progressive policies in cultural decline. I loathe the progressive welfare state and the elitist sexual revolutionaries who do all they can to create a culture that it simultaneously dependent and self-indulgent. I hate the mockery that poor and working-class people of all races endure, but we live in a nation of mutual responsibilities, and the failure of the government does not require the failure of the citizen. Kevin is right. If getting a job means renting a U-Haul, rent the U-Haul. You have nothing to lose but your government check [David French].
And now for some contrast, let’s take a look at this post.
What the Narrating Class Gets Wrong About the White Working Class (by Jack Metzgar)
Most of the time the white working class is invisible in the U.S. But during elections there is a flurry of attention to this “demographic” among political reporters and operatives, and as a result, also among the millions of us who read, listen, and watch their reporting, analyses, and endless speculation about who is ahead and behind and why.
During election years white people who do not have bachelor’s degrees (the increasingly common definition of “the working class”) become both a somewhat exotic who-knew-they-were-here-and-in-such-large-numbers object of discussion and a target for freewheeling social psychologizing. I’ve been watching this phenomenon since 2000 when Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers first revealed that a large chunk of the American electorate is white and working class. As it has migrated from social scientists, with their “operational definitions” and facility with math, to pundit world, however, loose stereotypes and class-prejudiced assumptions have been growing exponentially. It’s becoming a low-level one-sided cultural class war where what Nadine Hubbs calls “the narrating class” blithely assumes that working-class whites are “America’s perpetual bigot class.”
Prize-winning author Connie Schultz noted [check out another post on this website about “White Trash”] how many reporters and columnists associate people like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin with white working-class ignorance and bigotry. A Cleveland Plain Dealer writer, for example, complained: “Thanks to Trump, the entire Palin clan is now back in the spotlight they so crave. Come July, Republican National Convention organizers should house the whole dysfunctional family in a trailer park in Ashtabula [Ohio].”
As it happens, both of Schultz’s grandmothers lived portions of their lives in trailer homes in Ashtabula, Ohio. She commented that “since Donald Trump’s charade of a candidacy caught fire, I have heard many fellow liberals freely toss around the terms ‘white trash’ and ‘trailer trash.’ These are people who would never dream of telling a racist joke, but they think nothing of ridiculing those of lesser economic means. Every group has its ‘other.’ For too many white intellectuals, it’s the working class.”
Unlike Schultz, most of the narrating class are from solidly middle-class and upper-middle class backgrounds with little or no experience of working-class people of any color, but in my reading, it is relatively rare to see outright classist remarks like the one Schultz quotes. Rather, for the most part, class-prejudiced assumptions are based on professional middle-class ignorance and misunderstanding.
Take the popularity of Trump that is attributed to the white working class, for example. Numerous studies in the wake of the first election showed a strong correlation between working-class affiliation and Trump support. Brookings found in a national survey that 55% of “Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who support Trump are “white working-class Americans.”
But this does not mean what Brookings thinks it means. Among all adult whites, nearly 70% do not have bachelor’s degrees (this is often a major criterion in determining “working class” social status in empirical studies). This means that at 55%, the white working-class is under-represented among Trump supporters.
Conversely, unless Trump is getting much more minority support than reported and his supporters are disproportionally college-educated whites. They make up 30% of the white population, but they were 40% of Trump voters in the Brookings survey.
There are two reasons for this kind of error, the one made by Brookings, a highly respected non-partisan Washington D.C. think tank. One is simple ignorance of social class demographics. The bachelor’s/no bachelor’s binary is widely used to separate whites into two broad classes, but many analysts and reporters have no idea about how to estimate these groups and their relative sizes in the overall population. Moreover, they almost routinely assume most white people must be college-educated professionals like themselves; the people among whom they live and work.
The other reason for this kind of error relates to the assumption that white people who graduated from college are less racist, less anti-immigrant, less anti-feminist, less homophobic, and generally more tolerant of diversity than people who have not [many college professors can attest, we would like to believe this assumption is valid, but we find no solid evidence of this based on our interactions with students]. And so we find in political commentary, this assumption is never challenged and it makes you wonder: why not?
Here’s where Nadine Hubbs’s Rednecks, Queers, & Country Music is so helpful. She shows how an educated white “narrating class” tends to see working-class whites are “ground zero for America’s most virulent social ills: racism, sexism, and homophobia.” Hubbs traces this tendency to a Southern tradition of “white elites placing the blame for racial violence on poor whites as early as the turn of the twentieth century.” Hubbs quotes Patricia Turner, who has dubbed it “the fallacy of To Kill a Mockingbird”, which is the “notion that well-educated Christian whites were somehow victimized by white trash and forced to live within a social system that exploited and denigrated its black citizens.”
The “Educated” Middle Class is a Big Part of the Problem
This class-based blame-shifting (“It’s not us, it’s them!”) has the effect of lending support to racist and other systems of oppression. How? As Hubbs points out, the well-documented structural/institutional racism that involves banks denying mortgages, employers not hiring blacks, and landlords refusing and/or exploiting black renters is not generally carried out by poor and working-class whites, but by white middle-class professionals. Middle class whites, unlike poor whites, have structural power. And they use it. All the time.
Consequently, when intolerance and bigotry are assumed to be the unfortunate/misguided attitudes of “poorly educated,” “low-information” white voters, white middle-class professionals are, in effect, deflecting attention away from well-entrenched institutions within which many of them work; institutions that systematically deny opportunities to a wide range of people based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, immigrant status, and class.
This usually plays out in political reporting and analysis more subtly than in To Kill a Mockingbird, but it is no less class-prejudiced. Articles like “The truth about the white working class: Why it’s really allergic to voting for Democrats” use extensive polling data to explain why working-class whites are so strongly Republican, but they fail to mention that the white middle class is also allergic to voting for Democrats, if a little less so.
Even when writers explain how working-class whites’ “racial fears and anxieties” are based in their deteriorating living standards and working conditions, they inadvertently deploy the bigot-class framework. By not asking whether and to what extent there might be some “racial fears and anxieties” among the white middle-class as well, these analysts assume, and expect their readers to assume, that there’s not any!
Based on my own observations and experience of both working-class and middle-class whites, my guess is that there is more bigotry and intolerance in the working class. But it’s not a slam dunk. And as part of the narrating middle class, I recognize how comforting a blame-shifting bigot-class narrative can be, particularly when we see Republican presidential candidate front-runners advocate torture and carpet bombing while fulminating against Mexicans, Muslims, and New York values. But we should be aware that this one-sided narrative protects our class (middle class) from scrutiny and thereby supports institutional forms of exclusion that bite harder and more systematically than inappropriate sentiments and bad attitudes [Jack Metzgar].
To add to what Metzgar is saying here, I want to point out that middle-class whites with an education are usually more adept at deploying what Eduardo Bonilla Silva calls “colorblind” narratives to cloak their racism – they point to their “one” black friend as evidence that they are not racist, or they pat themselves on the back for not saying the “N” word, even as they proceed to go to work every day for institutions that actively promote racism and vote for politicians that promote racist social policies.
A Culture of Poverty
Breaking Brown columnist, Yvette New, refers to Williamson’s article, as she offers the following:
“Rich white people, she says, “have apparently had enough of poor white people.” Traditionally, this kind of criticism has been aimed at people who are not white – it has long been the case that African-Americans in the United States have been scapegoated for the country’s ills [even though studies of poverty demonstrate decisively that social problems commonly attributed to race are empirically correlated with problems of poverty and economic structural inequality].
Despite overwhelming empirical evidence, American political conservatives have demonstrated a tendency to overlook and ignore research; instead, they cite what are presumed moral failings of individuals. To bolster these claims, they cite scholars like Charles Murray, whose research was infamously featured in The Bell Curve, which is a now widely discredited work that relied on a combination of eugenics arguments and “culture of poverty” arguments to assert that poor African-American communities were largely responsible for their own failures.
This form of scapegoating has historically worked well since the time of Nixon’s Southern strategy (and to be honest, we might look all the way back to the Civil War), to the extent it indulges the “feelings” of working-class whites, who have over the course of time fallen victim to some of the same social forces of poverty and structural economic inequality. The result very often is that working-class whites end up voting against their economic interest in part to consolidate their “race” solidarity with wealthy whites, who need their votes.
In this regard, politicians have become adept at exploiting race in addition to the economic anxiety of this group, who tend to have their clocks perpetually set to 1955 and want nothing more than for someone to swoop in and rescue their American Dream that they feel is being taken from them by immigrants and the mystical/mythical “welfare queen.”
French and Williams are both alluding to what appears to be a shift in this (2016) election cycle in conservative politics: 1) the ongoing nervous breakdown of the Republican Party over its current frontrunner, Trump, and the people who support him, and 2) the final reveal of the long con on the white once-middle class that began when they were first flattered by the empty term, “Reagan Democrats.” Now they’re just meth-addled Oxy addicts who forget each other on the couch and produce kids that are just like them and who will grow up as couch-forgetting Oxy-addled meth-addicts who vote for President Ivanka Trump. Prior to Trump and his overt scapegoating of racialized groups, “dog-whistle” politics over the years has used coded language to refer to African Americans as “Welfare Queens,” “Takers,” and “People Who Want Free Stuff.”
Summary
Downscale communities are everywhere in America, not just limited to Appalachia and the Rust Belt (think Western and Central Pennsylvania or upstate New York). To say that “nothing happened to them” is stunningly wrong.
Over the past 35 years, the working class has been devalued in the United States. We are living with something akin to an economic version of the Hunger Games. It has pitted everyone against each other, regardless of where they started. Some contestants, such as business owners, were equipped with better means to fight these social currents. The working class only had their hands and backs. They lost and have been left to deal on their own.
Some people might be uncomfortable with the focus on only the “white” working class, considering how all working class people are struggling in the U.S. What makes them different (other that the fact that they vote different) is that some have been led, more or less, to believe that color guaranteed them a small measure of success and security. This particular group has consistently during this same time frame voted for political leaders who supported and passed policies that empowered businesses (mostly big business) while supporting the widespread destruction of policies that protect workers.
White working class people supported aggressive “free market” policies that reward the “winners/makers,” regardless of where those people started out in life; policies that did almost nothing to protect the “losers/takers.” So for example, they supported Reagan era “trickle-down economics” that pushed (and got) massive tax cuts for the wealthiest. They supported and got the deregulation of Wall Street. They supported every effort to dismantle the social safety net: food stamps, welfare, social security and Medicaid. They supported the systematic undermining of unions.
Some of the policies they supported (i.e. free trade) were also supported by the Democrats (think about NAFTA). These policies were justified by the notion that the entire country would win because the winners will win more than the losers lose. And of course, it assumed the winners of economic fundamentalism would share. But they did not. Businessmen and the laws that protect them are about paying the absolute minimum and not paying a livable wage.
As it turns out, white working class people are the ones making up a big portion of Trump voters. Oddly enough, many are possessed by the sentiment that “he is one of us.” Rightly or not, they feel they have been forgotten and abandoned by the government and seek an outlet in anger and hatred.
Too often, when America’s working class show up at the polls to vote, they vote for patriotism, nativism, religion, and sloganeering – not their economic interests. They vote for the candidate they believe shares their moral values (code – religion) and faith; or for the candidate that attacks anyone that remotely appears to be a “commie” extreme left “anti-American” “Libtard.” They vote for the candidate that appeals not to their intellect, but to the one that makes them “feel” good. They have, in short, been voting against their own interests for years, taken in by the very politicians who promised to help them.
But it is important to acknowledge the working class have been effectively played by both political parties, but more one side than the other. Members of both parties have voted for economic programs that benefit the wealthy, putting policies into place that work in tandem with the forces of globalization, which exacerbate the process of sucking manufacturing and skilled jobs away from the US. Nonetheless, it is only one party that stokes the already simmering fire, using fear, hatred, and anger to mask the fact that they continue to strip the economy bare for all but the wealthiest or most fortunate.
That these facts do not sink in with this group of people is sad. A big part of the reason why this occurs is that they have bought into the “personal responsibility” narrative. That have, in other words, internalized the narrative that if your life is failing it’s largely your own fault. The real fault, of course, lies with the economic policies that need to overhauled.
What remains of the American dream is now a distant echo. The fact that many white working class people have recently found out they really are no better off than those “welfare leeches” is to some extent fair turnabout; it hits them particularly hard, because many of them had greater expectations for themselves. Realistic or not.
Nevertheless, we can’t just pretend they don’t exist. We ignore them at our great peril.
Sources
National Review article by Kevin Williamson
Blog Post by Jack Metzgar
http://breakingbrown.com/2016/03/conservative-magazine-compares-poor-whites-stray-dogs-human-children/
Discussion Questions
The National Review writers both suggested the answer to white working people’s problems is that they need to move. What do you think about this? Even if people were open to this option, what are the potential barriers that might get in the way of them simply moving?
Do you think most people are prepared to live their life if needed outside of their communities? Could you move if you had to in order to be economically more secure?
Do you think people in more rural locations are perhaps taught to fear the outside and people not like them, preferring instead to cling to the traditions of home? Do prejudice and fear get in the way?
Do you think “personal responsibility” narratives fall short of explaining the economic experiences of both working class whites and African Americans?
Why do you think working class whites vote against their own interests? Does this occure for reasons of falling victim to a shoddy education system? Or are they simply embracing stupidity?
Do you think poverty and other problems that trouble working class people in general make it difficult for them to think about much less acknowledge the structural undepinnings of their various hardships? That is, is the experience of economic struggle prevent achieving social and political consciousness, or is it perhaps some people “chose” ignorance for other reasons?
Are the “broke” white people in this case merely victims of their own bad choices?
What about the college students? What do you think about their arguments?
How can we use Marx’s arguments about “alienation” to describe the plight of white working class people? How, for example, has the conditions of their labor caused them to become alienated from their work, the products they produce, and themselves?
In light of all of this, why is that it is predominantly white working class people who send their kids to fight the wars?
A lot of people are not ready to live outside of their community – especially if the community is small. When you’re in your own community you have people that look, think, and act like you, the thought of leaving this behind is hard for a lot of people. The thought of moving to be more economically stable sounds really appealing, but realistically deep down I don’t think that I could do it. Uprooting myself from a place of familiarity and comfort is very unappealing to me. Working-class whites have a lot of complaints about not making enough money but they constantly vote against their own needs due to racism blinding them. For example, a lot of white working-class people need extra help, for instance, welfare but instead of voting to increase welfare/keep it going they will vote to end welfare because they believe that black people are taking advantage of the system and the government. Additionally, this also stands for things like healthcare, a lot of these white people need insurance but they will vote against it because of their racist rhetoric and poor education. If people that had these opinions got a good and proper education then they would realize that the main enemy in the government is trying to keep them down and not “lazy” black people. What they do not realize is, the way that America is set up (the majority of the time) the rich will stay rich and the poor will stay poor because of the resources they have. It’s like being tasked to make lemonade, the poor people only have lemons and a pitcher while the rich have lemons, a pitcher, water, and sugar. It’s hard to break into a new social class, especially when you lack the resources to do so, so one cannot say that someone actively chooses to be poor. It just goes to show that no matter how hard someone works, not everyone can make it into the big league.
I can mostly relate to the first article because I am from a considerable small city. Although we have a diversity of color and different social classes in my area there are still people that are called “white trash” and are looked down on by people of a higher class. I believe the article is right when it says the government doesn’t put drugs and alcohol in their hands. It’s a choice, but I think this issue starts in the communities the influence of parents, siblings and neighbors also play a factor. I look at this as the same problem in predominantly black poor communities: many individuals who are not motivated to succeed in life often become comfortable in the areas that they feel wanted. Every person that is poor faces challenges ahead, some are greater than others but it’s up to that individual not to become a product of their environment. Furthermore the lack of motivation to succeed also contributes to the lack of education where there is a growing debate that uneducated Americans make political choices on this that make them feel good, not the things they need.
I can relate a lot with the first article. I am from a very small and rural town where the majority of people are white. I have seen addiction first hand because of my mother, father, and younger sister. The author makes a point of how no one tells them to drink or do drugs but that’s what people in those areas do. My father has been an alcoholic my whole life, he is a republican, and is part of the white working class. But when time went by he chose to get addicted to harder drugs. My father went my whole life without having this issue but being in this small town full of doing the same things over and going to the same job every day since he was 16 I think he got bored and started making the wrong choices so that I guess he wasn’t bored anymore. There is also the argument that people from small towns need to move. I agree with this statement because I also have a personal connection to it. When I was five years old my mother’s heroin addiction started. It went on and on my whole entire life. Her in and out of halfway houses and rehabs. That is until she almost lost her life and at that point she made the decision to move an hour away from where we’re from. I think this has been the best decision because the area is full of new people, there’s more to do, and no one knows her or our family. I feel as moving to a new area gives a person the chance to start over in a new environment which is necessary to some people. Also, where I am from people are mostly republicans who voted Trump because they feel he does what is best for the white middle class person. And I feel that people where I am from would not be able to survive somewhere else. They are so set in their beliefs and their way of life none are willing to move.
I didn’t mean to get so personal with this post I just thought it was easier to understand how the part of moving out of a small town is beneficial and why it is hard for some people to do it.
I just want to say here, since many people are in favor of the “just move” way of fixing the problem, that this is much easier “said” than done, particularly when we are talking about the poor and working-class people (and to be honest, it’s difficult for many middle-class people too). Generally speaking, when people don’t have social networks and contacts outside of the area where they have lived for most of their life, job and housing connections can be problematic. And then there is the problem of what happens if they actually get a job, make the move, and then lose the job? Now what? What do you do when you are unemployed and living away from family and friendship support structures? Some may say “get another job.” Yet too often people do exactly that – they “take whatever they can get” even if it is not a good fit for them. They may even accept an exploitative working situation out of desperation, but a job like that most likely won’t last very long.
The point I am making here is that it is extremely difficult to “just move” even though this superficially seems like the obvious thing to do. This is why so many people stay put and hope for the best in even the bleakest of situations. They dig in deeper and before long they are simply trapped in the cycle of poverty. And before long they find poverty becomes normalized. Many of their friends and family are similarly trapped. This is why they often turn to drug dealing as a “quick fix” to resolve an economic problem, though this quickly yields to drug-using, which in turn is attributed to be a personal failure.
Recognizing that this is a cycle that traps many people, we need to have government policies in place that can help bridge the gap and break the cycle. Yet it is often the very same poor and working-class people who are against these policies that might help them because too many don’t want to see groups they deem to be socially (and genetically) inferior getting the same help.
The media drives society these days in both very positive and negative ways. The media’s power over society also goes hand in hand with miseducation and ignorance as well. personally do not believe that many people are ready to live outside of their communities, and I feel as if a feeling a safety and comfort play a large role in this. Some parents do not want to leave where they grew up and went to school, or have lived for a long time. Some may also want their children to get the same education they had. Money also plays a very large role in this. Many people do not have the time or money to just pick up and move their lives to a different community. It is just not financially possible for almost anyone in the lower or middle-class. I do believe this article completely focuses on just the white working class, and not African Americans and other races as well. I think this article would be more impactful if it was not just centered around the white working class, but all other races as well; for they too also encounter these struggles as well.
Every article cannot effectively address all groups of people. The guiding focus and purpose of the article is to focus on the white working class and to spotlight how they tend to behave in distinctly different ways than other racial groups. Unlike those other groups, who do a much better job of advocating for their interests, whites are more prone to act out in ways that make their own lives more difficult; they prefer white solidarity and siding with their economic oppressors, rather than reaching out acting in concert with other racial and ethnic groups who share their fate. When they do this, they cite economic logic and not racial logic, however, their racial solidarity is unmistakable.
The “broke” white people are victims of their own bad choices. Instead of voting to help poor people overall (black, white, brown, red, yellow) they align and vote white — for candidates that only enrich the white upper class. I have seen firsthand how broke white people idolize Trump and all he is doing for the working class. You can’t reason with them. I heard them complaining because the Democrats were holding up the corona stimulus package. I was like, well, they don’t want to pass it because there is no oversight on the billions going to corporations and basically it’s a corporate bail out, but hey, they will throw you a couple dollars and make it look like they’re helping you out A LOT. They were like, well they have to bail them out so they can provide jobs and so the money trickles down. I responded, with, didn’t they give them enough money with republican corporate tax cuts that ended up lining shareholders pockets, AND NOT TRICKLING DOWN, to you! That’s what is about to happen again and guess who is bailing them out . . . the WORKING CLASS, YOU IDIOT. Sorry.
Working-class whites have been getting duped since the time of Reagan, who famously pushed supply-side economic theory (“trickle-down economics/”Reaganomics)). Not surprisingly, the only people who believe this theory are the people who know the least about economics. The theory has been debunked over and over again by countless experts, but its the broke and middle-class white people who hold on to that chestnut and keep handing their “hard-earned” tax dollars over to wealthy people because they imagine they sit around all day and night trying to figure out how to use their money to make jobs for the poors. It would be funny if it were not so sad.
Conservatives, without evidence, tend to believe that government should legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous because they will share that wealth and prosperity with the people below them in the form of jobs. The Democratic view has been to legislate to make the people at the lower income scales more prosperous because they will spend their money and it will percolate throughout every level of society. There is hard evidence of the latter. No evidence to support the former. Trickle-down is a fantasy.
A 2019 study in the Journal of Political Economy found, contrary to trickle-down theory, that “the positive relationship between tax cuts and employment growth is largely driven by tax cuts for lower-income groups and that the effect of tax cuts for the top 10 percent on employment growth is small.”
For more on this, see “Tax Cuts for Whom? Heterogeneous Effects of Income Tax Changes on Growth and Employment” (PDF). Journal of Political Economy. 127 (3): 1437–1472. doi:10.1086/701424.
I feel like a lot of the influence in society comes from the media. I feel like some media outlets are reliable, while others are not. They twist the truth and tell you what they want you to believe. If it came down to it, I do not think that the average American would be okay with living in an environment outside of their own because we are so accustomed with our own daily patterns that most people would struggle. A lot of people in the American working class avoid social and political consciousness because they know their values and are afraid of change. President Trump is trying to help the middle class and the working class of America but people refuse to believe that due to their hatred for Trump. I believe that he is doing what is best for the American people and that he wants the best for us and this country.
Personally I do not believe that if people had to live outside of their community they would be prepared. I do not believe this because people often do not live in a fully financial environment. With today’s expenses it is very expensive to keep your head above water from bills and taxes. Often at times people are comfortable and adjust to the lifestyle that they are in. To up and randomly move to another community is a lot of work and money so often it takes preparation to take such a large step. I do not believe that I would be able to just up and move to a new area to be economically more secure.Even though I know it would be a risk that needs to be made to better myself I also am aware of how large of a risk it can be and how it can have a very bad ending if things do not go as planned.
I don’t believe that people are prepared to live outside of their communities if needed. I believe money would be a huge issue in partaking in this. Not only money- but also finding a job in a different area and being comfortable. Their will always be a struggle if you are already in a lower class. I think I would be able to move in order to be economically more stable but I know it would be hard. Financial situations- along with daily life would be difficult for just my mom and I to move.
In the article they talked about working class whites and how they vote against their own interests. It says “they vote for patriotism, nativism, religion and sloganeering- not their own interests. They vote for the candidate they believe that shares their moral values and faith;.” I agree with this statement because it does show that they are only voting for the candidate that makes them feel good. Overall it damages multiple aspects of our society.
I think most members of the white working class would be unprepared if they were asked to pack up all of their things and move with the goal of increased economic security. In regards to the article, when it comes to the white working class, Williamson says that many families across the nation are struggling with “welfare dependency, drug and alcohol addiction, and family anarchy.” If these families were asked to move to other places, and expected to contribute to society, I think many of the people Williamson is describing would have an extremely hard time adjusting to a new environment that demands more from them than what they are currently doing. This is because, as Williamon says, “there wasn’t some awful disaster… Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America.” Many of the circumstances that these people are placed in are a direct result of the irresponsible decisions that they have, and continue to make. If I were put in that situation, I would definitely move if it would mean that I would be more financially secure. A valid point that is made in the article is that many members of the white working class who believe themselves to be disenfranchised have the absolute ability to bring themselves out of their situations. The difference between their time and ours is that they are seeing people of different color out in their everyday life with more than them, with the thought in their mind being “why do they have more than me”, and consequently attributing that comparative failure in their lives to the greater failures of others whites as well.
I grew up in a neighborhood in Maryland whose demographics were typical of a rural farm town – white. As I grew up with my peers, I noticed that a surprising amount of them were given their political ideology by their parents. These complex arguments were answered for them at a young age by their parents who have only ever believed one set of political ideals, lived in one house their whole lives, and have never set foot on a foreign country. The idea that these people are continuously reluctant to engage in cultures and ideology that is different from theirs is interesting, and should be studied empirically.
I believe that the lack of education accounts for how the working class votes against their interests. Since the taxes of the people who send their children to public schools determine how much funding the schools get, the public schools (where I can fairly confidently assume that people in the working class send their children due to the lack of money) are in a worse condition than public schools that teach middle class children or private schools. If these families have stayed in the same area for more than a generation, then it is fairly safe to assume that the adults received the same education. Without a good education, the jargon of politicians is nearly incomprehensible. When people do not understand what is being presented in front of them, generally, they go with the crowd (the crowd in this case is white people). When white people from higher classes rally behind policies that harm the working class or lower class, people from the working class may not realize it. They vote against their own interests because they do not know any better. I remember one article that said that about 30% of americans supported welfare, but when they were asked if they supported helping the poor, about 70% agreed. The jargon confuses people, especially when people are too busy working so that they can live paycheck to paycheck.
Then, the college students are an interesting case. Clearly, they do not lack an education. The group of students was a good mix of races, genders, and sexual orientations. Is it possible that some people are just so closed-minded that they refuse to believe the facts? In this case, it may be that some people are so tied to their race (white people) or to their gender (men) or to their party (republicans) that they fail to see how their actions will negatively affect them later. Maybe this “brainwashing” isn’t necessarily tied to a lack of an education as much as a lack of common sense, although a lack of education may make it easier for people to just go with the flow.
I have never thought that members the white working class have much of an individual, personal responsibility for their situation. Like many other working-class families, many members of the white working-class are products of generational poverty.Although I believe some members of the white working-class lack the resources and perspective to understand their situation politically, I can see why underpinnings of white entitlement can further skew the political view of some. However, I don’t think that the claim that “nothing has happened to them” and the portrayal of a U-Haul truck as a quick fix are accurate or informed. There has been great devastation in the wake of lost jobs and one cannot underestimate the demoralization of being labeled “white trash”. Simply moving is not an effective measure and seems almost ignorant to suggest. Not only are many only secure in their own community, moving is an immense financial, emotional, and psychological burden that most are unable to undertake even if they have nothing left to lose. This all contributes to a feeling of misunderstanding and neglect from ‘outsiders’. I agree that the white-working class receives the most attention at election time. Any other time, they seem to be considered a secluded, backwards, underachieving group which intensifies this feeling of neglect and makes many vulnerable to extreme and ultimately unhelpful political views.
I think both David French and Kevin Williamson bring up some great points about the white working class. Williamson uses some harsh words, but I do like the way French summarizes it. The white working class tends to make excuses for themselves as to why they cannot work and in turn they look to the government for help in their situation. It is vital to see French’s point that the white working class needs to change the way they view their financial situation. Instead of blaming others for their problems, this class needs to take responsibility in order for society to flourish. The white working class sees their race as an advantage and a somewhat form of entitlement. The idea of personal responsibility, I feel, falls short of explaining the economic experience of African Americans in particular. In some areas race is unfortunately still an issue and no matter how hard an individual may work, it sometimes may come down to the color of their skin. African Americans may self-reflect and feel they are doing their best and their financial situation is, in reality, a result of unfair pay.
Growing up in an unhealthy environment or living with a weak, unstable income are hardships that other people sympathize. The problem arises when these obstacles are looked at as excuses for the white working class to give up and feel hopeless and doomed. When they do not receive the government’s assistance, these people feel abandoned and betrayed. In turn this class then looks for a leader, like Trump, they feel is like them and will fight for them and their rights. French emphasizes that these mindsets are what needs to change in order to improve the lives of the people in this class. By understanding their lives are in their control, it may allow the white working class to realize the policies they believed their elected government passed to help them are really the root of their problem. The people in this class have become dependent on the government in such a way that they are beginning to see that they are no better off than the other individuals they felt superior over. The article is pointing out that the white working class is falling victim to the expectations they had for themselves that are not being met and allowing this to impede them from bettering their financial circumstances.
I personally do not agree with the writers of The National Review, that the problem with the white working class is that they have to move. I do not think that once they move, that all of their problems will be solved. By moving, they might be able to find better jobs and more opportunities. However, by simply moving locations, will not change that they are still in the working class with little income and room for expenses. The people of the white working class may believe that if they surround themselves with wealthy people, then they will be wealthy too. Additionally, the writers are not acknowledging that these people are not economically stable to just get up and move locations. One of the main problems with the working class, is that these people are stuck in these places. Whether the locations that they live in are nice or poor, these people are not financially stable to get up and move to a nicer place, with new opportunities.
I do not understand why the articles were focused on the white working class, when people of other races are struggling being in the working class too. The information provided should have spread out beyond just the white working class. There are similiar problems that people of other races face, that could have been explained as well.
Upon reading this post, I can better understand why some actively support Trump with such passion. The reason, claims Williamson, is because they feel dissatisfied and victimized by the current state our country is in. To the middle class, they feel as if their hard work is being devalued as a result of immigrants, China, or even recent economic recessions. Unlike most other recent candidates, Trump justifies these notions, earning him the comparison of a “giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral.” However, Williamson claims that poor white America has no one to blame but themselves for their quality of life that is a result of their own laziness and negligence. Similarly to heroin, which is prevalently used amongst the group referred to as “poor white America”, Donald Trump makes them feel good about themselves, proclaiming that the poor state in which these people are in is primarily due to other, lifting responsibility from the this class of people.
When the entirety of the white working class and Trump supporters are generalized as welfare-dependent drug addicts who live in anarchy, it makes their views toward politics within the country seem illegitimate. As Metzgar clarified, Trump’s supporters are “disproportionately college-educated whites” “whereas the white working-class is under-represented” in regards to Trump’s supporters. I believe that many comfort themselves with the idea that in order to support Trump, you must be either “white trash” or “trailer trash”. However, statistics prove that to be untrue. In addition, the same type of hate for “the others” which seems to fuel “poor white America” is the same type of hate used by people who are anti-Trump when they use terms such as “white trash” and trailer trash”.
I think moving is a very simple and easy fix to a problem as large as unemployment, drug addiction and alcohol addiction. Moving to a safe city where these men and women could all find jobs, live in a safe home and get away from the drug and alcohol abuse would be ideal. But logistically, I think this is very naïve. First, these families would have to sell their house. Who in their neighborhood can afford to buy a house? No one coming into the neighborhood would buy it because who would want to move to an impoverished neighborhood. Even if this family does manage to sell their house, they have to afford to buy a new house. Doesn’t sound like these families have much money to spare. Playing devils advocate, perhaps they do sell their house, move and buy a new one. They now have to find a job. Also doesn’t sound like these people are college educated, so they are limited to certain jobs, which most likely don’t pay that well. Yes, people can change locations, but habits die hard. You can get drugs and alcohol anywhere. Yes, these old neighborhoods are bad news. When the people around you are not challenging you to be a better version of yourself, you oftentimes copy what everyone else is doing.
No, I don’t think people are prepared to live outside of their communities. Regardless of how unhealthy an area might be, these people have family and friends and connections in these places. Moving for any family is a huge change and adjustment to make. Yes, I think I could move to be economically secure. I think it would be different for me, because I come from a well off family. Sure, it was would be difficult and hard and sad, but I wouldn’t be moving from a drug ridden neighborhood to an area that is only slightly better. I would live in a nice place, with my family, and my parents are both college educated, so their job would be pretty decent.
I 100% agree that people in rural locations have more ties to their community and home and values and are afraid to leave I have a family friend, who lives about 30 minutes away from me. They are by no means economically unstable, poor, or live in a bad neighborhood. She does however come from a humble home in Virginia, her family hunts for their food, and they have never really ventured out of Virginia. I can see so many differences between our two families, and we are only separated by 30 minutes. My friends husband once made a comment to me saying, “You kids up the street live completely differently.” I found this comment interesting because my friend is the wife in the family, and she is college educated. She is a teacher and sometimes I wonder why her husband never went to college. Sometimes I feel a sense of pride from him that he is a blue collar working class man. I found it interesting that he had never once voted in his life, yet he went to the polls to vote for Trump. Turns out he wasn’t even registered so he couldn’t vote, but he would have voted Trump if he could have. I definitely feel like their families feels “different.” That they have struggles that I will never understand. And this is completely true, but both of my parents did not come from well off families and they both worked their way through college and made good lives for themselves. I think this family feels like any class higher than their own is entitled, and looking down on them.
When I graduated from high school, I was offered a goat a graduation gift. Literally. Here’s how this relates.
Out in remote PA, I’ve met a whole amount of people who felt quite comfortable growing up, living, and dying within the ten-mile-radius around their homes, and this was truly not abnormal. I’ve thought the same way myself many times. Now, unlike a lot of people in my best friend’s public school, I was always working toward the goal of college. I knew I would gain a larger world view, yet not many people have to.
The restaurant in the photo at the top of this article that is presented in a poor location with elderly white poor men in them looks a lot like a good home-cooking family restaurant – many, really – around me. I love that very much, so when it was presented as a problem, of course I was shaken a bit. I don’t wish to think about my dear, small, family-oriented community as an issue or different than many people’s experiences, and reading about how people view this from the outside, or hearing that there might be racial implications embedded in living in an area where people grow up and continue the farm, but of course it is always good to consider.
I don’t hve much more to say about it other than the fact that not everyone around me was a conservative. My catholic church was, but my best friend and many of my friends absolutely were not, but there was no huge divide there seems to be presented as here.
Why do you think working class whites vote against their own interests? Does this occur for reasons of falling victim to a shoddy education system? Or are they simply embracing stupidity?
I think the white working class routinely votes against their own interests because of their superiority complex, naivety, and isolation. As mentioned in the article above many members of the white working class live in rural isolated places such as upstate New York or West Texas and since the economy is sometimes bad they live in poverty. This causes for there to be excessive drug use and a general lack of hope that causes despair for many. The media for many years popularized the terms welfare queen and promoted the image of people of color using the government to fund “extravagant” lifestyles and live without working. I think theres a since of superiority complex, meaning that working class whites may feel that although they are poor at least they aren’t “those people”. Another reason working class whites probably don’t vote based on economic reasons is because of the way they’ve been manipulated by the media and politicians to believe black people, immigrants, etc. are the enemy and the reason they have no jobs. Politicians like to blame minorities because it hides the failures of their policies. Also, their lack of education doesn’t help the situation and it keeps them in this cycle of poverty, despair, and then blaming.
I am going to address the college students because they are the most disturbing part of this entire article. Although these students are extremely well educated, they seem to have built many of their ideals off of their parents and great grandparents and seem not to look at the actual problem with America. I am not saying all of them received their ideas from their parents, but there is a guy that I met here at Loyola who has this same thought process just because that is what his parents believe.
To start, building a wall isn’t going to stop immigration. Immigrants are willing to drop everything they have and risk their life to come into this country and work for nothing. How is a wall going to do anything? They will find another way over it, around it, or through the tunnels that are ALREADY present from the drugs that AMERICANS purchase. Also, who is going to pay for this wall? Mexico? With what money? Their economy is extremely unstable and it would be entirely unbeneficial and ironic for them to build the wall. Finally, Hispanics are willing to work and accept the jobs that most Americans will not take because they know the money isn’t worth the work. Most Mexicans will work for their time here and actually attempt to take a swing at the American Dream, while us Americans try to steal it from others who came here for the same reason our ancestors did.
I consider myself a republican, but Trump is not a republican. He does not represent who we are and what we believe. His morals are so far fetched, entirely racist, and you cannot run a country like a business.
These students need to do more research and actually think about how much worse this county’s racism problem will be with him as president. The last thing our country needs is someone who will spark rage and racism. How do they not see this?
Upon reading this post, I can better understand why some actively support Trump with such passion. The reason, claims Williamson, is because they feel dissatisfied and victimized by the current state our country is in. To the middle class, they feel as if their hard work is being devalued as a result of immigrants, China, or even recent economic recessions. Unlike most other recent candidates, Trump justifies these notions, earning him the comparison of a “giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral.” However, Williamson claims that poor white America has no one to blame but themselves for their quality of life that is a result of their own laziness and negligence. Similarly to heroin, which is prevalently used amongst the group referred to as “poor white America”, Donald Trump makes them feel good about themselves, proclaiming that the poor state in which these people are in is primarily due to other, lifting responsibility from the this class of people.
When the entirety of the white working class and Trump supporters are generalized as welfare-dependent drug addicts who live in anarchy, it makes their views toward politics within the country seem illegitimate. As Metzgar clarified, Trump’s supporters are “disproportionately college-educated whites” “whereas the white working-class is under-represented” in regards to Trump’s supporters. I believe that many comfort themselves with the idea that in order to support Trump, you must be either “white trash” or “trailer trash”. However, statistics prove that to be untrue. In addition, the same type of hate for “the others” which seems to fuel “poor white America” is the same type of hate used by people who are anti-Trump when they use terms such as “white trash” and trailer trash”.
Do you think most people are prepared to live their life if needed outside of their communities? Could you move if you had to in order to be economically more secure?
This question is one that I have thought about personally many times. This is something that I was thinking about when I was applying to college: would I switch schools in order to be more economically (financially) secure. The answer was yes, but I did not move forward with the action, because it has not become as issue as of yet. Thinking about people who are in the working class and still not making ends meet is disturbing because the world seems to think that the working class especially the white working class has enough to make ends meet. I think that depending on how long a person has been in their community would answer if they were prepared to leave. This also depends on the person, meaning that if a person is not someone that likes to stay in one area for long anyway, this decision is much easier to make. If it was me, and I knew that the decision to move on was better than staying where I was then, yes, I would leave my community. It’s not a question about being prepared, but a question of accepting that this has to happen for the greater good of myself, and those who depend on me (if that is the case). Most of the time people are not willing to move out of their communities because they are afraid of the what will come from that choice. If they would make their future their motivation then the decision would be much easier to make, in my opinion. Because I have already accepted that this might be the case for me one day.
As for someone who ha seen, hard work being put through to the point that their own physical starts to ware out. To say you have not been working hard, is something I would like to make it clear with people. Try working until your physical body starts to fail, and you will soon need surgery just to fix what happened. My own father has working all his life just to help us with the cost of education. So the notion that people think that white Americans are being victims of poverty is something that is largely misleading.
In the next paragraph has me questioning those white Americans who work because it states, “What makes them different is that they have been led, more or less, to believe that color guaranteed them s a small measure of success and security.” You should not feel that your skin color is the difference between you coming successful or not. The belief that the pigment of your skin color gives you an advantage over people is very misleading as well to those Americans who actually work hard.
At first I was confused on the correlation of topics like white people, drugs, and politics. I didn’t know three extremely different variables had the possibility of being related, but as my eyes continued to read, I began to understand the author’s essential point of view. Throughout the first piece, the blame is put on Trump-supporting, middle-class, white families. I was extremely curious because this is something I can relate to. Growing up in a conservative white family allowed for this possibility of relation. French implies generally that all people falling under these categories are “lazy”, which is something I can disagree with. He also implies that drugs are prominent in these types of households, which is a remark I had never thought of. Culturally, I have never been exposed to such drastic things like drugs, however the region in which the author speaks of isn’t familiar to me. When French states that people like this (white americans in rural southern states) are “negative assets to our economy”, he is generalizing an entire middle class white population. Not all white republicans living in Kentucky or Tennessee are probable to cheat on their wife or be addicted to drugs…
The video following the article, “Trump On Campus”, was super sarcastic and humorous, and quite entertaining to a college student like me. It broadened my spectrum on what Donald Trump actually stands for, as well as taking into consideration the negative affects of the media on politics. The college-educated students disagreed extremely with Samantha Bee, so essentially the video gave me a better sense of liberal points of views as well conservative points. Disagreements like this are what add fuel to the political fire. I made sure to read these articles after I watched the debate tonight, so I could really soak up all the information to formulate my own opinion. However, after reading/watching someone else’s opinion, I am again left uneasy in a political state of mind.
I don’t believe that all poor white people could just solve all of their issues by picking up their lives and moving to a different location. That takes away from the fact that they have made bad decisions. Those bad decisions are what make them the person they are, and by simply picking up your things and moving would not change their values and character. But I do believe that not all people are lucky to be born in the right environment with the right things provided for them, so moving might be a good option for them. If they are conscious of the fact they will not improve their lives staying where they are because of the small opportunities around them, then it is a smart decision for them to move. Like I said, not every “broke white” person from America is a victim because of their own decisions, it could be because they don’t know the opportunities in store for them in other places.
Common Sense tells us that when problem’s impact our lives, we should find a way to solve them. The degree of difficulty to solve a problem can range from easily fixable to practically impossible. The white working class, according to both authors, have a solution in the form of moving away from their original location. Various obstacles can affect anyone no matter the class, race, gender when trying to move. The white working class, usually economically deprived, may not have enough resources to move. They could also have deep roots in their communities which could sway their minds about moving. Traditional as a word enters my mind when the white working class comes up in discussions. Traditions could and may effectively harbor an individual from getting away from his problems. One does not simply escape hardships without going through it. People have grounded faith, rules, and social mores within their communities and leaving it could potentially cause further problems. Moving for economic reasons sounds good on paper but when the time comes for action, I do not know if anyone including myself would move away from an area I know and potentially love. Those that live in rural areas most likely have slightly false stereotypical views of those who live in the suburbs and cities. Traditions definitely mean something more to those who have not moved their family location for generations. I do not think prejudice and fear steer people’s minds who live in rural areas, rather I believe they want to improve their lives without much regulations from those who live in cities and towns.
Personal responsibility seems outdated and overrated, with the age of increased globalism the white working class and African Americans should receive aid and help from those in power. The ability to have a positive impact on the lives of those who struggle economically, builds greater rates of success. Yes, we should have responsibility but we are not alone in this country. Working class whites vote against themselves on the basis of tradition. The tradition to not vote for the best candidate for their situation but to vote for the one that brings their anger out but leaves them in the same outcome plagues the white working class. Education determines a lot about people and it is especially important when elections come up. Politically educated people vote for the one that most identifies with their beliefs and desired solutions. The white working class falls short of education in politics. The one that makes them angry usually leaves them angry. Poverty impacts everything about a person’s life choices. Poverty leaves people uniformed and disfranchised. This leaves those who have a minuscule amount of knowledge to vote for someone which can harm them in the long or short run. We do not choose the economic situation we are born into. We may change the structure and outcomes of our lives but those born in situations of poverty find it difficult to escape it. The white working class, a class that only those who are educated can get out of, struggles to eliminate its poverty.
College students bring up an excellent example of how one can achieve education and still have various dissenting opinions on the myriad of issues at hand. The white working class send their children to the military so they can get the benefits. Some may have patriotic motivations but the military and its benefits are way too irresistible for a struggling white working class family.
The article by Richard Wolff talks about how capitalism and racism works together. Capitalism is when the country’s trading industry is controlled by private owners (majority are the white upper class.) People actually believe it’s natural to assemble people into groups based on nationalities. Which could prove why, white Americans are still the most successful inside the United States. The generations that prosper off capitalism doesn’t actually want to alternate the system. The inequality between races conveys too much of cash flow for some people to rationalize the treatment of others.
Figure heads throw out empty words of freedom and equality, when really the white man hired the same day as you, doing the same work will make most likely make a few dollars more. Whites rarely have to worry about job insecurities and reoccurring joblessness because in a 2016 report conducted by the University of Illinois, people of color still have a higher unemployment rate compared to white Americans.
The “college students” seem to not be entirely educated at all in a moral dilemma status. Not to take away from their education, because I am sure that in their respected fields they are incredibly bright individuals, but they seem to be completely close-minded. Not a single student in the interviewed group showed any signs of a valid argument. The students instead rehashed stereotypical arguments that have become a overused staple of Trumps campaign. The fact checker that the comedian brought in was a nice touch during the interview, considering they had no evidence to back up the claims that they are simply taking from what Donald Trump was saying. It seemed as though they were hopping onto the bandwagon of supporters with no real insight into what Trump’s ideas for the country were; only what he claimed he would do that was also proven either false or that it would fail. Since it is a comedy piece, I do believe that there could be some selection in what they are showing the viewers in order to make it seem like the entire group truly doesn’t fully comprehend what they are talking about. There were probably individuals in that group that actually did have an argumentative side, but they were cut because it would not be entertaining to watch college students that actually understand what they are talking about. Regardless, the piece was interesting in the way that they showed it. If it is honestly true, then there is a close-minded issue in this country and the people living here are going to need to see the world in some ways that they might not be entirely comfortable in looking at.
It was shocking to me to. And it is true. One of my previous students knew one of the students in the clip. Your argument about evidence is spot-on. At the end of the day, it’s natural that based our different upbringings and social networks, we are all bound to have different ideas about how the world works. Reasonable people, however, should be swayed by evidence. Ideological-emotion-based thinking (the stock and trade of political parties) tends to be alergic to evidence.
I do not believe that the answer to any issue is to move away from it. Problems that are occurring in this country need to be dealt with and cannot be escaped by a simple move out of one’s neighborhood. People develop a family life within their communities, and it is difficult for families to just pick up their lives and to move somewhere else. Many families invest their entire life savings into their homes, and have mortgages to pay, bills from electric companies, water companies, oil, cable etc. all being sent to the place they feel the most stable.
If the time did come when I was not able to support myself or my family and my only option was to move to a place that is more affordable and more economically sound, then I feel that I would be able to do so. It would be difficult, and of course I would be reluctant to want to leave, however, if that’s what I needed to do to survive and thrive I would have no choice.
I do agree that it is possible that people who live in more rural locations could be fearful of the outside and people who are not like them. It is easy for people to be used to things that they are familiar with. If people were brought up believing certain things, it would probably be hard for them to change their point of view. Prejudice and fear does get in the way of change which is necessary for our country to grow and for all of us to be seen as equals.
When working class white people vote for Donald Trump I do not feel as if they are voting against their own interests. Everyone in this country has the right to vote for who they feel is suitable to lead them, that is the beauty of a democracy. Some middle class voters feel that they are able to relate to Trump and believe in the idea of America that he is putting forth. America has experienced leadership under the democratic party for 8 years under the presidency of Barrack Obama, and many feel that is time for a big change rather than continue on the path that America is on.
To reduce the American middle class to people who are driving this country into the ground do to their use of heroin and other drugs that make them feel good is unnecessary. Many Americans work hard day in and day out living paycheck by paycheck to do the best that they can for themselves and their families. While there are some people who take advantage of the system, I would not say it is all. Although it may be convenient to just get rid of people that cause difficulty, it is not the answer. Sometimes people need assistance from the government that they chose to participate in, due to the living standards of the world today.
After reading the article I feel as if some of the arguments French is making are true. I think that a lot of ones work ethic and motivation stems from their family and how or where they were raised. If you live in a town where morale is low and not many work hard for what they have, that will become the social norm for that area. If people begin to see that many others don’t work hard for what they have and that it is just handed to them via welfare, the government, etc. then they will assume that the same will happen to them. It creates a never ending cycle through generations of families in certain areas that hard work is not needed to succeed. I believe that these peoples sense of entitlement comes from prior experiences. Many people witness families and individuals living fine lives with no jobs and no desire to actively seek one, and assume the same successful lifestyle will be given to them. If for some reason it isn’t, they wonder what went wrong because they feel entitled to the same things as the people around them, the social norm. On the other hand, it is hard for a family to just up and move out of a town to start a so called new lifestyle. Although I agree that a large part of the problem with this never ending cycle is the location in which these people live, I feel as if the beliefs imbedded in one are often times the strongest cause for this lazy lifestyle and until their lives are not just handed to them nothing will change.
My initial reaction to reading these articles is the common need in society to find a way to differentiate or categorize people. In these articles, the authors focus on race and social class. I would like to start out by saying poverty is poverty, regardless of the color of your skin. One who is truly poor is struggling the same as any other human being on the street. Aside from that point it angers me to read that these people deserve to “die” because they are purely drug-addicted, broke Americans. There is a common theme in societal norms of sticking with what you know and here that is the people that resemble you. The problem in this thinking, however, is that although you look the same there is a clear gap in the wealth of white Americans. While our instinct leads us to want to identify together, or all support Trump, this idea is not beneficial to the large percentage of working class people. Due to their ability to not see past colors, this group of working class people essentially shoot themselves in the foot by blindly supporting policies that hurt them. At the end of the day, these people are sticking with popular opinion, as if it were peer pressure in high school. While these middle class people vote for candidates that support their needs, they also foster an environment that persuades the lower classes that America needs fixing and said candidate will do that; they fail to mention that it will only be fixed for those on the higher side of the economic see-saw. I believe the problem here has nothing to do with race, this is purely an issue of societal peer pressure and social class judgement.
While reading this article, I was taken back by some of the comments made within the article itself. Yes, there are those who are too lazy to work; those who refuse to change their lifestyle; those who will not better themselves, rather decide to turn to alcohol or drugs to ‘temporarily fix’ and numb the reality they unfortunately live in. However, there are those who work for every penny they have but still fall into the rut of poverty. To say that people should uproot themselves from their homes and pack up into a u-hauls is slightly barbaric. I am not supporting those who decide to spend the little money they have on heroin, rather I support those who are truly trying but can’t seem to improve their way of life.
After reading David French’s article and his thought that those who live in ‘dysfunctional communities’ deserve to die is a bit inhumane for my liking. While I do agree that those who simply waste their money on drugs is a waste of time, I do not believe that the rest of the working class deserves to die. You cannot lump the entire working class together, rather you need to dissect each group and address the poverty stricken communities.
I do think that people who grow up in more rural locations are taught to fear the outside and people like them. Based on my own experience and the article I believe that people who grow up in rural locations grow accustomed to their way of life and when that way of life becomes threatened they react. These people fear that if their way of life is disrupted they will be forced to assimilate to the rest of society. Because they are naturally separated from society in terms of land their ideologies become separated as well. I also believe there is a large amount of prejudice towards people who are not like them. These people have not been exposed to the multitude of cultures that people who grow up in more populated areas experience in their day to day life.
I do not thin k most people are prepared to live their lives outside of their communities. When people live in a community they become accustomed to life in that community. When they have to live somewhere else they are not adjusted to that way of life. If you take someone who has lived in the city for their whole life and tell them that in order to prosper they must live in a rural area they will be lost at first, but they will be able to adapt. I believe that nobody is prepared to live outside of the community that they live in, but everyone given the opportunity has the ability to adapt to a new surrounding.
It really is a question for millions of people to uproot their entire way of life, and move into what is essentially an entire different culture, for them to be able to find a job and stabilize themselves economically. Even if they were indeed prepared to move, their perhaps more closed-minded way of thinking, caused by living in such an isolated area with people of just their own race, could cause some sort of problems upon arrival in a new sort of location. In addition to this, I do think people who are not subject to mingling and living with people of other races are more likely to exhibit displays of fear, simply due to the lack of interaction. As I explained in my last comment, this is of course due to redlining for one, but it is also much more than that. I believe it is deliberate exploitation of a certain kind of people, in order to keep them fearful, uninformed, and unaware. The current state of the media preys upon these types of people. By taking advantage of those who are very unlikely to ever interact daily with another group of people, the media perpetually saturates them with images, stories, and videos of the most evil types of these people, in order to create the narrative that this people are substantially different than themselves, substantially more violent, substantially worse. It is this sort of distraction utilized by many media companies, owned by multi-national corporations, that attempt to use these stories to draw the attention away from those same corporations outsourcing these people’s jobs to other companies, thereby festering a never-ending cycle of economic despair and misfortune. Now, in addition to this, it is impossible to remove one’s decision making entirely from the equation. However, in the circumstances many people are in, the choices they have are few, and none are really that great to begin with. This ties in with Marx’s theory of alienation, that the fewer people who have connections and access too, the less choices one has.
If people did have to move, many barriers would be put up. They would no longer have a network of people for support and would have no connections when trying to get a job. I think that it is important for people to have relationships to help find jobs. I do not think most people are able to move someone where new and to carry on with their life. I think that would be a tough adjustment especially if you are economically unstable. I do not know if people are necessarily taught to fear the outside, however, in more rural areas I think that people become comfortable to those around them. If it is a predominantly white neighborhood, those people are used to being around only white people and would most likely be thrown off or hard to adjust to someone of another race. Prejudice definitely becomes a part of it and people start to believe things just because they are not surrounded by certain races. When it comes to the working class whites, I do not think that they realize who is out for their best interest. They see who they want specifically to run the country not listening to those peoples ideals or plan for the country. I am not shocked by the numbers of educated white men who are Trump supporters. Many republicans are sticking with him due to his party and his extreme conservative beliefs. Not every supporter is a member of the KKK or a broke white redneck, many white men do believe that he will make America great again due to his conservative ideas.
First off, I don’t agree that the answer to the white working people’s problems is to move. Anywhere that one may go, someone is experiencing financial problems. There are also different places that one could go to that experience the same financial issues, yet are of difference races and hold different experiences. People being asked to move to pursue financial freedom is like a blow to the chest. It is an insult to those experiencing financial difficulties, and would divide the country and cause more hate than we already have.
As someone who comes from a more rural location, I would completely agree with the idea that people are taught to fear the outside and people not like them, and cling to the traditions and ways that are familiar to them. I believe that this is a way of unconsciously passing on or ignoring the issues at hand, and attempting to have an answer for the racism, classism, sexism, etc. that one displays. Personally, I hear all the time that people were raised differently, so they can’t change their opinions. To me, this is an example of how one fears others who are different and outside of their immediate community, which promotes much hate and division in our country. I also come from an area where many people plan to vote for Trump. Some of these people, but not all, are of the white working class. They somehow miss the fact that Trump appeals to the 1% of Americans who are not struggling at all, instead of the working class that they identify with. People think that because Trump is against immigrations and movements such as the black lives matter movement, that the policies he puts into place will give them back the financial and political freedom that they feel these minorities have taken form them.
I am not sure that I would completely regard this lack of common sense completely because of poor educational systems. I personally went to one of the best schools in my state, and still experience the ideas that are displayed in this article. I come from one of the richest counties in America, yet there is still a huge amount of working class and less fortunate families where I am from. The education is not what is lacking for them. I attribute it to the lack of differentiating ideals and beliefs around them, and the majority of those who fear outsiders and instead stick to traditional thoughts, beliefs, and ways.
There are some people in general who are driven and will do almost anything to succeed, even if it is to move somewhere unfamiliar to be able to live. Thinking about it I don’t think people are prepared to live their life if needed outside their communities. Perhaps it’s that they always assume their job will be stable or they just don’t want to think ‘what happens if this all goes wrong.’ Many factors would go into moving away from your community. It’s harder depending on if you can afford to move right away, if you have a family and your spouse has a specific job and whether they will move and even the person’s situation. You would need to consider multiple issues. It’s not that easy to just pack up your life in a day and just go when you have other things such as a family, perhaps an individual or maybe even a couple would be better off with just leaving but not a family.
Personally, where I am currently in my life nothing is tying me down. If I were to get out of school and have to move to a specific location in order to be economically more secure I could easily do it and probably would do it too. However, I would consider specific factors about where I would move. I wouldn’t just move anywhere.
This article ties back into the idea of different kinds of privilege existing. While the poor white working class benefits from white privilege, at the same time it can not be ignored that they don’t benefit from class privilege. Class disadvantage and racial disadvantage can not be synonymous because it is not the same kind of disadvantage. Failing to recognize the disadvantage they face in terms of class ignores the difficulty of being in that working class and the advantages that simply being part of the “middle class” affords in terms of opportunity. White privilege does not negate the effects of class privilege just as class privilege does not negate the effects of race disadvantage, although they are two separate types of privilege and disadvantage. We believe that our capitalistic society affords everyone the same opportunity but it is has been proven that kids are consistently most likely to be a part of their parent’s same social class. When we talk about disadvantage, our rhetoric often doesn’t recognize that a lack of resources, education, etc., is an impediment to success, even if it the white working class. When we picture impoverished neighborhoods, I believe it usually consists of black poor neighborhoods, probably because a larger percentage of the black population is impoverished than the white population. As the article mentions, they are often forgotten until every four years, they serve to boost someone’s campaign. I believe their feelings of being forgotten leads to them to be bitter, and when for few months every four years they are remembered, it is reasonable that they hold on to every word that presidential candidates say claiming to help them. While better education overall can help begin to end this cycle of poverty, I think it is also better understanding of the issues that leads to change. Without realizing it, they are supporting the same policies that are helping to keep them at a disadvantage because they are desperate for any promise of hope. At the same time, it isn’t simply only their responsibility to enact change by understanding the issues and attempting to push more policies that stop systematically reproducing poverty, but also the responsibility of every other class to also understand the issues and vote for policies that actually solve them. Watching any debate, we can see that candidates often talk around the issues, offering words that sound hopeful, that promise opportunity, and are inspiring, but often fail to explain just how they will make change or just how their policies will better the country. I believe that as a society, we also feel less responsibility toward them because they aren’t people of color, so they haven’t been systematically disadvantaged because of their race. This doesn’t mean though, that they haven’t been disadvantaged because of their class and we tend to forget that, which is a dangerous way of continuing to allow the reproduction of this poor white working class because no one is pushing for change. As much as we claim that they need to vote for the right policies, so do we. The other issue is that we separate the two classes into an “us” and a “them,” which serves to keep two classes apart instead of coming together on the issue of poverty, which is all of society’s problem, not just those living as a part of poverty. Instead of voting on the basis of their offerings of hope, we need to begin holding our politicians accountable.
I don’t believe that all broke white people are merely victims of there own poor choices. Some of them have made poor choice which ended up leading them down the wrong path, and into trouble and eventually making them “broke”. On the other hand you have people who where born into this type of lifestyle, and don’t know any different. As a result they don’t have any incentive to strive for a better life. A lot of the people who are born into the working class do not really know any better, and they don’t really have anything to be a part of or don’t have anything to be proud of so they look to patriotism to fill that void. Trump looks like the candidate that will bring back old ideals, and like his slogan “Make America Great Again.” Since patriotism is one of the main things in there life when it comes to political views they follow the candidate who appears to be the most patriot which usually tends to be the republican party. In this election Trump appeals to what working class Americans wish there life was, or to go back to a time when they were not working class.
I believe there are a few reasons for the kids going to the war being from predominately white working class families. The first reason goes back to my previous answer about working class families being very patriotic and involved in there country, so going to war is a great way to represent your country. The second reason I believe these kids choose to go into the war is because there families don’t have enough money to put them through school, so this is a way for them to get it paid for and potentially get a good job. They will also have support for the rest of there lives. The third and last reason I have for going into the war is it will get them out of there neighborhoods, and give them some motivation to get a job because they will learn discipline.
To comment on the question of whether or not the answer to white working class people’s problems is to move, I disagree. The idea of getting up and moving from their communities does not seem like it would solve anything. The communities they live in are not necessarily the problem, it is not as if this group of people wants to struggle. By abandoning their homes they would possibly cause further setbacks for themselves.
In other terms, a potential barrier that might get in the way is the money to move or loyalty to their community. It can even be paralleled to the question that if Americans are having trouble in the United States, they should leave the country. To put the problem on a larger scale, I think this identifies how irrational the idea of white working class people moving from their communities will solve their problems is. If everyone moved nothing would change. The economic inequality will not be solved with this solution.
In reference to the demographic of poor white americans in the working class, I think that while it is not usually okay to stereotype that in this situation it needs to be done for people to fully be able to understand what is going on. When the author is saying these families need to rent a U-Haul and move away I understand the point thats being made. I come from a small town in North Carolina, way out in the country where a large majority of my friends have parents or relatives that I’ve met and spent time with that fit into this stereotype that is being described. When I’m there it seems like a problem that is really rooted in the community and I think that the only way that people with these views would be able to change their ways would actually be to move away. The reality is though that things like that would never happen because of all of the obstacles that they face given the situation that they are in so in the end it just seems like a classic lose lose situation.
Growing up in a small town in Upstate New York I can especially relate to this conversation on a more personal level. In my high school, it was quite common for most kids after graduation to work, enter the army or go to a two-year community college right around the corner. Very few of my classmates chose to leave after graduation because it was simply easy to stick around and no one was encouraging them to do otherwise. The goal was made very clear to us and that was to graduate. The only pressure and support I received at the time, was from my parents. Without their help and advice, no one would have encouraged me to do the best I could. Many of these kids were raised in households where their parents weren’t around because they would work two even three jobs. I also witnessed a huge drug culture within my town and passing through. It was very common to look at the newspaper in the mornings and see a huge heroin bust that was caught on its way to Vermont.
However, after watching the video of college Trump supporters, maybe we need more than a college education. One line that particularly caught my attention was when one male compared the presidential election to a reality TV show. He definitely isn’t wrong. It’s unfortunate and almost sad that instead what fills our news feed is the outrageous comments and tweets made by Donald Trump. I could tell you all about the crazy comments he has made but nothing about his policies. Like you said, we as Americans should be picking our future president off of his values and goals to improve our country not based off of his ability to further diminish minority groups. This is why I think that working class whites vote against their own interests because they attention is not being focused on his policies, values, and goals. At first glance Trumps flashy and bold campaign speaks to young voters blinding them from what they are really voting for.
Admittedly, before reading this article and doing more research on Trump supporters, I would commonly use the term, “uneducated”, to describe them. When I would say ‘uneducated’, I was not directly referring to those who didn’t attend college; I was referencing those who do not know his policies, and who praised his language for being un-politically correct. After reading this article, I have been illuminated as to the reasoning behind the mass white male vote for him; even though I understand why they are supporting him, I believe they are being duped.
At the beginning of the presidential race, I thought Trump supporters were simply selfish and incompetent; now, their rational appears to run deeper. The first influence concerning politics originates in the home. For example, if your father or grandfather is constantly telling you that the reason for their failure is those who are different than them, it is hard to refute that. The mind of a child is extremely moldable and those children living in these “downscale” communities are immersed in these ideas. The next institution that provides political influence on children is school. At schools, one has more authoritarian influences, as well as peer influences. These supporters are not just older, uneducated males, who are still mad about the closed plants they worked on 30 years’ prior; these voters and their children have had these political thoughts ingrained in them; for some it is all they know.
These children, now voters, have been taught that the individuals Trump wants to keep out of the U.S. are those who took away opportunities from their relatives, and thus from them. The reality is that the government took away those jobs and opportunities from white males, not immigrants.
Trump’s campaign preys on the feelings of entitlement these males and their families bear. He constantly uses derogatory terms and acts in a disrespectful manner while addressing the country and its inhabitants. In reference to Samantha Bee’s video, one of the students involved argued in support of Trumps so called joke, where he alludes to the fact if he killed another human being he would not loose any voters. The student defends him by claiming, “people joke in America, we can joke, he can joke.” While I agree with the statement, ‘everyone makes jokes’, there is a time and a place; more importantly, in a country where diversity is valued (even by those who do not believe they value it, they do) there is no place for its potential leader to be poking fun of these people’s skin, bodies, religions, cultures, etc. These actions are simply unprofessional, vulgar, and malicious. So, I propose the question, ‘Is that what a true leader does?’ My answer would be, ‘I do not believe so.’
In today’s society not many people can easily sympathize with the poor people in the white working class mainly because they shift blame and their arguments come from a place of hatred. For instance, blaming immigrants on “stealing” jobs away which cause them lack of money and in turn struggles. Also, it was mentioned how many of these people are “lazy” and don’t put fourth the effort needed to find a job/ are using all their money on drugs. I feel that if this is true and kids grow up watching their parents not do anything about a situation/use drugs all the time, they in turn fall into that cycle. This than can support the claim that they stick to their roots and prejudice gets in the way of them changing their ways.
I feel that the hardships/poverty facing the working class makes it hard to see beyond that/potential of fixing their specific situation. However, at the same time they aren’t going out of their way to even attempt to fix it. So, mostly the white working class writes their own story.
Another point made was that these problems come up based on location and to move and rent a u haul is the simplest option. However, simply getting up and leaving isn’t as easy as it sounds. These people have lived here a majority of their life and have created ties. I know I couldn’t just get up and leave my hometown. I understand it might lead to better economic opportunity but the key word is might. Overall, these white working class people need to work harder to achieve what they want especially if they are going to stay in these locations
We have been fighting a “war on poverty” for a long time, thus, making the topic very touchy. The way people approach it is wrong as well. Very few people are being understanding to this issue. Instead of helping everyone seems to be attacking. Whatever race is poverty is poverty.
The reaction I had to the white working classes thought about trump isn’t much of a surprise. Even though i personally am not voting for trump i see why the working class is. He promises them a better work life. They see him as their solution to their financial difficulties. I believe they maybe seeing him ask Trump, the man to created an entire empire. That is why i believe he is so appealing. The worming class believe that if he can make an entire business empire and make loads of money, then why can’t he treat the U.S. as a business and help it thrive.
I don’t think that most people are prepared to live their life if needed outside of their communities. People who live comfortably and who have enough money to spend whenever they want to probably would not feel comfortable living in a downscale community. The “downscale communities” that Williamson is talking about are low income neighborhoods that have problems with drug and alcohol addiction, welfare, family anarchy. Most people living in these communities never have the option to move out of their current living situation, and they most likely never will. They have jobs that only provide minimum wage which isn’t enough money to support a family let alone yourself. It is unfortunate that in our society, people have no other choice but to live in these communities. When thinking of communities like these you automatically think of a community of minorities. Many people don’t see the white working class are also “victims” of this treatment.
I don’t like the argument of personal responsibility because in some situations people don’t have the choice to live in the environment they are living in. The government makes communities to house the same kinds of people, these communities are run down. Most of these people aren’t able to finish their education past high school and will go on to work minimum wage jobs. They aren’t financially able to improve their life. Many people work their butts off to try to make something of themselves but our economy and government is so screwed up that no matter how hard they try, they will be in the same social economic status. When someone says that, “if your life is failing it’s largely your own fault,” it is very inappropriate. You can’t say that the way someone’s life turns out is their fault. Many times it is just the way the cards are dealt. When I was young I was raised in a diverse neighborhood in Olney, PA. This was considered a bad neighborhood with drug addiction, many people on welfare, and the school system is horrible. Many people my age were unable to go to college so they got local jobs and started to live their adult life right after high school if they completed it. I moved when I was middle school aged and was able to turn my academic career around in order to be able to go to college. This isn’t the reality for most of people who I grew up with. They worked and had children at a young age. The reality is that people aren’t able to change their life around just because they want to. If the government did more by putting more money into these downscaled communities maybe more people would have the opportunity to better themselves, but until then this endless cycle of downscale communities and personal responsibility will continue.
In reference to the question of “broke” white americans being victims of their own bad choices, I believe that this point made by the author should not even label a specific race. To say that there are some white broke americans who deserve to die because of their drug addicted, blaming and lazy ways is almost offensive. Obviously, this type of person exists in our world today, and many of them are white, but rather then referencing them as white broke americans, he could have used only the title, “American”. Sadly, there are many americans of all races who have been victims of their own bad choices and CAN be categorized as drug addicted, free loading and lazy people.
I believe that to blame someone else for your failure and to label a whole group of people off of what you have been told, is the most apparent form of lack of character. Sadly, there are many americans who do this but it is not just one specific race. I do however think that the group of people who fall into this judgmental category, regardless of race, do need to be educated to understand their responsibility as a person. They have to stop making themselves victims. This education will then stop the blind siding with a political candidate because you’re the same race as them, which is not only happening with the election between whites and Trump but could also be argued with african americans and Obamas campaign. We as americans should be picking our future president off of his values and goals to improve our country. We should have a blind eye to race and open ears for change and whether that change consists of the presidency of Trump, even with his racist and violence provoking comments or not, it requires unity of a country.
Overall, in reference to poor white people and their societal norms, I feel as though there is an enormous lack of empathy and understanding. The articles state that “no one is making them do it” and that despite their hardships and societal handicaps, that does “not relieve any human being of the moral obligation to do their best”. I agree with this; there is definitely an obligation and responsibility for individuals to do the best that they can. Unfortunately, in most cases, the poor white men and women are doing exactly that. Some people do not realize or choose to ignore that that they are not given the same opportunities and resources as the wealthy people in this country. While it’s easy to make judgments on peoples work ethic and assumptions that white poor people are drug addicts searching for a handout, a bit of empathy and compassion could go a long way into understanding why they tend to vote Republican and why they are unable to escape poverty and violence.
After reading the article and watching the video, I am surprised to hear the actual statistics on the demographics that vote largely Republican and more specifically Donald Trump. The fact that his primary voting group consists of educated white middle-class college students surprised me. The perception I always received was that Trump voters were from both ends of the spectrum: poor people and the top percent of wealth. The concept of class-based blame-shifting is also interesting to me and the fact that the majority of people who are actually voting for Trump have immunity from scrutiny since the perceptions do not point to them. One of my close friends, an educated Finance major, has always sided with Republican policies and has voted Republican since he was able to vote. When it came to this election, although he still identifies as Republican, he said he would not vote for Trump since he does not represent the party he believes in. I feel like his story is very telling to Trump and his positions.
I think the demographic of poor white people is a really difficult demographic to discuss and understand. On one hand, as it mentions, many of these working class whites are the ones supporting Trump and really normalizing his racist, sexist, Islamophobic views and portraying these underlying racist notions that much of this demographic possesses. Many working class whites also blame blacks and immigrants for taking their jobs and being the reason that they have so many hardships. In that sense, it becomes a difficult group to reason with and to feel sympathy for when so much hatred stems from there.
However on the other hand, there needs to be at least some sort of empathy. In one sense, poverty is poverty, and it is an issue that can cause a lot of issues and instability within a demographic. I think something as “simple” as the working class whites voting against their own interests highlights this point perfectly. It is almost ridiculous to say they are embracing stupidity. There comes a point where middle class white America has to not blame stupidity and instead blame an unstable and shoddy education system that does not shed light on the fact that many of their economic issues come from elite power structures and the way the government is set up, rather than immigrants taking jobs. One must put that on the education systems that make it really difficult for this demographic to have any social fluidity. The blog even says, “They vote for the candidate that appeals not to their intellect, but to the one that makes them “feel” good.” I think that can be related not only to working class whites – but especially to college students these days. I think much of Trump’s support doesn’t come from his economic policies or foreign policies, but rather stems from many Americans being tired of being “screwed over” by the government and its institutions.
Prior to reading this article, I never understood why Trump had such a strong following. While I do not know much about his policies, I would consistently find his outrageous comments and racial slurs all over social media. As a result, I could not imagine voting for a man whose political campaign was based on anger and lies. The article opened my eyes to the viewpoint of the working class and provided me with much needed insight as to why one would support Donald Trump.
The working class feels greatly ignored by the government and the wealthy. This belief has created a social class that will stop at nothing to find the justice that they believe they deserve. Just like the many dictators around the world, Trump is harping on the insecurities of the working class by giving them false hope. He consistently preaches that he is “one of us” and will not rest until he makes America great again. The working class has lost hope and are in desperate desire for change and as a result, they are turning to Trump because he is telling them everything they want to hear. In reality, the working class is actually doing themselves a disservice by voting for Trump because they are only focused on his beliefs rather than his political policies. According the Metzgar, the republican party have always erased the policies that protect the working class. Unfortunately, the working class does not see this because they fall for the politicians who have promised them the world but never deliver.
The author places an emphasis that if an individual lives in one of these areas then the only opportunity they have for change is if they move. While I see the benefits to this, it is not always feasible for a person or family to just rent a U-Haul and leave and area that they have lived for a majority of their life or created their roots. The author suggests that the only thing that a person would lose is a government check. I personally find this very offensive. I come from an area that this article describes and to suggest that the only thing that one would lose is a government check clearly is stereotyping this type of community. There are several reasons why renting a U-Haul and leaving is not as easy as it sounds. Relocating is not cheap, leaving family that also live in that area is not easy and finally even when you do leave that area it does not guarantee you a job somewhere. While the idea that renting a U-Haul sounds fabulous in theory I do not think it is the solution that many people living in these areas would be able to consider as an option.
After reading the article and watching the videos I realized that there are so many problems that need to be resolved. When mentioning the white working class as the “victim class” it showed that there needs to be a change. The white working class is not at the point where they can receive government aid and benefits but they are also not at the point where they can live their life freely. They still have huge limits and responsibilities that need to be dealt with. This goes with the first discussion question whether people will move to be more economically stable. Yes, I think that if there is a place where can you obtain more benefits, get a better job, provide for your family in a more steady way then yes you should move. It will be hard to make such a change but adjusting is part of human survival. In order to succeed you need to do what’s best for you. Next are the actual poor people who ruin their lives based on their own unfortunate judgements. They are the victims of themselves because they are the cause of their unhappiness. By doing drugs, cheating on your wife, applying for disability; they are all easy way outs. If there is something wrong you have to change. You cannot sit back and watch because time doesn’t stop and things will only get worse.
Lastly, are the kids who go to war. It is very hard to send kids to colleges especially when the tuitions keep rising. Also, most families have more than one child on average so paying for four years can be tough. Sending kids to the war is more financial smart. After serving their time they will receive benefits which will make going to college cheaper and leave them with a clearer picture of their future. My cousin did not know what to do after high school so he enrolled into the Navy. He served for five years and after that he went to college in the city. He now owns and manages a bunch of small businesses. He believes that unless you know exactly what you want in life then there is no point in going to college because it’s a waste of time and money. College is very expensive and going just to get out of the house or be away from your parents is not the right reason.
Upon reading the article, I found myself agreeing with most of the arguments French explained about Williamson. Perhaps the statement that struck me as the most interesting was the solution to the welfare dependancy, drug addiction and overall failing niches of the country. When Williamson pinpointed the poisoness of the areas in which these families live, he argued that if they ever want to break the cycle, “they need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul”. French explains that now, it is simply not enough to ‘help’ these families who are out of work, addicted to drugs and relying on welfare. While yes, groups and individuals may assit an individual in getting a job and drug treatment, but, French explains how these people dont care, and are quick to give up. The solution of packing up everything and leaving is definitely easier said than done, but I do agree that the toxic enviornment of laziness and lost hope doesn’t create foundations for success. Moving to an area where there are lots of opportunities and surrounded by people who are motivated, makes it easier to jump into a routine and get ones life on track. However, moving expenses could serve as a potential barrier. I just wonder if these white men who are sit on their couches all day and don’t even want to look for a job in their own home town. What incentive are they going to have to pack up everything and move away to find a job?
By suggesting the “broke whites” could solve their problems by simply moving contradicts the idea that poor white people are merely victims of their own bad choices. If a problem could be solved by moving it implies that the problem was created due to location, not anything a person necessarily did. Furthermore, I believe that the idea of moving, or running from ones problems, negates from taking any personal responsibility at all. Perhaps moving would provide better economic opportunity, but socially their attitudes, views, and opinions would not improve. Instead of turning inward to see they are the cause and solution of most of their problems, they would now be working for a company that likely systemically benefits them because of their race. The Demos video said it perfectly, we cannot fix economic inequality without addressing racism. Moving would not address racism at all. In fact, I think it would make it worse. If a White person is able to move and suddenly fix their economic status, they will be under the false impression that it was something that they did. If they can do it, anyone can do it. When in actuality, this is just wrong and purely white privilege. White people are able to move without the burdens that Hubbs points out: “denying mortgages, employers not hiring blacks, and landlords refusing and/or exploiting black renters…” etc. etc. So, instead of solving those systematic differences, they will go ignored. Which, in turn will not help economic inequality at all, benefit the 1%, and create a greater divide between races. The solution does not lie in moving, but instead in improving. However, this creates a new question: how do we improve?
While it is easy to say that the “broke white people” are victims of their own bad choices, it is interesting to look at the flip side of this argument. The men that sit at the bar, reminiscing of the good ole’ days at the factory, what else do they know? Generally, these people were born into a situation where they’re dad, grandpa, and so on all engaged in this lifestyle, and they were taught to do the same. When poverty and lack of education is perpetuated through generations, it should be expected that the men who no longer have the factory trail to follow are lost. To expect them to “move on” would require an education and sometimes money they do not have. Many people have no interest in stepping outside of their comfort zones, especially people who are surrounded with very little resources and motivation.
In regards to politics, I feel that it is a similar situation. Many people will reflect the political views of their families or the people in their area. Additionally, these “broke white people” tend to be uneducated, furthering their tendencies to follow the crowd and believe everything politicians say. That is where the economic issue negatively affects them – because they hear simplistic ideas that reflect their moral values and flock to that candidate or politician. Personally, I understand the easiness in following family values, yet I question how they do not consider the economic more closely. The economy directly affects each and every citizen, yet do to being uneducated, not all people regard it as highly as they should. In essence, I do understand how these “broke white people” can be seen as their own problem, but when you are set up for failure and lack the resources to change, it is nearly impossible.
Over my Easter break in 2016, I volunteered to go with some classmates to West Virginia to participate in a program called “Project Rebuild.” For a week we fixed up run-down homes (actually trailers) from the crack of dawn until night. I gave up my time that I could’ve spent with my family to help people that I didn’t know from a hole in the wall. Keep in mind that I was the only minority on this trip and I was in West Virginia, an area known for discrimination against non-whites. I saw Confederate flags all over; on t-shirts, front porches, the back of trucks. I got dirty looks and side eyed all the time. Why did I volunteer to help these people when they looked at me this way? They looked at me as if I was less than them, but realistically I’m not the one living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. They should be extremely grateful for what I am doing. I realized that something was wrong. Why do they look down at races, such as blacks who live in ghettos, that are struggling financially just like them? Why do they vote for candidates like Trump that don’t have their best interest in mind?
I felt it was essential to write about this experience because it changed my outlook on the white working class. Before the trip, I felt bad for the white working class because they were discriminated against by society just like my race is. The white middle class see them as a burden; they are outcasts. This was the exact reason I volunteered to help them. But then they look at me funny? I think their economic struggle caused them to fear “the outside and people not like them” instead of sticking with people who are experiencing the same financial struggles. After reading this article, I understand why the white working class will vote for Trump. He offers them a way out and to live a better life. “Make America Great Again” is what he says. But they don’t realize Trump isn’t speaking to them. He is speaking to the wealthy white. They are voting against their economic interests and won’t realize until it’s too late.
Wow. That was some experience. Thanks for sharing. I might add the following for your consideration: Trump doesn’t really offer them a way out. Not even close. He offers the “perception” of a way out, which deep down many know is a lie. More than that, he makes it okay for them to point to their white skin as an achievement they can be proud of; the most downtrodden white people can say at the end of the day (based on what they hear from Trump and others like him) at least I’m better than “those people” (blacks, immigrants, Mexicans, etc.) It’s about social identity more than it is economics. To be sure, they could use an economic boost, but Trump will never give it to them.
The idea that anyone could support Donald Trump as president has baffled me since he put himself in the running. I will not pretend that I actually pay attention to every little detail of politics and am an expert in each candidate’s arguments, but I am a good judge of character and do pay attention to things on social media and some parts of the debates. From what I know, the ability to support Trump is beyond my comprehension. I have friends who support Trump and whenever I ask them why, they never give me an educated answer. Their answers always center around the idea that he is a different kind of candidate and that they want the wall. It makes me angry whenever they support his insanely racist ideas without any ethical regret. How someone can opt to send a whole race of people back to the country that oppressed them and harmed them is awful.
After reading this I have gained a better understanding of the minds behind Trump. I’ve always understood that he would bring a very different perspective to the presidency because he’s not a politician, but then that led to his ignorant comments during countless debates. The idea of fear of other people and intense patriotism is the only thought process that makes sense to me. Fear is a great tool to hold over people’s heads, and that is what Trump is doing. He is using the fear of terrorism to gain votes. That tactic makes sense when dealing with the uneducated portion of Americans, the portion that is willing to vote against what they actually need because they fear the unknown. While I understand the reasoning in the minds of the working class, I cannot ignore their intense ignorance on the matter. It is the candidates’ job and our job as citizens to make sure everyone knows what they are actually voting for, but generations of closed minded thinking has closed many people off to sensible thinking. The personal harm that the working class commits is due to their familial thinking, which has been set in stone for generations. Like any other differences in opinion, political preference has developed over generations and that preference is very hard to change. “White trash” Americans have a small excuse for their actions, the years of neglect and buildup of opinions over generations, but the college level educated Americans do not have that excuse, their only excuse is lack of understanding and empathy.
In reading this article and watching the videos, one thing really stood out to me and was the video in which the following quote was stated: “We cannot fix economic inequality without addressing racism.” This bring up the point that racism, classism among other inequalities are root of some of this nation’s greatest issues. This is evident in the fact that many Americans see those that are different than them as the problem i.e. blacks, white working class, and Muslims just to name a few examples. However, the problem is that these Americans never see beyond these social differences.
I think that in order to fix this problem we must realize that there is good and bad in every race, class, gender, and sexuality excreta therefore we must not characterize an entire group by one person’s mistake, comment or decision.Thus instead of trying to combat social issues such as economic inequality by looking at the economic aspects we must first take time to address the inequality portion of the problem. This requires us to open to have an open dialogue about what is going wrong in our country with out playing the blame game as to whose at fault.
This is easier said than done. For example, it not about moving from our environment to another in order to be more finically stable, rather we must change our environment in order to promote financial stability. There are always going to be people that oppose a change but if we don’t attempt to change or have these conversations about change everything will remain the same.
This article addressed problems with the white working class in a candid way and a way that I have never before thought about. Often, when these types of problems are affecting a group of people it is about the extremely poor people. When David French calls the white working class, “a victim class” he is right because they are being manipulated by everyone around them. They are not poor enough to feel sorry for, but they often don’t have the resources to make a real change in their life.
The article goes back and forth between, we should feel bad for them because they don’t have the resources to do better, and there is proof that the white working class isn’t putting in enough effort to succeed; they are giving up too easily. At first glance I thought how can it be both, but it can. They seem to feed off of each other. They will vote for the political candidate that doesn’t support their economic interests, which could be because they place higher importance on the candidate’s moral values or they simply don’t understand how that candidate’s economic policy will effect them. Should we feel bad for them because they are basically voting against themselves or should we be angry that they don’t take the time to research the candidate’s more and be more informed.
Sometimes this class is hard to feel bad for because of all the things they do next. The working class is defined as “without a bachelor’s degree”, well why not? There is support for low income families at universities. According to French, there was always a sense of entitlement among the white working class which will cause people to not want to help you go after your goals. It seems they are the one’s who put themselves in their position and they are stuck.
I do think that people in rural areas in a way are groomed to be uncomfortable with people who are not the same as them. In class the other day we discussed how most people who lived in places that benefited economically from factories went straight from high school into a factory job. When the factories moved, they did not blame the factory owner or the company for moving, they blamed the workers in other countries who “stole their jobs.” I think the reason that they blame the workers is because they are not from the same environment as those in the rural areas. Those in rural areas are unsure of what the working conditions are like or what the other workers in places like China are paid. All they know is that they had a job and now they do not because “some foreigner” has it. I also think race plays a huge role in the way workers feel about those who aren’t like them. Places that are considered rural, according to the 2010 Census, are made up primarily of white people. It is also known that most people in important positions (CEO, CFO, VP etc.) are white men. Because the working class white people really are only familiar with other white people, in my opinion, they would never look at their white employers as the villains. In their minds because they are the same race there is a unspoken loyalty between the workers and bosses. In reality, those same CEO’s and CFO’s made the deal to more the companies overseas in order to get more money in their pockets. That’s why I also think the idea of Donald Trump being president resonates so well with white working class people. He is a representation of the white boss that would never do them wrong and they’re comfortable with that because that’s what they know. Trump adding in that he’ll bring their jobs back from the people overseas who “stole” them in the first place is just the cherry on top for them.
Considering the presidential election is quickly approaching in November, the support group of working class white individuals is an interesting one to study. I was always a little confused why this group for the most part supported Trump excessively. It did not make much sense to me because as I have learned over the years, usually if a family or individual is economically struggling they tend to lean more to the left. This being because the Democratic party is known for being more charitable and sponsoring more welfare programs. However, after reading this article, I now understand that the Trump support comes from a completely different angle.
The working class whites support him because they feel that his personal belief set more socially is in cohorts with theirs. In my opinion, this traces back to the “aggrieved entitlement.” These individuals blame their economic struggles on race and other factors unrelated to their failure. They easily point the finger at someone else merely because of laziness and entitlement. They fail to consider that their situation will only worsen with increased taxes on the middle class that Republican candidates tend to propose. In this regard, a lot of these working class or lower class white citizens live in rural areas. These areas are popular for hunting and owning guns as well. This again leads this group towards the Republican side on issues of gun control. However, this just contradicts what they need economically to thrive too. Personally, I think that it perhaps be ignorance that is the source of this group’s situation. Political candidates like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin act on this ignorance. They heighten their support by connecting with these people in the most strategic way possible, through drawing on the source of their contempt. That source being their entitlement in feeling neglected by society because of other various groups. Failing to consider that they keep refueling their own misery, lower class white individuals will continue to worsen their economic status.
Another pressing topic to discuss is how these families then raise their children to go into the army. I see this correlation coming from a place of confusion. Children growing up in these households never see a strong example of studying hard to receive a good education and then developing into a white collar employer or employee. They see countless examples of laziness and behavior exhibiting blame on everyone else. This hardly fuels a hard drive for success. Considering that, these children particularly sons, may fall into the same trap. These fathers may then express that they should just join the army if they’re not going to try to work a hard labor job. This then creates a pattern of white men sending their children into the army to exert their “manhood.”
This article made some effective points about the contradictions that are often presented when analyzing the lives of the white middle class. In the article, Working Class Whites Have Moral Responsibilities – A Defense of Kevin Williamson (by David French), the word “entitlement” used to describe the white-working class really stood out to me. For a long time, the white race has been dominating our country and most of the success that is publicized today is focused on an accomplished white figure. The race is often associated with being more educated, professional, and affluent when it comes to money and job positions. Unfortunately, I believe that this idea has skewed the true definition of success, not just economically and socially, but all factors of life. I come from a family who places importance on the total journey one takes to achieve his or her goals in life; basically, the hard work you put in is the key to things becoming possible.
As a young girl in her twenties, I feel that society today has become considerably lazy and is quick to make up excuses when life does not perfectly fall into place. Thus, (like the article had mentioned) people begin to falter to bad habits because it is the easiest way to cope with their challenges. Of course I complain when things do not go as planned, but learning the value of hard work from my parents has kept me stable through times of struggle. The problem with our media is they do not show this aspect of life; they just portray well-off politicians and businessmen and women who have no business being any source of inspiration for any of the American people. Few of our leaders in the past several years have identified with the major issues that surround us. Their lack luster plans have failed to motivate the people, resulting in them applying that attitude into their everyday lives. Although I do not agree with everything Trump says, I think the main reason people are voting for him is because by his lack of political correctness and blatant comments, he is creating a kind of spark in people’s stomach that he will be the one to pull the country out of this ‘hole’ that we are in. but in reality, some of the ideas he is proposing are making the notion of ‘white privilege or entitlement’ more prevalent. I feel like society has forgotten about the true hard work that goes into achieving the American Dream. Our country needs a wake-up call.
After reading this post, it makes sense why Donald Trump is supported by the working class, or why he even has supporters in the first place. Most of the white working class wants to get out of the life that they lead: create a better life. Trump offers them that. He says he’s going to build a wall so that we can solve the immigration issue and immigrants can stop stealing their jobs. That’s appealing to the white working class because they believe that the reason they can’t get jobs is because of their competition: immigrants and people of color. The thing is though that Trump isn’t here for them, instead, he is here for the wealthy. Everything he plans on doing will benefit the wealthy, not the working class, even if they are white. The white working class votes against their interest because they don’t know better. When campaigning, candidates try to gain votes from certain types of people and in order to do that they have to say what the people want to hear. That’s all it takes. They just appeal to the people and the people fall for it. They believe that what the candidate says is true when in reality it’s not.
I thought it was interesting that the summary said that although the entire working class is struggling, the white working class is different just because they are white and society led them to believe they will have some sort of success. Aren’t we all taught though that we’ll achieve some sort of success? I do know that sometimes people of color are put down and told that they will amount to nothing, but now a days with Obama being president I think society is telling people of color that they will achieve something. Success doesn’t just fall on your lap, though, you have to work for it.
This article shed light on the idea that the white working class has put themselves in this position, that they havent worked hard enough to get themselves out. In some instances this is true, some people are lazy and resort to drugs and other means to get themselves out of their life. However some people are trying and work hard everyday.
Another point made by this article was that Trump has captivated the white working class into voting for him. I was surprised that Trump would appeal to people from a completely different walk of life. I believe, like the article, that Trump promises that he will fix all these problems by building walls.
The “Angry White Man” became a narrative for a large group of people, who had been angry; because the country they live in became very diverse, and they lost their white privileges and superiority. Now they feel that it is time to make “America great again” by building walls, cutting social programs and deporting immigrants. Many middle-class Americans choose to believe that immigrants are taking their jobs, and disturbing their prosperity; instead of taking the responsibility and educate themselves about the reasons for the economic and political problems in American society. It is just expedient to blame the victims.
Numerous times, research has shown that immigrants mostly work jobs, that ordinary citizens are not interested in working; not just because of salary, but also because status.
Therefore, it is hard to believe that the “Angry White Man” will become happy any day soon.
When it comes to the white working class, it is interesting to see their attraction to Republican candidate Donald Trump. A large chunk of Trump’s supporters are outside of his social class, and likely, we may never have seen the candidate with the likes of many of his lower-middle-class, less-than-high-school-diploma-educated followers, if it wasn’t for the huge role they play in his election. So why is it that these people, from a completely different walk of life, gravitate toward a man that reflected on his father’s small loan of a million dollars as proof of his “difficult life?” This is for many reasons. One, being, they see their ideals in their leader, and Trump claims to be the savior that will build walls to keep out the rapist, criminal Mexicans, snuff out Black Lives Matter, eradicate the country of all those terrorist Muslims, all while helping giving access to the American Dream to anyone that wants it. Even more so, he gives rise to the very emotions and instinctual urges that society, out of the current rage over political correctness, has told these people is no longer OK to feel, let alone say. By projecting his own inferiority onto a class outside the favored one, and then outside his own oppressed class, the white working class racist receives compensation for the misery within his own order. Members of this new Trump cult are angry and racist through tradition, through instinct, and through their own coping mechanisms.
For some inexplicable reason, the GOP Southern strategy has been successful with some voters. Given a chance to vote for themselves, some working class whites would rather vote to “punish” LGBT folks. That makes no sense whatsoever, LGBT folks will be with us even if working class whites spend the rest of their lives hating them or not. But hate is a strange thing and makes folks vote against themselves. I guess it makes them feel superior, why, I have no idea. If you live paycheck to paycheck hating your gay neighbors does not put a dime in your pocket . Also , I think they are fooling themselves into believing their skin alone grants them access to the conservation country club .
Personally i feel like the reason Trump is getting so many supporters is because he is a powerful figure that exercises his right to freedom of speech. For years these racist white individuals have been in their communities, staying amongst themselves. Their are laws that protects blacks and ends discrimination. Trump is bringing it back making them comfortable to say “Hey they don’t belong here, they don’t need this, they are just N******”. It seems like they just want to blame the poverty and and white working class problems on us. They just want to wipe out the minorities not realizing that the problem is still going to be around. They are the ones making the problems stealing from funds committing frauds, and not being for the people which are the ones who make up this country. Its sad how ignorant these individuals (who claim their IQ is high) can be. Not able to rationalize and use their common sense to see the things that are right and wrong. See the things that make up this country.
Donald Trump’s presidential tour has shed light on how angry the middle class white people have been over the fact that they have been outnumbered by the mere fact of how diverse America has become. Of course many immigrants come to the states for more opportunity and a better life. Since immigrants work extraordinarily hard to make a living for themselves and families, the majority of middle class whites feel threatened that their opportunities are being dissolved and given to immigrants and to other people of different races. It is no surprised that there seem to be a sense of entitlement when it comes to the perks of this country. In the “land of the free” it is not. The discrimination and racists comments that are openly spoken of at Trump rallies are a factor and simply horrifying. Trump uses fear and dominative tactics to pass through states collecting entitled white racists to vote for him. His supporters are either typical and on the other side of the spectrum, alarming. People who are in support of him usually have one sense of similar characteristics. However, educated young people are also supporting him.There are people who not characterized as white feel that Trump is good for this country. I’m sure that when people are constantly seeing that their entitled country with their entitled constitution does not apply to anyone else, they finally have a sense of comfort when Trump advocates hate and fear to those who does not support him. What is really alarming is that once a racist comment is spoken, it seems to be justified – as if it is okay to think and speak that way. At the end of the day, what Trump is advocating and in conjugation with the current state of socioeconomic is not going to make America great again – it will be the opposite.
I think fear of the unknown may stop some of these people from moving. And also humans being creatures of habit it may be difficult for most of us to move somewhere new. As it was mentioned in the national review article, the government is not doing anything to help these individuals either; they get the kind of aid that enables them and sinks them deeper into the kind of dependable, parasitic world they are living in. It is truly hard to get out of that.
People can only change when they are truly aware of their situation. If I believed that in order to be economically more secure, I would definitely move, because I care about my future and always on the look-out for better opportunities. As it mentioned above, the “broke” white people from America are not all victims of their own bad choices, some are, but for others it is merely what they have been handed to and the lack of any knowledge of better choices out there.
I think the white working class vote against their own interest because policitians sugar coat and shadow their policies with religion and try to play to the feelings of these people. Policitians like Ted Cruz who have horrible policies like raising retirement age to 70, carpet bombing the Middle East, and only allowing Christian refuges in the country use the fact that he’s a “Christian” and religion to get others who are Christian to vote for him. They are so wrapped up in the fact that he’s a Christian that they don’t see he would be stealing social security from them and using billions in taxes to uselessly bomb people.i think they do this because it is human nature to be lead by emotion, it is easier to no think critically for yourself and let someone who you believe share the same interest and values as you make decisions for you
Donald Trump has successfully incited more racism & bigotry and these folks have went for it hook, line, & sinker. What they haven’t come to terms with is that Donald Trump is NO friend of theirs, & if he did not NEED their votes he would never ever acknowledge them……just like he won’t after this is all said & done.
Thanks for sharing your opinion. If you can, update this post with your thoughts on how his candidacy, rhetoric, and public appeal are related to some of the socio-cultural dynamics referenced in this post.
Donald Trump has single handedly caused more racist & bigottted acts from like minded people who thrive on hatred, with his convoluted rallies and sadistic, mysogynistic campaign. He has successfully shamed his political party. Republicans who have never experienced embarrassment suffer the constant shame Trump coñtinues to heap upon them daily.
I think the uprising of Donald Trump and the amount of support he is getting is not surprising at all. There has been such a dynamic shift in over the past 30-40 years in regards to Americas middle class and how they have been getting the bad end of the stick. Donald Trump is using this to tap into American anger and frustration with a system that they see as broken and so thoroughly corrupt. Of course Donald Trump is part of that 1% corrupt system that benefits from the basic enslavement of the working and middle class, but his followers don’t seem to care because he is speaking out about this and is “championing” this cause. To them, black, Mexicans, and Muslims are the cause of this issue, but in reality that is false and incredibly incendiary thinking. I almost feel bad for these people because they are only seeing half of the issue and not the entire picture. The problems facing this country are because of greed and these multinational corporations hiding their funds and hiring millions of overseas workers for slave wages abroad. This is no fault of minorities, but Trump is using this white anger to keep them short sighted and focused to his agenda. The most frustrating part for me to see is that if these people were only able to open their eyes a bit more and scratch below the surface they could see that Bernie Sanders is taking up this cause and is speaking to the actual issue and problem facing America. He is talking about these tax havens, the lack of increased mobility while the expectation of production has increased, and the rampant racism going on in this country. He has proposed solutions and ideas to fix these, and unfortunately these people are not listening to facts but to nonsense and racism because it fuels the agenda that they have been taught to believe in.
I don’t think that poverty and other problems that trouble the working class people make it difficult for them to think about or acknowledged the structural undepinnings of their various hardships. I think they chose to ignore social and political consciousness because of their own values, comfort and fear of change (certain kind of change). They also try to rationalize their ignorance to social and political consciousness by saying “make America great again”. I think it’s really sad because they should actually try to be very social and politically conscious because there’s so much stacked against them, so one would think they would try to do everything possible so that they can achieve success. And for the college students I think it shows that higher education does not remove ignorance, racism, sexism, and etc.; the white working class really takes a lot of the blame for being Trump supporters because I’ll personally admit that I never thought Trump would have middle class people and college students who are avid supporters because their education would allow them to see how ridiculous Trump is. This brings me back to the importance of keeping the humanities and diversity subjects in college because it would help to lower the rate of ignorance and make individuals more social and politically conscious.