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Changing the facts
Many working class Americans feel ignored and overlooked by the whole political machine. And they’re not wrong. They see big infrastructure plans that have nothing to do with their county, big roads and developments that take traffic and jobs away from their area. Their local economy (be it coal, shrimp, corn, apples…) has been decimated by big corporations.
The whole of the UK can be fit into some states. The vastness of the USA means that many small local communities are almost invisible, and overlooked or ignored for the entire lifetime of several generations worth of people. They may each be small but their populations make up a large number of the electorate.
They measure their quality of life by the things that affect them immediately: their kids’ proms, the local football team, the price of groceries, whether they can afford the gas to get to work, or a second car so the wife can work. There may be a movie theatre nearby but no concert hall, no theatre. The mall in the local big town is considered a day out. There’s a scarcity that’s hard to understand for anyone who doesn’t live in these small places.
Any middle class people in the vicinity live in wide open spaces by choice and commute in to better paying jobs while those further down the pay scale struggle and strive and may not travel more than 20 or 30 miles in any direction their whole lives. No rich people live anywhere near.
Harris is alien to many people.
Trump speaks like they do, thinks like they do, and they feel seen by him.
To have any idea about what’s going on, you have to stop thinking like a person who has a decent education, reads books, knows about history and current affairs outside your own region, and has options. They’re not dumb, they’ve been ignored and overlooked and so they’ve turned inward.
The gap between what people assume about American voters and the reality seems to be getting wider.
I don’t share the surprise people are expressing about Trump’s success. I hate and fear it but I’m not surprised at all.
The whole of the UK can be fit into some states. The vastness of the USA means that many small local communities are almost invisible, and overlooked or ignored for the entire lifetime of several generations worth of people. They may each be small but their populations make up a large number of the electorate.
They measure their quality of life by the things that affect them immediately: their kids’ proms, the local football team, the price of groceries, whether they can afford the gas to get to work, or a second car so the wife can work. There may be a movie theatre nearby but no concert hall, no theatre. The mall in the local big town is considered a day out. There’s a scarcity that’s hard to understand for anyone who doesn’t live in these small places.
Any middle class people in the vicinity live in wide open spaces by choice and commute in to better paying jobs while those further down the pay scale struggle and strive and may not travel more than 20 or 30 miles in any direction their whole lives. No rich people live anywhere near.
Harris is alien to many people.
Trump speaks like they do, thinks like they do, and they feel seen by him.
To have any idea about what’s going on, you have to stop thinking like a person who has a decent education, reads books, knows about history and current affairs outside your own region, and has options. They’re not dumb, they’ve been ignored and overlooked and so they’ve turned inward.
The gap between what people assume about American voters and the reality seems to be getting wider.
I don’t share the surprise people are expressing about Trump’s success. I hate and fear it but I’m not surprised at all.
