A bunch of white Americans have been more willing to accept worse working conditions, no benefits, and every other facet of income inequality rather than unite with the poor and non-whites to rectify it (or at least to try to). They have valued America’s caste system that puts them at the top, based on their demographic, over that.
Privilege is a real, tangible thing to these white Americans. The very ones that argue its existence are the ones that are doing the most to prevent any kind of true equality from occurring.
These white Americans in the Bottom 90% thought they made a deal with the Top 1%: we’ll vote for your right wing policies as long as you protect our privilege. It has worked most of the time. But the one-two punch of the Great Recession and Obama getting elected laid the groundwork for someone like Trump. Someone who’d stop the pussyfooting and any sop to “political correctness” and lay bare what and who he was for, and what and who he was against.
It’s that symbiotic relationship between Trump and these white Americans that informs what is going on. More than simple authoritarianism, it always has to be seen through the eyes of tribal privilege in a nation that has always had a racial caste system. The Trump followers, seeing their numbers dwindle in demographic terms as well as in ideological ones, now see democracy as an enemy in maintaining their long-held privilege. Therefore, they need and want a “strongman” to dominate the system in their favor.
All this acting out mirrors Trump being taken out of office and in line for actual punishment. His followers are weak-minded types that are “lashing out” like spoiled children at a world that is refusing to accord them their privileges, and we all know how spoiled children have to be dealt with.
A bunch of white Americans have been more willing to accept worse working conditions, no benefits, and every other facet of income inequality rather than unite with the poor and non-whites to rectify it (or at least to try to). They have valued America’s caste system that puts them at the top, based on their demographic, over that.
Privilege is a real, tangible thing to these white Americans. The very ones that argue its existence are the ones that are doing the most to prevent any kind of true equality from occurring.
These white Americans in the Bottom 90% thought they made a deal with the Top 1%: we’ll vote for your right wing policies as long as you protect our privilege. It has worked most of the time. But the one-two punch of the Great Recession and Obama getting elected laid the groundwork for someone like Trump. Someone who’d stop the pussyfooting and any sop to “political correctness” and lay bare what and who he was for, and what and who he was against.
It’s that symbiotic relationship between Trump and these white Americans that informs what is going on. More than simple authoritarianism, it always has to be seen through the eyes of tribal privilege in a nation that has always had a racial caste system. The Trump followers, seeing their numbers dwindle in demographic terms as well as in ideological ones, now see democracy as an enemy in maintaining their long-held privilege. Therefore, they need and want a “strongman” to dominate the system in their favor.
All this acting out mirrors Trump being taken out of office and in line for actual punishment. His followers are weak-minded types that are “lashing out” like spoiled children at a world that is refusing to accord them their privileges, and we all know how spoiled children have to be dealt with.