Why
did working class voters choose a selfish, thin-skinned, petulant, lying,
narcissistic, boastful, megalomaniac for president?
With the 2018
midterms around the corner, and prospective Democratic candidates already
eyeing the 2020 race, the answer is important because it will influence how
Democrats campaign.
One explanation
focuses on economic hardship. The working class fell for Trump’s economic
populism.
A competing
explanation – which got a boost this week from a study published by the National Academy of
Sciences – dismisses economic hardship, and blames it on whites’ fear of losing
status to blacks and immigrants. They were attracted to Trump’s form of
identity politics – bigotry.
If Democrats accept the bigotry explanation, they may be more inclined to foster their own identity politics of women, blacks, and Latinos. And they’ll be less inclined to come up with credible solutions to widening inequality and growing economic insecurity.
Yet the truth
isn’t found in one explanation or the other. It’s in the interplay between the
two.
Certainly many
white working class men and women were – and still are – receptive to Trump’s
bigotry.
But what made
them receptive? Racism and xenophobia aren’t exactly new to American life.
Fears of blacks and immigrants have been with us since the founding of the
Republic.
What changed was
the economy. Since the 1980s the wages and economic prospects of the typical
American worker have stagnated. Two-thirds now live paycheck to paycheck, and
those paychecks have grown less secure.
Good-paying jobs
have disappeared from vast stretches of the land. Despite the official low
unemployment rate, millions continue to work part-time who want steady jobs or
they’re too discouraged to look for work.
When I was
Secretary of Labor in the 1990s, I frequently visited the Rust Belt, Midwest,
and South, where blue-collar workers told me they were working harder than ever
but getting nowhere.
Meanwhile, all
the economy’s gains have gone to the richest ten percent, mostly the top 1
percent.
Wealthy individuals and big corporations have, in turn, invested some of those gains into politics.
Wealthy individuals and big corporations have, in turn, invested some of those gains into politics.
As a result, big
money now calls the shots in Washington – obtaining subsidies, tax breaks, tax
loopholes (even Trump promised to close the “carried interest” loophole yet it
remains), and bailouts.
The near meltdown of Wall Street in 2008 precipitated a recession that cost millions their jobs, homes, and savings. But the Street got bailed out and not a single Wall Street executive went to jail.
The experience
traumatized America. In the two years leading up to the 2016 election, I
revisited many of the places I had visited when I was labor secretary. People
still complained of getting nowhere, but now they also told me the system was
“rigged” against them.
A surprising
number said they planned to vote for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump – the two
anti-establishment candidates who promised to “shake up” Washington.
This whole story
might have been different had Democrats done more to remedy wage stagnation and
widening inequality when they had the chance.
Instead, Bill
Clinton was a pro-growth “New Democrat” who opened trade with China,
deregulated Wall Street, and balanced the budget. (I still have some painful
scars from that time.)
Obama bailed out
the banks but not homeowners. Obamacare, while important to the poor, didn’t
alleviate the financial stresses on the working class, particularly in states
refused to expand Medicaid.
In the 2016 election Hillary Clinton offered a plethora of small-bore policy proposals – all sensible but none big enough to make a difference.
Into this
expanding void came Trump’s racism and xenophobia – focusing the cumulative
economic rage on scapegoats that had nothing to do with its causes. It was
hardly the first time in history a demagogue has used this playbook.
If America
doesn’t respond to the calamity that’s befallen the working class, we’ll have
Trumps as far as the eye can see.
A few Democrats are
getting the message – pushing ambitious ideas like government-guaranteed full
employment, single-payer health care, industry-wide collective bargaining, and
a universal basic income.
But none has yet
offered a way to finance these things, such as a progressive tax on wealth.
Nor have they
offered a credible way to get big money out of politics. Even if “Citizens
United” isn’t overruled, big money’s influence could be limited with
generous public financing of elections, full disclosure of the source of all
campaign contributions, and a clampdown on the revolving door between business
and government.
Trump isn’t the
cause of what’s happened to America. He’s the consequence – the product of
years of stagnant wages and big money’s corruption of our democracy.
If they really
want to stop Trump and prevent future Trumps, Democrats will need to address
these causes of Trump’s rise.
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is
available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
"Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original
documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
