What Do Today's Working-Class White Guys Think? .. And What About the Donald Trump Phenomenon and American Leadership?

Trump Rides a Blue-Collar Wave says the following about what the white working class guys are thinking about American life these days:


"A comparison of Mr. Trump’s core supporters with white college-educated Republicans and Republican-leaning independents highlights the distinctive sentiments of white working-class Americans. Only 30% believe that immigrants strengthen the country, compared with 51% of whites with college degrees. Fully 60% of Republican-leaning white working-class voters believe that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks, compared with only 36% of white college-educated voters . . . .


The survey’s most striking finding is the loss of optimism among white working-class voters with Republican leanings: 62% believe that the country has changed for the worse since the 1950s, and only 42% believe that America’s best days lie ahead. Sixty-eight percent believe that hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people. In this respect, white working-class voters are in harmony with white college-educated voters (58%) and the electorate as a whole (64%). The long stagnation of wages and household incomes has eroded belief in the American dream.


Although the Trump phenomenon has surprised nearly everyone, it becomes intelligible against the backdrop of recent American history. For decades, white working-class men have been the most volatile element in the American electorate. Changes in the economy have hit them hard, and administrations of both political parties have done little to protect or compensate them.... Practitioners of identity politics often have fingered them as the adversary, and upscale environmentalists have been all too willing to ignore their economic concerns.


Since the late 1960s, white working-class voters have deserted the Democratic Party in droves and now form a key component of the Republican base. For most of this period, the Republican establishment has held these voters with social conservatism and a tough-sounding foreign policy. But now working-class voters are in full revolt against policies—trade treaties, immigration reform and crony capitalism, among others—that they see as inimical to their interests."


Summing Up


Life is interesting.


Facts are facts.


This ain't our grandfathers' world.


And ISIS will be defeated and destroyed, even if Russia's Putin and France's Hollande have to take the lead instead of America's Obama.


All that said, the American dream isn't dead --- not by a long shot! Life is a 99 rounder.


That's my take.


Thanks. Bob.