I know: you have other sources for your political opinions, and this is the last place you look for that sort of thing! Anyway, I offer this to you, and then I will keep quiet.
Our family is sort of at the lower edge of Middle Class, which you can easily gather from reading any of the stories I write. You can also gather that most of the satisfying elements in those stories come from interactions between people of different classes and backgrounds. I have been deeply unhappy with Donald Trump's essay into politics, and for a long time I shied away from watching video of his speeches. Anyway, this post is not an attempt to persuade anyone to frustrate Donald Trump's attempt to be elected President. Whatever will happen will happen; I for one will not vote for him.
But we are seeing a phenomenon we have to take seriously; there is a swath across America of poor white people whom we have always viewed with annoyance and frustration. They have never understood the dynamics of the economic stratification that lies mostly above them. They only know that, of the underdogs of the political process, Blacks and minorities have an unfair share of power. Even women have more power. For more than two centuries these folks have been pushed further and further into the dust, and they are baffled and angry.
They have, intermittently, been subject to Marxist ideas, but they're deeply suspicious of these clever college kids who're throwing all this propaganda at them. They're sure that if they go the route of voting the way they're being encouraged, they will end up being the losers. The only language they understand is the put-down rhetoric of racism. In
a recent piece in Stir magazine, a writer traces the origins of the suspicion of these poor whites back to the early colonial days, when wealthy landowners actually fomented the distrust between poor whites and black slaves in order to disrupt the emergence of a dangerously unified underclass.
Having read that article, watching a Trump video, or a quotation from Trump, or a report about Trump makes a whole new kind of sense. You can even watch Trump supporters at a rally explaining why they support him, despite the complete lack of meaningful principles in his essentially one-man campaign.
The inanity of the utterances of Trump supporters, their grammar, their syntax, their lack of logic, their stereotypes, their world view, their social principles, their paranoia, all suddenly makes sense. And to think: these are our fellow-citizens. But few or none of them avail themselves of the various aspects of the social safety-net that is available to urban Blacks. They keep away from any sort of Government "hand-out" because of being unwilling to identify with Blacks, and hating the thought of associating closely with them. I can imagine that they hate even entering an office that might be staffed by a Black or minority, or even worse, a Mexican.
And this is my point: no matter what happens in this election, this sector of our citizenry must be brought into our society. Their faults appear to be the fault of foolishness and lack of intelligence, but an enormous proportion of what holds them back is education. For years I thought that the shortcomings of US education were greatly exaggerated. But we're talking about a different sort of education: the broadening of the mind that has little or nothing to do with formal schooling, and everything to do with awareness of the wider society. Not just video footage of migrant workers, but some opportunity to interact in a positive way with people outside their immediate neighbors. I can't see how it can be done, but as long as their insularity is allowed to continue, they will be a festering wound, and my heart goes out to their kids, who will inevitably absorb the prejudices of the parents for lack of alternatives. It is no wonder that they view practically
everything about the modern world with fear. Donald Trump assuages their fears simply by
not talking about anything substantive, except to assure these ones that he hates what they hate just as much, and that
he has a plan.
If Donald Trump does get into power, and he betrays the best interests of these foolish innocents, he will be truly cursed. I hope he realizes that there are eyes watching him that do not want to see him adding to his power and his wealth by crushing his blind followers.
Kay
