David Michael Miller
According to Politifact, only 12% of the things that Donald Trump has said out on the campaign trail are true or mostly true. By contrast, Hillary Clinton — you know, the woman over half of Americans say is less than honest, tells the truth 95% of the time, even more than Bernie Sanders.
What’s going on here? It’s the difference between literal truth about facts and tapping into a deeper truth about how people feel and what they believe is really going on. Hillary Clinton gets her facts right, but she can’t capture the frustration of people who have been working hard and not getting ahead. Donald Trump has a callous disregard for facts and yet he’s connecting with more people than anyone could have imagined on the fundamental truth of their lives. He doesn’t give political speeches so much as he tells parables.
This seems like a good time for liberals like me to step back and take stock about how we missed this, how we can be so incredulous that a guy like Trump is getting so close to leading our nation. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a conservative who despises Trump but who now is more or less resigned to his nomination, has done exactly that, and his soul-searching is worth reading.
It turns out that what establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats have in common is perhaps stronger than what they disagree on: They’re both out of touch with white working class anger because they just don’t live in that world. More than ever the parties’ establishments are living up to their “country club” and “limousine” stereotypes, respectively. They might disagree on tax policy and how hawkish to be on foreign relations, but they share the same love of sushi, BMWs and hot yoga.
In his column, Brooks points out that he didn’t see Trump coming because he’s completely out of touch with the world in which Trump resonates. Brooks vows to go find that world and spend more time there, trying to understand these aliens.
There’s a lesson here for Madison liberals. In our world we must be careful not to show disrespect for anyone...except that less-educated, straight white religious people and especially men are fair game. You hear it in the litany of identity politics that is a standard refrain in Clinton’s now frequent victory speeches: women, blacks, Hispanics, the LGBT community.... That’s all fine, but who is left out of that list?
Democrats sometimes think they’ve touched this base when they say they’ll fight for unions or when they wimp out on gun control. But only 11% of American workers belong to a union and even 74% of NRA members support universal gun background checks. When they try to conjure up blue-collar voters, elites have the wrong image in mind. Don’t think of the guy in the hardhat with the lunch pail. Think of the assistant manager at the McDonald’s. (McDonald’s is an American fast-food restaurant where they serve food that Alice Waters disapproves of.)
Elite liberal Democrats’ approach to blue-collar white voters falls somewhere between awkward condescension based on outdated images and pure disdain. It’s fashionable among elites to obsess over race when the deeper problem the Democrats have is one of their obliviousness to class.
Republicans have been much better at appealing to this demographic, but it’s all been a sham and one that Trump has now blown up. Establishment Republicans figured out how to co-opt tea partiers with promises on social issues that they never intended to keep. They used them to accomplish what has always been the Republican establishment's primary goal: lower taxes for themselves and the downsizing of government to the point where it is too weak to curb their profits.
So, this is a sobering moment. It now looks likely that one of our two major political parties will nominate a man who is the nearest thing to a fascist that this country has allowed to get this close to the presidency. And while his overwhelming unpopularity among women and other groups makes his election unlikely, keep in mind that Hillary Clinton would be the most unpopular nominee of either party in recent history...if Trump weren’t even more so.
Nobody in the elite political classes has taken a genuine interest in a part of this country that is badly hurting. And this may come back to hurt us and in a profound way. Even if Trump loses, those who supported him won’t go away. Nor will their frustration, their anger and their willingness to reach for simple solutions based on fear and prejudice.
Assuming she can beat Trump, the best thing the next President Clinton can do is try to better understand and address the legitimate concerns of the blue-collar voters who support Trump. Because in the absence of a responsible politician listening to them and acting on their economic concerns, they’ll turn to the next demagogue who comes along.
