Understanding Trump Loyalists, Part Two

Republicans' views on Trump as President fell into three buckets.  The “Never Trumpers”, who saw Trump as an aberration to core conservative values and principles.  The “Pragmatists”, who tolerated Trump's un-Presidential conduct, explicitly or implicitly, because of his pro Republican legislative agenda.  Lastly, the most misunderstood group, the “Trump Loyalists”.  Their attachment to Trump was unshakeable, and from whose midst sprang the Capitol rioters.      

It is perilous to the already frayed ties that bind, to define the millions upon millions of Trump’s supporters, one dimensionally, as cut from the same cloth as those who violated the Capitol building.  During another tumultuous period in our history, Martin Luther King commented on the race riots setting America’s cities ablaze in the 1960s.   MLK condemned the riots, but also the conditions which led to the rioting.  Explaining, “Riots are the language of the unheard”. 

I know, many of you cannot wrap your heads around comparing Trump loyalists to the plight of oppressed Blacks.  What possible circumstances sheds a similar light on Americans who voted for, and continue to ardently support, a narcissistic man with autocratic tendencies.  

The alliance between Trump and his ardent supporters is rooted in the changing social and economic circumstance of the white working class since World War II.  The golden years for the working class started in the aftermath of WW II.  Europe and Asia were devastated by war, leaving the United States as the only major manufacturing country for the world.  Good paying jobs were plentiful, with wages and benefits sufficient for a solid middle class life.  The backbone of the country – building our manufacturing plants and infrastructure, and producing our goods.  Ordinary people, who nonetheless received a heroes’ welcome upon returning home from war.  The Greatest Generation that saved the world from the scourge of Nazism.

By 2015 the reality of the white working class was radically different.   Manufacturing was a declining segment of the economy, the result of the great outmigration of manufacturing beginning in 2001.  Manufacturing plants were relocated outside the United States to countries with lower labor costs.  The working class did not have the skills or aptitude to transition to the good paying jobs outside the manufacturing orbit.  

As a result, the working class experienced lower, stagnant wages, and a labor pool greatly diminished.  All happening by forces beyond their control.  They were no longer considered the backbone of the country.  Instead they were considered as out of step with modern America.  No longer the solid or reliable breadwinner because of diminished job opportunities.  The psychological toll from their loss of status and dignity was great -- an increased in alcohol and substance abuse to mask their underlying anxiety and depression, and an increase in the ultimate solution to misery – suicide.

The white working class was angry.  They were the invisible class whose sufferings were ignored by political leaders from both sides of the aisle.  Democrats were focused on correcting racial inequities in health care, education, the criminal justice system, and the like. Yet the white working class experienced these same inequities.  Considered part of the “privileged white class”, they were left out of the conversation.

The Republican Party favored the very policies leading to the decimation of manufacturing – free trade and globalization.  The Republican view - the loss of blue collar jobs was the inevitable consequence of the creative destruction of the free market system.  The Republican solution - retraining for the new jobs that a dynamic economy creates.  Cold comfort for middle aged workers with a high school education.

Enter Donald Trump.  He made them feel accepted by voicing approval of the working class small town values of attending church and ownership of guns for protection and hunting.  He made them feel understood by viewing them as they viewed themselves - patriotic, regular Americans who represented the norm of what America is, and what made America great.  

He promised to drain the swamp of elitist, career politicians.  The ones who viewed the working class dismissively as racist, and unable to cope with a rapidly changing and increasingly diverse America.  The ones who no longer considered the working class as the backbone of the country. 

Trump’s call for greater border security with Mexico resonated with the working class.  Mexico, like no other country, symbolized the how and the why of the working classes' economic decline.  Mexico benefited financially from American manufacturing plants relocating there, and from their illegal immigrants sending their earnings back to Mexico.  Dollars earned, from jobs ordinarily filled by American workers, sent home to families in Mexico.  In 2015, illegal immigrants remitted a total of 25 billion dollars to Mexico.

The pent up anger and frustration felt towards Mexico, released into wild applause at rallies when Trump gave his signature line, “We will build the wall and make Mexico pay for it”.  That was such a sure fire enthusiastic applause line, he told the NY Times Editorial Board he used it whenever he sensed the audience was getting bored.

Once elected, Trump did improve the lot of the working class.  A combination of tax cuts and deregulation led to record low unemployment and wage increases for the working class.  Not run of the mill wage increases, but substantial wage increases.  Wage increases that were two and one-half times the wage increases of the upper class. 

As promised, Trump made building the wall along the southern border a top priority.  Restrained by the Democrat party’s opposition, completion held off until Trump’s anticipated second term in office.  He also defended religious liberty and gun ownership through appointing conservative judges at the Federal level and at the Supreme court, and by actions of the Justice Department.         

Promises made promises kept.  The first politician to do so for the working class since the FDR administration.  Any doubts about Trump’s sincerity or commitment to the working class dispelled by his actions in office.  Trump was their champion and the bond between them sealed by covenants kept.

Next time, why Trump’s widespread voter fraud allegations made perfect sense to his loyal followers.