WELL, YES: Donald Trump Is Benefiting From a Huge Political Realignment Along Class Lines.
While the tactics of some members in the caucuses representing poorer communities might make useful content for a media and political environment that sets out to reaffirm the beliefs of their audiences, it neglects a deeper understanding of why and where these members are coming from.
In a post-COVID world, where white collar workers got ahead and poor communities fell further behind, it is beyond reasonable that these constituencies are looking to their representatives to fight like hell for the interests they believe have been disregarded.
When child poverty rates and measures of health and wealth exceed or even meet national averages, prioritizing norms is a luxury that other Americans living paycheck and paycheck cannot afford.
And in the absence of greater perspective from the narrative-makers to these real-life experiences, the political implications have been undeniable. CNN’s data reporter, Harry Enten, recently found that Donald Trump is poised for the best performance with Black voters since Richard Nixon and the best performance for a Republican with Hispanics in 14 years. Trump is also positioned to break the blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin with support from white, working class voters, driven by high levels of support from union members and households.
Furthermore, a recent NBC News poll shows that while college educated men and women overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris (+8 and +38 respectively), men and women without a college degree support Trump (+28 and + 3 respectively).
The GOP is shifting into the party of a diverse working class, while national Democrats are absorbing the highly educated and wealthier Americans.
The shift began at least as far back as the Tea Party in 2009 but that movement was effectively squashed by Barack Obama’s IRS, RINOs, and the media’s willingness (eagerness?) to portray Americans calling for fiscal responsibility as racists.
The Establishment GOP got one last at-bat with Mitt Romney in 2012, and we all saw how well that turned out — for the Washington Uniparty, anyway.
Trump filled a vacuum created by a GOP that no longer gave a damn about its core values and a Democrat party that no longer gave a damn about its core constituents.