'Gotcha!' The American Working Class Takes Revenge: How the Republicans and Democrats Ignored the Working Class and Got Trumped

Abstract

In 2016 Donald Trump smashed his way into the American presidency like Al Capone busting down the doors of the White House. The “establishment” of both parties turned pale at the event, drained of blood by sheer surprise and terror. This establishment should not, however, have been shocked by this alien arrival. For five decades both parties had prepared the way for the descent by playing loose and cynically with the sector of their base that they claimed as their first priority: the hard working people of America, the essential force of the American Dream of equal opportunity and upward mobility, the populist foundation of American exceptionalism and prosperity.Since Nixon, the blue-collar worker and the working poor had voiced their concern and anxiety that, for all the political rhetoric, their economic progress had, at best, leveled off, and at worst, begun to decline steadily. When they compared themselves with those white-collar and mink coat middle and upper middle classes, never mind the diamond studded top ten percent, it was clear that they were loosing ground and it was becoming more and more difficult to keep their economic and social head above water. How was it that this happened? How did both parties end up alienating the working class and the working poor? How could a crass business man with no experience in public service and no knowledge of political history, structure or procedure draw such adulation from the working class and working poor and punch his way into and take the Republican Party away from its “establishment” leadership?