Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

The Further Adventures Of Economic Anxiety

Adam Serwer has a long piece at the Atlantic over the fallacy that "economic anxiety" gave Trump his votes.  For the most part, I think he's right.  However, I also think that anxiety of any kind - economic or status anxiety - can trigger self-interest.  There is a segment of American society that would never identify themselves as racists, but as soon as they feel threatened by circumstances, they activate a prejudice against people different than them.

Serwer begins by looking at David Duke (Pat Buchanan would be another harbinger of Trump), but it's less about people who admire Duke and more about people who - the moment things get dicey - want to throw off anyone who isn't just like them.  Give the country broadbased prosperity, and I would wager support for minorities would grow.

I don't think it's a deep seated racism that created Trump, necessarily, as a a situationally activated racism.

So, is it race or economics?  It's both.

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