We’ve Figured Out Why Trump Is Getting The Votes Of The Poorest Americans (VIDEO)

You might be forgiven for thinking that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is heading for one of the worst electoral defeats in American history. How could he not be? The list of who he has not insulted takes less time to recite than the list of those he has. For every single demographic – aside from white males – his pitch has been about as easy to digest as a Taco Bell breakfast buffet.

That doesn’t mean to say it isn’t working.

Ahead of tomorrow’s debate, he’s running neck and neck with his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Culture War That Will Give Us Trump

America’s culture war  is so divisive that the country is becoming ungovernable. The anger, the hysteria and the panic that has been building for decades, is no conspiracy theory. It’s not the product of an evil media, laughing at the sidelines like a film noir villain. Liberals and conservatives look at the world and see different shapes, patterns and colors. Seen from afar, the whole thing looks like the stuff of day time soap ; a family tearing itself apart in a never-ending series of  cliff hangers, face-slaps and nostril flares.

Binary Stars

Choice, it always comes down to choice. Vote for a Republican who will offer to turn the clock back to days of your youth by sticking their butts in the gears of history. Or vote for a Democrat who will stand shoulder to shoulder with you on issues such as abortion, racism, the death penalty and gay marriage.

It’s a real choice. But is it the only choice?

We speak of left-wing this and right-wing that, but forget that an accurate political chart requires a y-axis too. To the north we have free trade, to the south, protectionism. Somewhere in-between there is a happy medium, and both major parties are looking down on it from up high, wondering what all the fuss is about.

And that’s something of a problem.

The Failure of The Modern Party

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The Gini coefficient is not a number that people are all to familiar with, it’s hardly the stuff water-cooler talk is made of. But regardless of how unfamiliar such terminology might sound, it’s still an important test of economic fairness. It’s a measure of wealth, or more specifically, wealth disparity; the size of the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

That huge spike you see towards the left of the chart is the Wall Street crash. The mid eighties sudden rise during the Reagan/Bush years might give Democrats some ammunition to fight back with, but the overall trend is painful to view. It speaks of a march towards ever-greater inequality that began during the Nixon years, and has cut across party lines ever since.

Which is why Trump thinks he is going to win.

Trans Pacific Party People

For those who have not read the Trans Pacific Partnership legislation, allow me to summarize what it will do for you.

Very, very little.

By 2032 it will have increased the real wage of unskilled and skilled workers in America by 0.19 percent. So in fifteen years time, expect to be around eight bucks a month better off.

It also allows foreign companies to sue the U.S. government for actions that undermine their investment expectations, which for those who are paying attention enough to read between the lines, means that they can strike down sovereign laws in secret courts.

Will it generate wealth? Sure. Will you see any of it? Probably not.

The entire thing is a corporate wet dream. It is, as you might expect, the darling of the Republican party. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has thrown his full weight behind it.

Any Trade Policy You Want, As Long As It’s This One

Clinton initially supported TPP, though her current stance is one of opposition, and to be fair, her record of opposing poorly thought out trade deals is fairly commendable.

That’s not the point.

The point is that while Americans have become embroiled in the culture war, they have failed to notice that certain key economic battles are being lost. TPP won’t be ratified by congress until after the election, but one thing is certainly clear. They will ratify it.

While Clinton has publicly stated that she wants to see changes made to the agreement, Donald Trump, whose relationship with the truth is looser than a charity shop Turtleneck sweater, has no such qualms. In a speech given in Detroit on August 8, Trump called the TPP a:

“Disaster.”

And went on to claim that:

 “A vote for Clinton is a vote for the TPP.”

He’s probably correct. Too much work has been done to simply abandon it wholesale. A Clinton administration is unlikely to spend too much time on renegotiation, nor call for significant amendments. Then again, Trump would pass it too. He’s only saying he won’t to win votes.

Regardless, the agreement is at any rate, only a symptom of the wider malaise. Working Americans are suffering and a glance at the chart above, confirms the diagnosis. There’s only so much wealth to go round after all.

Enter The Used Car Salesman

Trump is peddling snake oil – any half-educated person can see that – but there are parts of the country so disillusioned with the political process, that they’d crawl over broken glass for a mouthful of placebos if you asked them to.

Places like Pennsylvania. Demographically blue-collar, overwhelmingly white.

Traditionally west Pennsylvania is characterized by rock-solid union Democrats, while suburban Philadelphia has been filled with loyal and middle-class Republicans. But according to Professor G Terry Madonna, of Franklin and Marshall College it is also:

“The region that Trump has made a special appeal to. He talks about manufacturing and trade deals. He wants to bring coal back.”

Respectfully, disagree; Trump couldn’t give two shits about where the coal goes.

But he’s pushing the message and pushing it hard. He knows that by speaking to the reality of three decides of disastrous, bi-partisan attempts to siphon wealth away from the American working and middle classes, he might be able to glean just enough votes to carry the election.

And he knows that if he takes Pennsylvania, he’ll probably take the whole rust belt.

And that would be game over for Clinton.

Watch Trump wooing the people of Pennsylvania with promises he will never keep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh1fqfOtyTc

I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another.