A quote from Gerald Ford's acceptant speech at the 1976 Republican National Convention:
If the American experiment is over, it is because our political leaders no longer recognize who makes America's system work. They no longer recognize who pays the taxes, who obeys the laws, and they are no longer are on our side.
They attention goes to niche complaints. The Establishment GOP's focus is solely on the complaints of the investor class (as opposed to the working class) and their desires for free trade. The Democrats' focus is on exotic fringes (LGBTI, BLM, illegal aliens and their families and friends that may be here as citizens). That's what millions of working class Americans are seeing; folks for whom the rules have been changed to where they were once violators, but are now victims. They've not only lost ground economically; they've lost ground socially. Their work ethic is scorned and their prejudices are magnified far and way beyond what they really are. It is as if the only reward for paying the taxes, doing the work, and obeying the laws is that they get to stay out of jail, but their struggles are dismissed as imagined. Indeed, there are a lot of elitists who write articles as to how Trump's constituency aren't victims, and are getting what they deserve because they are unenlightened.
Folks like this writer from the
New Yorker are unconcerned about the lot of working class folks. They view their "global citizen" view as enlightened and the nationalistic view of Trump's constituency as unenlightened. They take for granted that Trump's supporters will continue to work; indeed, they view themselves as ENTITLED to the benefits of a working class that shows up for work and obeys the laws. (Notice that they never refer to BLM as lawbreakers who are asserting a "right" to resist lawful arrests.)
Trump represents a candidate who is on their side and who recognizes that they are the worker bees of society that make it work. Trump recognizes that our society can do without LGBTI complainers and BLM complainers and Evangelical complainers and non-working poor complainers and Investor Class tax complainers, but it can't do without a backbone of folks with a work ethic who will do the work of society. Trump (and Sanders, for that matter) actually recognize this. "The Silent Majority stands with Trump." is not an accidental slogan; it is a rallying cry for folks who have played by the rules and have been taken for granted.
In functional organizations, the squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease; it gets replaced. Trump gets that, and he gets the frivolousness of much of the complaining groups in our polity. He also realizes that it's time that THEIR problems receive REAL attention. We have dropped everything for so many constituencies that, quite frankly, take, but don't give. There is a resentment about this, and it is hardly unfounded. I'm not an Ayn Rand type, but work ought to be recognized in our society by our leaders beyond what it is.
