Eroding the Power of Weath and Trumpism
MONEY ON MY MIND
by Jay R. Mandle
According to exit polls provided by the New York Times, 70 percent of white males whose educational attainment was below college level voted for Donald Trump. White women with a similar level of education were not far behind; 63 percent supported Trump. This is the bedrock of voters who backed the threat to democracy represented by Trumpism.
This voter bedrock, however, is not homogenous. It does include racists, religious fanatics, and xenophobes. But many of the 74 million people who voted for Trump are not sociopaths. Their support can best be explained by their frustration with a political system that has been indifferent to the escalating difficulties they face in their lives. That they have lined up behind a charlatan who has no intention of addressing their needs is obvious. But those unmet needs remain at the root of an authoritarianism that we only narrowly escaped on January 6th.
The fact is that the problems faced by what the Census Bureau characterizes as “non -Hispanic Whites with less than a college education” are of mounting intensity. In Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton report that life expectancy for this cohort has declined in recent years – a fall that is all but unprecedented in developed nations. These premature deaths resulted from what Case and Deaton describe as an epidemic of “deaths of despair” – from suicide, alcohol-related disease, and drug overdoses. They write that “pain, loneliness and disability have become more common among those without a degree. American capitalism is not serving most Americans.” And the COVID-19 pandemic has only made matters worse. In response, many Americans turned against the political system that serves them so poorly.
Despite this, the events of January 6th have shaken Trump’s hold on his base. Polling by the Pew Research Center reveals that in the aftermath of the attack on the Congress, 25 percent of those who in 2020 had approved of Trump’s job performance, now disapprove. That does mean that 75 percent of those supporters still approve of and are attached to the former president. But the 2021 disaffection from Trumpism is both new and important. It represents not only Trump’s weakening, but as well provides a basis for optimism that his support can be further stripped away.
The Biden Administration’s Covid relief proposals, if adopted in their entirety, will reinforce that process of disengagement. Most of the discussion in the media has been concerned with the plan’s price tag – $1.9 trillion. But more important is its content because it will help the American people cope with the health and economic crises confronting the nation. The fact is that Biden’s policy package represents an extension of government support more robust than anything adopted since the New Deal. It includes cash payments to individuals, an extension and increase in unemployment assistance, aid to home-owners and renters, an increase in the tax deduction for children, more assistance to education and child care, subsidies for health insurance, aid to state and local government, greater funding for vaccines and testing, and an rise in the minimum wage. In short, the proposals will speak to the needs of a wide swath of Americans – including, most importantly in this context, Trump supporters.
The comprehensive nature of this relief package provides the potential for neutralizing the anger that has fueled Trumpism. Its success will provide an effective rebuttal to the Republican canard that the government is unable to provide help when help is needed. When provided with the means to avoid eviction and offset economic deprivation, at least some of the Trump base can be expected to rethink their allegiance to him.
To be sure, a lot more will be needed before the country is safe from Trumpian demagoguery. Ultimately, we will have to come to terms with the source of the crisis of democracy he stoked. But once reasonable political discourse has been reestablished, it will not be difficult to find the source of that crisis. It lies in our system of private political financing, where wealth dictates the terms of political debate, prioritizes policies that favor the wealthy, and all but ignores everyone else. The hope is that the Biden relief plan will reduce the rage of the disaffected. Then we can move on to creating a solution to money’s political dominance by enacting public political funding that will elevate the needs of the many over the wishes of the wealthy.