According to pundits and political scientists, this summer’s Republican convention was basically a reactionary reverie in racism and nativism by Donald Trump’s white, working and lower middle-class political base. These “angry white males” are portrayed as irrationally opposed to immigration, ethnic diversity and globalization. But the Democrats’ gathering won praise for its patriotic, inclusive and upbeat tone. Star speakers savaged Trump and denounced the GOP’s bleak portrait of the nation. Yet they avoided attacks on working class whites who once anchored Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s grand Democratic coalition. Hillary Clinton will still need to win a minimal percentage of this lost constituency to win key Midwestern states
To do so Democrats and nearly everyone else must candidly answer a very politically incorrect question: Why are white men (and often their families) angry? Are their grievances wholly or partially legitimate? Has the system treated them unjustly? And is this right-wing populist ire truly directed at immigrants — or towards Democratic (and GOP) elites who pitted American workers against immigrants via open borders/cheap labor/outsourcing policies compounded by an expanding, questionable list of ethnic preferences in education and workplaces.
