Structural economic issues that dogged the middle class even before 2008 have also been left to fester. Seven years after the Great Recession erupted, wage growth is stagnant and under employment is rife. The two men are not just playing on pre-occupations of those who see themselves as victims of the globalization and technological change that have scythed through the blue-collar economy. You look at those empty factories all over the place, and nobody hits that message better than me,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. The cocktail of economic anxiety was clearly evident in the backstory of Trump’s triumphs in Michigan and Mississippi and Sanders’ surprise win in the Democratic primary in Michigan on Tuesday night. It is turning out to be a potent electoral brew – which has lifted insurgent candidates like Trump and Sanders throughout the 2016 cycle and challenged foes like Hillary Clinton and establishment Republicans who have found it tougher to reconcile the grass-roots anger. ![]() ![]() The billionaire and the democratic socialist are in different ways speaking for vast populations of Americans who feel threatened by globalization, who question the benefits of “free trade” that political leaders have peddled for decades and who believe distant elites control the economy in ways detrimental to their lives and prospects. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders might be poles apart in their politics and temperament, but they are voicing visceral feelings of economic disenfranchisement and alienation among pessimistic voters who feel they’ve been ignored for years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |