More difficult to explain is poor people voting Republican.
Rich people have traditionally skewed Republican, and Trump was no exception, but this requires little explanation given the obvious alignment between Republican policy and the economic interests of the well to do.
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His promise of job creation for American workers, in large part, rested on shielding them from competition from foreign workers through renegotiating free trade deals and restricting immigration, neither of which are generally preferred by the US business community. Other planks in the policy platform, on the other hand were fairly radical departures from policies traditionally supported by the rich, particularly business owners. Many of the cures that sprang from this diagnosis of the ills facing America were little more than a gift to the real elite – the top 1% of income earners: lower taxation (particularly for the rich and corporations), across the board reductions in cost increasing regulations, and the famous “repeal and replace” of Obamacare. It was the government that had allowed jobs to move away by signing “bad” free trade deals, killed jobs by regulating and taxing corporations, allowed unskilled immigrants to flood into the country and steal American jobs. Trump campaigned as a populist, appealing to “everyday” Americans with the claim that the elite (defined as the liberal establishment and government bureaucrats) were responsible for America’s decline. Incomes of the top 1% rose by 148%, the top 0.1% by 343%, and extremely well off in the top 0.01% by an amazing 599%.Ĭandidate Trump tapped into a legitimate source of anger and frustration over the failings of the status quo, something that establishment candidates like Jeb Bush in the Republican primary and Hillary Clinton in the presidential race could not do. According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez between 19 the average income of the bottom 90 per cent of American taxpayers fell by 7%. And for most people that was a correct assessment after 1980.
The 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” declared that all was not right with current America.