Fighting Back for Survival

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4846

Publisher:  Against the Current
Date Written:  01/01/2017
Year Published:  2017  
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21510

The editors reflect on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

First, what happened? The result is in part a fluke, but also the culmination of certain trends both internationally - including Brexit and a rightwing nationalist tide in much of Europe - and in the United States. Even if the voters favored Clinton over Trump by a pretty substantial margin of close to two percent, the Democrats got smashed in areas they once dominated - swamped by a revolt against the neoliberal, free-trade "new economic order" to which the Clinton-Obama-Pelosi leadership attached itself.

Second, on a closer look, it's highly dubious to call the election a "populist working class revolt." As Kim Moody's analysis in this issue of Against the Current shows, it's much more an uprising of the affluent. (See other election articles in this issue.)

Nonetheless, in those closely fought battleground states that produced the Electoral College result, a declining overall working-class vote and a swing by white workers were decisive factors.