2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What is so impossible about fighting for blue collar jobs AND social justice? [View all]mythology
(9,527 posts)Automation took those jobs, not trade deals. But making that argument is hard because it requires longer term thinking and some serious social questions. It's easy to do what Trump did and promise he'll bring the jobs back. But I don't see him managing to pull that off because his plan is to cut off trade deals which really haven't had nearly the impact on jobs as people think. Offering job retraining alone doesn't address things like the cultural impact of blue collar jobs to male (particularly white male) identity, of what it means for families, etc.
The question is once it's clear that Trump can't do what he promises, what happens next? Do those people not vote? Do they vote Democratic, third party? Vote for whoever offers the most "populist" message regardless of how viable their promises are?
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