General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Lots of misunderstanding around here about what Michael Moore is doing. [View all]jcgoldie
(11,612 posts)And I'm not trying to disregard your personal experience of hardships and persistence when I point out that the economic data do not support the thesis that a greater number of people were facing greater economic instability in Obama's 2nd term. Something else was driving that "righteous anger" that made people vote for a racist zealot in Trump because they certainly weren't worse off in 2016 than they were in in 2008.
I'm from rural southern Illinois where a lot of the small towns may as well be in Alabama. People fly confederate flags and paint them on the windows of their trucks despite zero historical connection to the confederacy. I live in a farm community and I saw firsthand on a daily basis the "angry" poor white working class. By and large these people weren't angry because they suffered more economic anxiety or instability than previously. They were angry that the president was black and they were angry that Hillary Clinton is an "uppity" woman.