I keep trying to grapple with Trump's appeal and I just don't get it. Now with mini rant.

[Dems to Win]

46. Who will working poor Americans believe, their own eyes or a UC Berkley prof?

They can see with their own eyes that working class jobs held by their fathers and grandfathers are now held by immigrants, many of them undocumented.

Instead of working class, they are now working poor, with a minimum wage job at WalMart.

Thirty years ago, a man with a high school education could get a job in a slaughter house or landscaping or roofing and make a living wage, able to support a family. Now, all of those jobs are minimum wage, at best, and all the people doing them speak Spanish.

I've seen this happen with my own eyes. 35 years ago, a family member dated a guy who worked at a slaughterhouse, making a good wage doing dirty, nasty work. Now those jobs are done by immigrants in small towns all over the country.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0314/How-one-small-Midwest-town-has-turned-immigration-into-positive-change

Here at West Liberty Elementary School, mathematics is about more than numbers and shapes. It’s a blending of two languages, two cultures, and two very different groups of people that have come to inhabit this small town in rural Iowa. Like scores of rural communities across the Midwest and Great Plains, West Liberty has been transformed in the past several decades by an influx of newcomers, most of them Latinos who came to work in the big turkey processing plant that sits just beyond the downtown.

I have another family member who worked for years as a supervisor at a linen laundry facility serving hospitals, and the language of the workplace was Spanish. When someone left a job, the owner would call down to Mexico for a new worker, and one would arrive, fresh fake Social Security card in hand. It was their business model. He's not worked there for a couple of years, but I assume it's still going on. I've not read of any enforcement raid on the place.

35 years ago, when my dad got a new roof on the house, the crew spoke English. The crew five years ago spoke Spanish.

As long as there are millions of undocumented people living in the US, it's hard to argue that there has been vigorous enforcement of immigration laws. A slight decline in the number is not convincing.

I don't support Trump, I'm a Bernie supporter. I understand there are many forces squeezing the middle and working classes -- NAFTA and the rest of the horrible trade deals, out-sourcing, the thieves on Wall Street.

But I just can't buy the standard liberal line on undocumented immigrants. Looking the other way while unscrupulous employers exploit desperate vulnerable workers to do the hard, dirty work for ridiculously low pay has hurt our native born working class, and people are angry about it.

The Establishment of both parties will just rock along with this situation forever, so along comes a bomb thrower expressing the frustration of millions of Americans. IMHO it's a big part of Trump's appeal. Also IMHO, it hurts Democrats to be so tone-deaf on this issue, handwaving that 'immigrants create jobs!' without acknowledging what working class people see and experience.

If The Establishments of both parties wanted to take the wind out of Trump's sails, they would pass serious immigration reform right now. Give legal status to those here for years, since we've chosen not to enforce the law for so long it's the only fair thing to do. But then have truly effective labor law and immigration enforcement so there will never be another generation of Dreamers, because it simply won't be possible to live here for decades without legal authorization.

Instead, people are trying to get rid of Trump by calling him a fascist bigot. I don't think that will be at all effective, and I'm seriously concerned Trump is going to be elected President.