Milbank: Was Obama ahead of his time, or are we behind ours?

[CrispyQ]

2. Worth reading!

Let’s not be deceived: The racial wedge Trump has driven through the United States cleaves us deeper all the time. It has been shown in innumerable studies and regression analyses that the main predictor of support for Trump is racial anxiety — far more than economic anxiety. That’s why Trump’s base remains rock-solid behind him even as the tax cut, in the first quarter, contributed to an 8 percent increase in corporate earnings but only a 1 percent increase in consumer spending — the lowest increase in five years — and even though coal jobs are disappearing faster than before, wages remain stuck and the promised return of manufacturing hasn’t happened.

Now we’re seeing a mirror effect among Trump’s opponents that is deepening the racial divide. As Sean McElwee wrote in the New York Times recently, Democratic voters, particularly white Democrats, are shifting left in their views about race.

This will resolve itself naturally as 2045 comes and goes. The outcome of the struggle — fading white hegemony — is inevitable. What wasn’t inevitable is the Trump-led ugliness, while Trump’s fellow Republicans look away.