Working-Class Woes
How did this happen? As I absorb the once impossibly ludicrous spectacle of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, I remain in a state of shock shared by the majority of Americans who rejected him at the polls only to be startled by the tally of the antiquated Electoral College.
With the ascension of this buffoonish figure to the position of most powerful leader in the world, our nation is undoubtedly in fundamental disarray. That explains the 2016 Presidential election. Whatever you think of our new President, you cannot honestly blame him for the election’s portentous outcome. Trump is the mes senger, and the message is one of a screaming societal pain born not from the repugnant words of this demagogue but from the actions of his predecessors and their enablers, Democrat and Republican alike.
That pain is the direct result of Wall Street shenanigans made possible by President Bill Clinton’s financial deregulation, which destroyed the jobs, homes, life savings and self-esteem of tens of millions of Americans. When Election Day 2016 rolled around, why wouldn’t these citizens choose to throw their votes to Trump as if desperately betting on the roll of dice in a crooked casino? African Americans and Latinos lost almost 70% of their collective wealth in the meltdown. Trump alienated Latinos with his talk of deportations, but Latinos dubbed Obama “deporter- in-chief” for booting out more people than any President before him.
