The uprising of the outstanders.

AuthorHightower, Jim
PositionVOX POPULIST

Jack Nicholson once dryly noted that his mother "never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch."

2016 has certainly been an odd year for the political and corporate elites. They couldn't predict (and then subsequently stayed in denial about) the popularity of Bernie Sanders and Donnie Trump. Much like the Nicholson example, the aloof Powers That Be are oblivious to irony: They are the ones who gave birth to the mass anger that now confronts them.

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The political cognoscenti have not understood the massive public rage over today's glaring inequality and mass downward mobility. This is a direct product of their wrenching the system with such power tools as "free" trade agreements, union busting, defunding public services, downsizing, offshoring, price gouging, Citizens United, privatization, the Wall Street bailout, student debt, tax dodging, criminalization of poverty, militarization of police ... and so god-awful much more.

Instead of comprehending the public's rage, the established powers have lashed out at these political intruders. Their conventional wisdom (endlessly parroted by the media) is that hordes of blue-collar voters, young people, independents, and others surging into the two outsiders, presidential campaigns have been naive, unrealistic, selfish, ignorant, racist, misogynistic, anti-immigrant, fascist, or some combination of the above. Of course, such characteristics can be found among every campaign's supporters, but smearing an insurgency of millions as airheads and haters only reveals the desperation of the smearers.

Take Trump's campaign. Yes, he has recklessly continued to stoke the embers of hate by belittling Muslims, the disabled, Latino immigrants, women, Spanish-language reporters, and his catch-all category of "losers"--all the while reveling in the role of outlandish, boorish autocrat. Thereafter, pundits and the GOP's big shots conclude, his appeal and his supporters are racism personified. End of discussion.

Yet, in addition to walling off Mexico and banning Muslim refugees, Trump speaks about NAFTA, runaway corporations, and our "stoopid" leaders who've turned their backs on American manufacturing and the struggling families who count on those good jobs. And...

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