Pleasure in Taking Advantage of People Who Trusted Him.... [Can You Guess Who?]

In a recent Fox poll, only 5% of white Americans with no college degree agree that Trump's economic policies benefit them. It'd be shocking to associate this with voting behavior, but we already knew that many Americans consistently vote against their economic interests, especially the ones who can least afford it.

So, it has to be something else of value these people think they're getting from Trump and the Republican party. Perceived value is something subjective, and I won't pretend to argue that having healthcare, or better wages, or a cleaner environment should be preferable to you than building a border wall or establishing a theocracy in the US. For example, many Russians have opted for a rebuilding of an empire like the old Soviet Union instead of building democracy, and a strong social safety net.

But, what I find appalling is the fact that a con man, a bullshit artist, keeps taking advantage of those who trust him, and that he's applying his trade on a much larger scale since the Republican party has enabled him to get the presidency and constantly eroding our institutions.

Paul Krugman has written another gem regarding this.

Here's an excerpt. [if you're a NYT subscriber, you can find the whole article, here]

"In 2016, on the campaign trail, Trump sounded as if he might be a European-style populist, blending racism with support for social programs that benefit white people. He even promised to raise taxes on the rich, himself included.

Since taking office, however, he has relentlessly favored the wealthy over members of the working class, whatever their skin color. His only major legislative success, the 2017 tax cut, was a huge break for corporations and business owners; the handful of crumbs thrown at ordinary families was so small that most people believe they got nothing at all.

At the same time, he keeps trying to destroy key provisions of Obamacare — protection for pre-existing conditions, premium subsidies and the expansion of Medicaid — even though these provisions are highly popular and have been of enormous benefit to states like Kentucky and West Virginia that favored him by huge margins.

As if to symbolize who he’s really working for, on Wednesday Trump will give a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Art Laffer, best known for insisting that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves. This is a classic zombie idea, one that has been repeatedly killed by evidence, but keeps shambling along, eating our brains, basically because it’s in plutocrats’ interest to keep the idea in circulation.

And here’s the thing: White working-class voters seem to have noticed that Trump isn’t working for them. A new Fox News poll finds that only 5 percent of whites without a college degree believe that Trump’s economic policies benefit “people like me,” compared with 45 percent who believe that the benefits go to “people with more money.”

Trump may believe that he can make up for his pro-plutocrat tax and health policies with tariffs, his one significant deviation from G.O.P. orthodoxy. But despite Trump’s insistence that foreigners will pay the tariffs, an overwhelming majority of noncollege whites believe that they will end up paying more for the things they buy.

Oh, and remember Trump’s promises to bring back coal? His own Energy Department projects that coal production next year will be 17 percent lower than in 2017. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that there will necessarily be large-scale defections on the part of Trump’s beloved “poorly educated.” On the other hand, health care — where his betrayal of past promises was especially obvious — seems to have played a big role in Democrats’ midterm victory. And he is certainly more vulnerable than he would be if he engaged in even a smidgen of actual populism. Why won’t he?

Part of the answer may be personal: Trump’s whole career shows him to be the kind of man who, if anything, takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him.

Beyond that, however, for all the talk about how “it’s Trump’s party now,” he still needs the support of the G.O.P.’s big-money interests. For now, the party establishment is happy to provide cover for the administration’s corruption, closeness to Putin, and all that.

But that could change. If Trump ever did anything that might hurt the rich or help the poor, many Republicans might suddenly discover that self-dealing and accepting help from hostile foreign powers are actually bad.

Whatever the reasons, the simple fact is that Trump isn’t a populist, unless we redefine populism as nothing but a synonym for racism. At least some in the white working class seem to have realized that he’s not on their side. And Democrats would be foolish not to make the most of this opening."