---- Rust Belt-speak ... or nervous wealthy racists?
Some Bulletin readers obviously feel that Trump supporters in the USA (and in Canada?) are disgruntled working people living in the rust belts who feel passed by with the globalization of industry. These hard-working folks, the story goes, just want to have their pain felt and their objections heard. They must resort to dramatic public actions like the attack on the Capitol to be noticed in a media landscape that ignores them and focuses on minorities and "snowflake issues" . . . nice story, but untrue.
Studies since the election of voting patterns across the US show that Trumpism's biggest support comes from white upper class suburbs. Despite TV's picture of American working class family life as brainless and prejudiced, the most active supporters of racism and defenders of the vast modern inequality of wealth are the whites who have something to lose and who feel threatened by growing minorities, immigration, and progressive initiatives (like abortion!). Sorry, conservatives, but your story is phony and self-protecting. Trumpism is the very face of racism and wealth inequality. The message I heard from the mob in the Capitol was: "America is not hearing our racist claims, no matter how loud we yell, so we're frustrated!"
Andy Black
Aylmer nord