Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
09 April 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
An Informed Atheist Re-Addresses Christianity
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
A Progressive Reform Program for America
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Supply Side and Libertarians Are Wrong and Not Supported by the Data
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
How Income Inequality Injures People and the Economy
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
A Democratic Reform Program for America
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Supply Side Libertarians Are Wrong and Not Supported by the Data
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Economic Ignorance
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part VI)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part V)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part IV)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part III)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part II)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part I)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Racial Hatred Is Confused
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
What To Do About North Korea
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Neoliberalism
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Ban Hate Marches and Assemblies
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Miss Piggy and Mr. Pork
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Demise of the Democratic Party
09 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Elitism

The Plight of America's Middle Class and Youth

12 November 2016 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Kimball Corson
"Beginning in the middle of the 20th century, the working class, once the core of the coalition, began abandoning the Democratic Party. In 1948, in the immediate wake of Franklin Roosevelt, 66 percent of manual laborers voted for Democrats, along with 60 percent of farmers. In 1964, it was 55 percent of working-class voters. By 1980, it was 35 percent.

"The white working class in particular saw even sharper declines. Despite historic advantages with both poor and middle-class white voters, by 2012 Democrats possessed only a 2-point advantage among poor white voters. Among white voters making between $30,000 and $75,000 per year, the GOP has taken a 17-point lead." Vox.

Why did this occur? That is the question.

Some contend it is the smug elitism that has arisen within the Democratic party, but I don't really think that explains enough. Another contention is this middle of American voted against their own self interest by going republican, lured to do so over the years by social issues such as abortion and religion along with republican scare tactics on those issues. While there is some truth to this explanation, I don't think it is a full explanation. More is involved. But what?

I think it is the de facto disenfranchisement, economically and politically, of the American middle class by 1) the republicans who serve the oligarchy and by 2) the Democrats who have come to serve only their elite cadre and align themselves with the oligarchs. Economically and politically, the American middle class has been abandoned by the Democratic party and there is no alternative party except the republicans. Middle America will soon enough learn it has leaped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But it is already decimated, so where is the further downside, especially if Trump can help.

Jobs shipped overseas, the great recession, loss of their homes and wealth, often by fraud (banks foreclosing without mortgagee titles) and falling incomes in the face of the ascending super rich has become coupled with a deep, abiding anger for the Democrats who abandoned them to take care of themselves and join the smug elites and oligarchy. As I say, they have been politically and economically abandoned now by both of America's political parties and have nowhere to turn . . . except to the promises of Trump, if not the entrenched republican party. Sanders was the hope of America's youth and they they too have been left standing abandoned, angry and sorely disappointed. Only the outliers of Trump and Sanders are listened to much any more by a desperate middle America that few notice.

In short, the American middle class, mad and angry, hangs by a gossamer's thread and no one cares, except maybe, just maybe Trump. It is why he won. and as the quintessential Democratic, it is why Hillary lost, but not by a great margin because Middle America is learning where the Republican Party stands on them. Trump is their hope, especially after Obama's hope and change failed so conspicuously. But Trump is a thin reed. Republicans are not likely to let him do most of what he wants. After all, it is the republicans who have won out over America's middle class and let banks and the rich regularly loot them, as Elizabeth Warren explains.

If Trump fails middle America, who knows what will happen.
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Vessel Name: Altaira
Vessel Make/Model: A Fair Weather Mariner 39 is a fast (PHRF 132), heavily ballasted (43%), high-aspect (6:1), stiff, comfortable, offshore performance cruiser by Bob Perry that goes to wind well (30 deg w/ good headway) and is also good up and down the Beaufort scale.
Hailing Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
Crew: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
About:
Kimball Corson: I am a 75 year old solo sailor, by choice. However, I did take on a personable, but high maintenance female kitten, now a full grown cat, named KiKiPoo when she is sweet, or KatKatPo after she has just killed something like a bird or bat. [...]
Extra:
Although I was a lawyer and practiced law with good success for thirty years, creating significant new law, I never really believed in the law, the politics of law or in the over reaching self-interest of most lawyers I met. Too much exposure to Nietzsche and other good and seriously thoughtful [...]
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Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ