Connecticut: Why the Middle Class is Angry

January 29, 2016 //

Jonathan Pelto is a veteran political analyst in Connecticut and a former legislator. He is concerned about the rise of Donald Trump, and he understands that Trump taps into middle-class and working-class anger. Why are they angry? Connecticut has seen little economic growth, jobs are not increasing, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider.

Categories Connecticut, Economy

8 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Chiara says:

January 29, 2016 at 12:26 pm

I don’t know- they have a legit beef that their government is completely captured and mostly unresponsive, and they do get terrible “deals” on trade and healthcare and wages (as Trump would say)- that’s true.

But, they are making a choice to sign on and implicitly endorse this multi-millionaire beating up on people who don’t have any more power than they do (immigrants, etc) so I think they’re responsible for that. One doesn’t follow the other. It’s not inevitable that they lash out at people who are in worse shape than they are to get their voices heard.

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

January 29, 2016 at 12:36 pm

Public Policy Polling’s latest national poll found that 66 percent of Trump’s supporters believe Obama is a Muslim, compared to only 12 percent who believe he’s Christian, and Even if Obama was born in the United States, however, that doesn’t mean that Trump supporters would allow him to have citizenship, as 63 percent favor amending the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship.

The views of Trump’s supporters are only unique to him in their extremity, as a majority Jeb Bush and Chris Christie’s supporters, for example, also believe that the president isn’t a United States citizen, and a majority of Christie supporters also believe him to be a Muslim.

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Maurine says:

January 29, 2016 at 1:51 pm

Does this say more about our country or Trump?

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- Lloyd Lofthouse says:
  
  January 29, 2016 at 2:16 pm
  
  Only a portion of the population—not the entire country. Until Trump runs for President as the GOP pick, we will not know how many in the U.S. are foolish, ignorant, biased and racist enough to vote for this human Ebola virus called Trump.
  
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NoReformNeeded says:

January 29, 2016 at 2:12 pm

I’m a slower leaner. You can tell by my posts here. But the level of racism on the right, it’s palpable.

If you have a friend you suspect is racist, just join Facebook and friend that person. The truth will come out in a hurry.

I think both Trump and Sanders have tapped into something. I also think the right does a way better job of messaging and forming public opinion, propaganda if you want to go there.

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Gordon Wilder says:

January 29, 2016 at 4:09 pm

I definitely am middle class
AND
I can list a LOT of things that make me angry.
I could not watch more than 2 minutes of this last Republican debate. They wish to build a replica of the Berlin wall, they wish to bomb people rather than apply diplomacy – note how the Iran nuclear deal has already produced positive results
etc etc etc.
The list is much too long to go into now.
That Trump can tap into that anger defies common sense.
I believe Bernie and Elizabeth Warren have reached out to “take back our country” from those who are making the middle class disappear, who amass humongous amounts of money by Buying our legislators.
You care concerned about public schools under Obama – and rightly so – but wait until we have a Republican president and a Republican congress.

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MathVale says:

January 29, 2016 at 7:09 pm

The Republicans have been carefully nurturing hate, fear, and anger for decades to win elections. Now they own Trump. If not for gerrymandering, voter suppression, SCOTUS, and dark money, the Republican party would be a footnote to history by now. Many Trumpettes , if they listened to Sanders, would actually agree with “democratic socialism”.

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- ponderosa says:
  
  January 29, 2016 at 10:37 pm
  
  The Republican attack machine will define Sanders should he win the nomination. Most working class white voters will only know the “Bernie Sanders” that is fed to them by the machine. I pray Sanders does not get the nomination. He will walk into a buzzsaw and Trump will walk into the White House. I agree with Paul Krugman and Jonathan Chait that Sanders, for all his real virtues, will be a weak candidate.
  
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