Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
Michael Sandel, a (Marxist?) professor of political philosophy at Harvard, explains why Americans elected Trump.
Western European countries are more egalitarian than the U.S. and offer free education. Because of this, upward mobility is higher in those countries than in the U.S. Elites in the U.S. emphasize the need for a college degree, but for the many millions of Americans lacking such a degree this comes across as "blaming the victim." This elitist attitude seemed condescending; Democrats should have instead focused on the dignity of the common people. Trump tapped into these feelings, e.g. with his promise to bring working-class jobs back.
"The most corrosive effect of the widening inequalities has been the erosion of public places and common spaces." As an example of this, Sandel speaks of the "Skyboxification" of America during the 1990's. Sports stadia once had a class-mixing role, but are now segregated. The affluent live detached from the common people. The people need a sense of community and patriotism, but the Democrats have allowed the MAGA movement to provide that sense. Sandel goes into detail about the message Democrats should offer.
Perhaps Sandel just repeats what others have explained, but he articulates it well.
Focusing on why somebody got 49% of the vote in one election but 51% of the vote in another election completely misses the point. The more pertinent question is why a sociopathic grifter got many tens of millions of votes at all, regardless of whether the count was slightly more than or slightly less than his opponent's count.
