Sure. Economic mobility has decreased. The ladders of opportunity have been kicked over. For the lower middle and middle classes the value creation of the “American Dream” in the form of education, home equity, career advancement has been systematically repriced to carve away any real return on their investment and even things like a vacation or just a nice evening out now require financing and debt. For most people in the middle, our economy is just the “company store” to which they owe their soul.
Of course, that’s not limited to Trump’s base and their kids. But to the very limited extent that DEI efforts and the inflow of talented and hardworking immigrants represent “cheat codes,” that represents for Trump’s base unfair competition in a system that is already rigged against them.
Of course MAGAism doesn’t offer any real solution to them other than the validation of their misdirected resentment in return for their continued indenture. That’s why I posted the Trotsky essay about the rise of national socialism- for me it ties together the support for brutality against the immigrant labor we need with the sadly now literally suicidal behavior of people in Kerr County refusing flood warning system upgrades.
The parallels here are very striking.