A Left of Liberal Interpretation of Trump's "Big" Win, Part One: Neoliberalism

Trump’s narrow victories in swing states could have been caused by any number of factors, but it is still significant that there was a nation-wide shift of the non-college white electorate, male and female. Many non-college Democrats who had voted for Obama did not turn out for Hillary and some voted for Trump; many Republicans who had not voted for Romney turned out for Trump. This article proposes, as part of the explanation, a rebellion of non-college whites against the consequences for poor communities, in red states or in red pockets in blue states, of four decades of neoliberal selective deregulatory policies. It argues that this part of the vote for Trump was a vote against policies shared by Republicans and Democrats, policies that have “devastated” not the country as a whole but this particular part of the country, along with, paradoxically, poor inner city blacks.