by Jonathan Krall
In 2016, Trump voters told us that we need significant change. They were correct. We, all of us, see that we are responding to very real problems. To move forward, we must show our political leaders that we are fighting for something other than the pre-Trump status quo. Here in Alexandria, Virginia, where I live, protesters are screaming for fundamental change, with me screaming right along with them. Is anyone listening?
Elites aren’t listening
In pre-Trump America, the growing ranks of the White working poor were utterly dismissed. They were literally called “trash.” In 2016, only Trump promised significant change. He embraced the White working class with open arms and crude language. Because nothing actually changed–elites grew richer and the ranks of the working poor grew larger–that formula worked again in 2024. Elites, still not listening, are doing nothing to reverse wealth inequality.
Only elites can afford houses
While Wall Street thrives, most Americans live on Main Street, where buying a house is beyond the reach of too many young families. For the under-employed, there are no jobs of last resort. We do have housing of last resort–it’s called prison.
In places with the most wealth, houselessness is increasing. California, with 12% of the nation’s population, has 30% of the nation’s houseless. Jurisdictions nationwide are criminalizing houselessness. We need systemic change, not mass incarceration.
We need to talk about racism
Silence preserves racism. While these problems–housing, incarceration, economic despair–fall heavily on Americans of color, we rarely deviate from the conventional myth that racism is caused by active racists. It isn’t.
Trump is famous for saying the quiet part out loud. He was savvy. He broke the silence. Where the Ibram X. Kendis and Robin DiAngelos of the world ask us to study racism and implement counter-measures, Trump accepts racist ideas. He blames immigrants and Muslims for everything from economic precarity to domestic terrorism. He removes women and people of color from leadership positions. His followers find this refreshing. Trump supporters get validation. Kendi supporters get nothing.
Kendi showed us that racist ideas are stories we tell ourselves to explain away exploitation. Exploitation of undocumented workers feeds myths that Hispanic peoples are somehow different, somehow deserving back-breaking work at low pay. Instead of refusing to participate in exploitation, we tell ourselves stories so quietly that we don’t even hear ourselves doing it. Instead, as if to drown out that other story, we call “Hispanic” an ethnicity instead of a race. Yet another story.
The deck is stacked
Trump says the deck is stacked. Sanders-style independents agree. Everyone else sticks to the “work hard, get ahead” conventional wisdom.
Americans have direct experience with “work hard, get ahead.” The rich get richer. The minimum wage rarely changes. Corporations (and Airbnb) buy up housing, excluding the working poor. Instead of acting, political leaders on both sides of the aisle lean into the myth, also known as a lie, that a free market “lifts all boats.” Which is the party of truth? Which is the party of lies?
Everyone is in on it
Older Americans remember communicating via mail or landlines. Privacy was the law of the land. Now our messages, and every utterance made within range of a phone (except, weirdly, phone calls), can be monitored. We are monitored and manipulated. Social media encourages us to post and summarize news articles. In this way, we help corporations steal content, and advertising revenue, from local news outlets. Not only is the deck stacked against us, social media has us stacking the deck against our own local newspapers.
Years ago, we saw it. Facebook “Hoovered up” advertising revenue. Local newspapers starved. Political leaders did nothing. They didn’t tax social media. They didn’t fund local news. Corporate profits blossomed and political donations increased. Everyone is in on it.
In 2016, dissatisfaction with an increasingly corrupt free market was growing on both sides of the Atlantic. The result was Trump here, Brexit there. A UK government official lamented: “It’s overwhelming for me to see the huge amount of disenfranchised people who feel the government has failed them.” In 2016 Trump tapped into a widespread desire to burn the entire corrupt system to the ground. Sadly, while the system burns, the corruption remains.
Something must change
Here in Virginia, early voting is underway. Even as neither gubernatorial candidate promises fundamental change, voting rates are higher than in 2021. I believe this voter intensity has nothing to do with candidates and everything to do with protests. “No kings” showed us that Americans will not let America slide into autocracy. Virginians are voting for, and demanding, something different than they are getting. The protests will not stop until something actually changes.