It was one of the boldest thefts in political history and it was carried out in plain daylight. It was carried out by someone whom everyone knew couldn't be trusted to play by the rules. It was bold and brazen, but the prize was just sitting there in plain sight, having been pretty much ignored with the assumption that it could be pulled out and used whenever needed.
What was the prize? The white working class of America. They were the heart and soul of the modern Democratic Party ever since FDR had recognized their great need at the start of the Depression in the early 1930s. He recognized them in their hour of need, and they gave him their heart and soul for the rest of his life, electing him to the presidency four times.
But there they were (the white working class), in the 2016 election being taken for granted and not exactly respected or attended to. Their concerns and needs seemed to be on a back burner that was rarely even turned on. During election they were given some recognition and some pretty words, but nothing really changed in their lives.
They were waiting for someone who seemed to care about their everyday lives.
Bernie Sanders tried to revive the FDR spirit within the Democratic Party and tens of thousands of people responded, but the leadership of the Party closed off that possibility quite abruptly. So, not only the white working class, but also almost all workers and ordinary people were left in the lurch.
Here was a political plum, ripe and ready, just waiting to be picked from the Democratic orchard. And Trump, the great opportunist, saw an easy opportunity for success.
If he could garner the support of the white working class, he could easily steal votes from the Democratic Party. And if he played his cards right, he could create a lot of noise and energy.
What could he use to lure the white working class to his camp? If he said he understood them and valued them, and if he was willing to accept them without judgement, without trying to change them, or reform them, or educate them, they might be willing to move to his camp. It also allowed him to divide the working class between white workers and other groups of workers, whether they were of other races or ethnic backgrounds.
Besides that, if he allowed them to keep their perceptions and prejudices and even seemed to support those perceptions and prejudices, he might strengthen their support. If he came out strongly against immigrants, other races, ethnic groups and religions he might win their hearts. If he came out against abortion and women's rights; if he came out against gun control and for a kind of vigilante law-and-order, they might be his forever.
Not only that, but this plan would split the nation wide open and would create the kind of chaos in which he always seemed to thrive. It would create a logjam in Congress and allow him to rule with executive orders. And as long as he kept the economy bubbling along, he would have the support of the American oligarchs and, if nothing else, the tacit support of the corporations, the military-industrial complex, the financial industries and everything that is tied to profits. This also would mean that he would control much of the money that owns the politics in this nation.
Trump's plans would also lend support to any and all who would like more authoritarian governance which includes elements within the military and the police as well as those within the security state. This was all right in their wheelhouse.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, still addicted to the big money, was only willing to offer the nation a milk-toast, middle of the road solution that turns out to be more like Republican lite. And even if many were willing to vote for any not-Trump candidate, the nation would still be linked to the imposed limitations of the neoliberal economics, which did not allow any meaningful solutions to real problems and mostly exacerbated all the problems we had, making it look like democracy itself couldn't work in this nation.
And then, to top it all off, the Democratic Party is now shooting itself in the foot by purging the Progressives, or what Sen. Paul Wellstone called "the democratic wing of the Democratic Party". This pretty much kills any hope that the Party will ever reclaim that past New Deal energy that supported the ordinary citizenry and working classes of this nation. This blinkered and self-referential Party only seems to continue its trend toward Republican lite, giving the ordinary folks no real candidates, leaving them only to choose from Trump's minions or other right-wing candidates, all of whom will play on fear and prejudices to further divide this nation.
Ordinary citizens and workers are the only real hope of reestablishing democracy in this nation, but it looks like most of the workers in America are simply to be left to starve or die of thirst in the desert of American politics. Our politics have denuded the political environment leaving little to no sustenance for democratic growth, further endangering the nation and the planet.
That is how Trump not only stole an important, but under-appreciated, asset at the heart of the Democratic Party, but also split workers and ordinary citizens into warring factions. The result is a weakened Democratic Party, a splintered working class, and ordinary citizen/workers still unappreciated and without viable candidates who will truly help them.
