For decades, we have heard about and often ignored “the Silent Majority.” Time and again, Republican leaders have predicted that this seemingly mythical phenomenon was going to come to the fore and save the country from destructive Democratic policies.
At least in terms of the popular vote, that mythical creature has mostly remained in stealth mode, as the Democratic candidate has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections.
For this election, I believe a new phenomenon is going to drive the vote for the Republicans and most especially for former President Donald Trump: the “scared majority” vote, which will actually show up at the polls.
I grew up in abject poverty as a child, and most of my contacts to this day are those in the working class or lower. While the entrenched elites from politics, academia, the C-suites, Hollywood and the media who live in bubbles of luxury and protection won’t notice, those Americans have never been more scared in their lives. Not only about their future, but about their present.
Those I speak with on a regular basis tell me they have never been so frightened about circumstances out of their control. Circumstances they believe were deliberately and politically exacerbated by the Democrats and most especially by the Biden-Harris administration.
There is something going on. These times do not feel like the others for the working class. They feel much more foreboding.
There are now so many “canaries in the coal mine” on this issue that they need to take a number to chirp out the first warning.
The first is that the Democratic Party used to be the party of the poor and disenfranchised. Now it is the party of uber-wealthy barons and power-hungry special interests.