“No, really? What is it?”
-Insert my generic corporatist/nationalist explanation for fascism, explain connection to Trump-
“Fuck that. I ain’t voting but if Trump wins and Jose gets deported, can a brother get his hours?”
That’s a real conversation I had with kitchen staff recently, walking away laughing as they cackled and Jose made some smart remark back. What had turned into jest was a genuine question about fascism, a term that has been thrown around a lot lately. What I realized later was that those guys wanted to care but couldn’t see how it impacted them. I have bounced between a sort of calm and desperation the past few months, maintaining a sense of optimism based in objective electoral reality but sensing a deeply unsettling vibe around many in my circles. Never in my lifetime has more been at stake in a national election and never before have I seen this sense of apathy amongst the public. I've started noting conversations and attempting to explain what seems so peculiar to many who see this as a critical election. I wanted to share some thoughts here to see if what I'm observing among so many friends and family is consistent with what other folks out there are seeing or experiencing. I expect most know someone with a similar evolution of emotion this election season and many may not care to share here or anywhere.
I've had a front row seat to working class America as a restaurant and catering company manager. It may surprise some but the reality is that life is still rough in much of America and even if this administration has made some strides in the face of obstruction, it hasn't been enough for some families to feel it - or even notice.
Pundits wonder out loud whether citizens of all sides and stripes are “enthusiastic” about these “historically unpopular” candidates. The deplorables have cranked the Clinton hate machine up to 11 while Democrats highlight the contrast between a capable professional and a dangerously vindictive demagogue. Yet, many Americans are tuned out.
Why the apathy? Why don't they care more about the future of our country? Well, because of a million different things that are more important for surviving week to week than the policy positions of Presidential candidates. Because getting by is more important than politics.
Why aren't they afraid of Trump? Because when politicians on both sides have built a system where millions of hard working Americans can barely get by, it’s pretty damn hard to know who to trust - if you find time or energy to care.
This election matters. A lot. And yet, I sense apathy amongst voters on all sides. How many serious Clinton or Trump supporters do I know? A handful, at best. The overriding motivation to vote seems to be a fear of the other side, a fact Pew has reported on. This division strikes me as interesting and fairly unique, but certainly not healthy. We're talking about a population so polarized that we're trending towards a toss-up in an election between one of the most qualified candidates in history who is continually named the most admired woman in the country and a businessman best known for big bankruptcies, bad hair and reality television. It shouldn't be this close. Why? How?
I work in an industry where people make around 10 dollars an hour as dependable, adult employees. Management, in most circumstances, makes 10-15. My wife recently made the move to working for a local after-school program with children of all ages, a tough but gratifying task while she attends nursing school. It pays about 9 bucks an hour. Benefits in both industries are nearly non-existent without reaching upper management. When you combine these two groups, food service workers and child care providers, we're talking about a large chunk of the American population doing reasonably important things - feeding us and caring for our children. This piece of the population, along with staff in several other sizeable service sector industries, is dealing with a grim reality - they work long, hard hours in order to be poor with no benefits.
Let me explain. 40 hours a week at 10 dollars an hour is 400 bucks a week, around 20k a year, or almost 1750 a month. Millions make less than that per hour and most workers these days don’t get a full schedule. Split that up among taxes, rent, utilities, transportation, and food and there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. Clothes? Student loans? Christmas gifts? Healthcare? Better hope you qualify for the expansion or some serious subsidies. Have a kid? More than one? Good luck.
Wal-Mart routinely tells their employees to apply for state and federal benefits, because the largest employer in the USA and one of the richest families on earth “can't afford” to pay a living wage. Let me wait while the free market takes care of that.
With the economy providing more jobs, albeit primarily lower paying ones, the feelings I’m seeing seem to make some sense. This large section of the American electorate, the working poor and lower middle class, is working again — pretty damn hard, often for less than just a few years ago while prices have gone up. And they’re apathetic to politics, to Hillary’s emails or Trump’s man crush on Putin, to both “Free college for everyone” and “Build the damn wall”. I see it every day. They're too busy or depressed or distracted or exhausted or uninformed or pissed the hell off to pay too much attention to what should be an electoral landslide. These people are overworked and underpaid with an uncertain future, between their lack of financial security and ongoing attempts to dismantle the Social Security and Medicare systems that might provide some sort of retirement. And while many don't know who exactly to blame this predicament on, they might just give a look to someone with a clear scapegoat — even if that person is an orange con man and they’re the real mark.
And in a country full of misinformation and exhausted voters who aren’t completely engaged, Trump’s message can resonate. Of course, those of us who grasp the economic, political, and judicial implications of this election scream "No!!!" in our heads every time we hear an argument for the great and wonderful most great Orange. "Don't they understand that Republicans are why we're in this place, between trickle down economics and choking the aggregate demand right out of the middle class? Don't they get that they're voting against their own interests? Don't they know that we may be able to overturn Citizens United and get dark corporate money out of politics while preserving a woman's right to her own body if we stay with Dems for one more Presidency?"
To put it short, they don't care. They don't have time to. They're picking up overtime so they can replace 10 year old glasses or send their kid to community college. They're begging an insurance company to cover them or not drop their coverage, as money often gets tight when a loved one is ill. They're debating whether to give up the family pet in order to put food on the table that month, since the car needed a repair or another unexpected expense arose. They're searching for someone to watch their child because the boss just called and said a shift needs covered or else, even though the childcare could cost more than they make. I've lived this and I've seen it, over and over. And I can't blame them for not being up to date on every public policy issue - they work harder than any politician I've ever seen, just to get by.
Of course, I always hear how these hard-working Americans destined for service sector jobs should've just gotten better gigs or more education. Right? Forget understanding that this is the economy we have or that this is what our trade policy has built, let’s blame it on workers. Face it: Whether we put it on normal people or the politicians enabling the problem, these are the jobs we have. Millions of them. Some folks will retrain, some others will move up - but the working class jobs don't disappear. There are still people of all backgrounds and ages stepping into service sector positions where, while most everyone starts at the bottom, even management positions mean a life of living long hours and paycheck to paycheck. These jobs, these people, aren't going anywhere. They aren't lazy and they aren't unskilled, either: They're the backbone of the economy Washington built, the only economy we have. And they’re a large portion of the population.
What happens, besides apathy and lack of civics knowledge, when the best many kids can hope for is just above minimum wage, no vacations, no healthcare, and a life full of strife in the richest country on earth? The gangs many families fear that have infiltrated the small town where I grew up, the drug epidemic taking so many young people every day with no end in sight, and the suicide rates among both young people and young veterans are all symptoms of a system that seems fundamentally unfair. For millenials who were told to work hard and graduate, that they'd be able to get by in America? Many discover that, for them at least, that was a lie.
Without a functioning mental healthcare system, universal healthcare, and living wages, why are we surprised when so many young people embrace angry rhetoric? Or tune politics out? Or worse, tune the world out? In that environment, political apathy looks a lot like a defense mechanism - or at least an understandable, even desirable, result of a system that seems designed to chew up, break down and spit out members of the working class who are anything less than perfect performers or producers.
The lower or working class people continue to be cast as the enemy. Poor trade and domestic policy got us this economy, not the working class. Trickle down, subsidies for friends, and Republicans running into war waving a credit card got us this deficit — not SS, Medicare, or organized workers demanding their fair share. The enemy is poor policy and those selling it to poor people for their own benefit, not working class Americans. They’ve been through enough.
So in this context, understand where we are as a country - hanging on the precipice of a corporate hell with a large segment of the population sick, confused, underpaid, and upset while a vocal set of deplorables eagerly sings the praises of a dangerous orange politician dedicated to further marginalizing the already marginalized.
The good news, the reason I’ve been relatively calm this election season, is that we have an opportunity to damage those peddling the same failed policies of the past 30+ years while also damaging the confidence of the racist and sexist elements still so deeply embedded in our society. I’m confident we will do that this election.
What I’m hoping, however, is that 4 years from now those who were apathetic this time around will be motivated to vote because of real, meaningful change in their lives. Maybe the first real raise for workers in 30 years? Maybe more movement towards affordable healthcare available to all? Maternity and paternity leave? Mental health funding? Just real, meaningful progress for more families, building on what we’ve started.
Apathy and anger are both legitimate reactions to being used as pawns in a scheme that has funneled massive amounts of wealth to the top while those at the bottom search in vain for a way up or out. It’s way past time for progressive policies to give the working class the boost they deserve.
Forgive the rambling nature of this piece but a guy’s gotta rant. I’d love to hear experiences from around the country, especially from the food service/child care/retail world. So many stories out there show why we have so much work to do after the confetti falls in a few weeks.
