![]() ![]() Here, I report on what else I heard from them, with the hope that their voices can inform decisions made by our elected leaders. Someone said she was in the “holding-on-by-your fingernails” class. When asked to say how they self-identified they gave a variety of answers from “lower middle class” to “working class.” A few spoke poignantly about being raised in “upper middle class” circumstances and then suffering downward mobility as an adult. President Trump had said he was going to pay special attention to “the forgotten Americans”-did they think they were part of that group? Some said they were others thought he was talking about veterans, or the homeless, or those more disadvantaged than they were. I asked them how they thought of themselves. The people I spoke to were diverse in terms of age, race, occupation, and political leaning, and had modest incomes-less than $70,000 a year-and no college degree. What did they think of my solutions to these problems? I went to Syracuse, New York Greensboro, North Carolina and St. But it also reaffirmed how difficult these questions are, and how none of us-myself included-has all the answers.Īs part of my research, I met with some of the forgotten Americans themselves. That work gave me some tentative answers, which I’ve published in my new book, The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation. In an attempt to answer this question, I spent the last two years studying people I’m calling the “forgotten Americans”-those who’ve been left behind by our evolving economy, many of whom voted for Trump. ![]() With midterm elections fast approaching and the future of our political system at a crossroads, the question on everyone’s mind is: what can we do? ![]() The election of Donald Trump didn’t cause these divisions, but his presidency is exacerbating them. The proportion of parents who would be disturbed if their child married someone from the opposite party has risen from 5 percent in 1960 to about 50 percent now. And we are sorting ourselves into distinctive cultural tribes that increasingly live in different communities. Political polarization has risen to new heights (although the public is less polarized than their elected representatives). Income inequality is at virtually unprecedented levels. What the forgotten Americans really want-and how to give it to them By Isabel SawhillĪmerica is divided-economically, politically, and culturally. ![]()
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