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Without commenting on the psychological aspects of this article, I will comment 
on another aspect: The widely reported studies that show that the income 
bracket for Trump voters tends to be higher than that for Clinton voters. 
Supposedly, this shows that workers did not support Trump. This is an example 
of how statistics can be so misused.

In the first place, the $50,000 cutoff bracket proves nothing whatsoever. There 
are millions of workers who make well over that. Likewise, there are petit 
bourgeois who make less.

Second, regardless of where one sets the bracket, this is a perfect example of 
how statistics can misrepresent a general phenomenon. That’s because the 
overwhelming majority of black and also of Latino voters voted for Clinton, and 
their incomes tend to be way lower than white incomes. So, the class 
differentiation is mixed with the racial/ethnic differentiation.

Nor is it just low wage white workers in the South who voted for Trump. I’ve 
discussed both online and in person with white construction workers - union 
workers - who voted for Trump and who support him to this day.

Let’s face it, nearly 75 years of tamping down class consciousness, of 
struggling to ostracize working class militants within the unions, of 
struggling to eliminate (as nearly as possible) the best fighting traditions of 
the labor movement — this has had an effect on the consciousness of millions of 
US workers. No, I’m not saying that the US working class is not the potentially 
revolutionary force in US society. But there are deep problems and confusions - 
to which the Workers World has contributed! To start to fix a problem, we first 
have to recognize it.

John Reimann

Sent from my iPad
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