There’s a fascinating pattern here. I have argued in the past that the United States now is more free, more just and more equal than at any time in history. We’ve ridden a decades long trend that was flattening racial inequality and gender inequality. This is not to say that things were all great, but by almost every measure, they seemed like they were improving.
But the result of that was that white Americans older than 40 have experienced a constantly changing background. Their identities have been challenged in a way that their parents did not experience as women entered the work force, schools were desegregated and our culture did not do its due diligence.
Trump is as much a reaction to that as he is a reaction to our eroded middle class. As you say, having a gold plated iphone doesn’t mean you are happy, but there are huge swathes of people who are reaching back toward racism and misogyny as a reaction to their unhappiness.
And that is also not new. We have an opportunity here to seize abundance: but scarcity and selfishness is very old. It feels comforting and familiar in a world that is loud and bright.
