Working to exhaustion, no longer being able to make ends meet, losing your job, getting sick, sleeping in your tank, all these things that amount to ordinary violence, it’s not a life and it’s tiring. This daily struggle to carve out a little place in the sun is universal. It affects everyone who loses their life earning it, from the truck driver to the small businessman, from the teacher to the nurse.
Trump may say nonsense, but he was able to detect the distress of the working class and promise them the moon. That he lies like he breathes is a lesser evil for these citizens who have considered themselves ignored for too long. Their despair in the face of a system that has left them behind is very real. A fed-up shared by a critical mass tired of being silent in the face of increasingly disconnected elites.
The awakening of the declassified
Through this wave of discontent which pierces the heart of the United States, it is the America of the yellow vests which is speaking out. Rural regions stuck in a survival economy, abandoned in favor of big cities, abandoned by successive governments, Democratic and Republican alike. The divide is enormous.
This is why the average worker chose Donald Trump. Not because he admires and respects him, but because the man has become the spokesperson for his disgust. The voter took his frustration out on a ballot. Here, you, in the face of the establishment, which for too long has turned a deaf ear.
For these workers, white, black or Latino, the issue at the ballot box was neither immigration, nor abortion, nor democracy. It was “how much is left in my pocket after I pay my bills.” It speaks to us too.
A lesson for Quebec
Here, the middle class, more moderate in its expressions, feels the same discomfort. The context is different – it is not the same economy nor the same geopolitical issues – but the parallel is striking between the rise of Trump and the trends currently shaking Quebec.
More and more middle-class citizens feel like their concerns are being ignored by an elite miles from their daily realities. The gap is widening between large centers like Montreal, Quebec
and Laval, and the more rural or peripheral regions which have difficulty seeing how to succeed in the game.
The polarization is not as clear as among our neighbors, but we are experiencing the same issues. Precariousness of workers, inflation, erosion of public services, inability to access property, all this fuels a certain resentment.
Our small businesses are struggling, while we roll out the red carpet for multinationals. Not to mention social issues such as homelessness and the arrival of foreign workers, which are poorly experienced by citizens.
The middle class, the backbone of Quebec society, is worried about not getting value for money. Like our neighbors, she could quickly feel neglected in turn.
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