David Brooks interviews a fictional “Flyover Man” in today’s NYT and discovers, to everyone’s surprise, that he sounds like a blue collar version of–wait for it–David Brooks! He’s a sociologist, not a bigot. He’s worried about his job, and about the crumbling social infrastructure in his red state. He credits Trump for caring about him, and blames uncaring liberal elites for the decline of his community. He’s going to vote for Trump again in 2020 in spite of the man’s obvious shortcomings.
A more realistic interview would go something like this:
C: Why do you support Trump?
FM: Because he’s on my side. He knows white Christian men like me made America great. He’s fighting the illegal immigrants and the lazy minorities and the noisy women who want cuts in line. He’ll keep me safe against those people.
C: But Trump doesn’t care about you. He tried to take away your health insurance. He stuffed his cabinet with billionaires, and gave the wealthy a big tax cut. He’s never been a real Christian. He inherited a huge fortune from his dad, and screwed workers over on his way to the top. Why do you support him?
FM: Because he’s on my side. Just like I said.
C: But what exactly has he done for you? All he’s done is eliminate regulations that help working people and give money to rich people.
FM: Are you #@$#@ deaf? He’s on my side. He knows who the enemy is, and he’s fighting as hard as he can. That’s all that matters.
Brooks takes the position that the Democrats don’t say anything to address Flyover Man’s problems; they’re all just obsessed with Trump. In reality, the Democratic candidates for president have done little but talk about Flyover Man’s issues, and are proposing to address them through progressive changes to the tax code, new spending programs, and vastly increased protections for labor, including a higher minimum wage.
The real issue here is that the Democrats view Flyover Man’s problems primarily in economic terms, and Brooks doesn’t accept that, because he’s a Republican. He thinks America is spiritually sick, and that the illness is largely the result of liberal values. That’s the reason he says the Democrats aren’t doing anything to help the poor guy against all of the evidence to the contrary.