Otter Globe and Intelligencer: “Barack Obama was absolutely correct when he said in a recent interview that the GOP had convinced rural and working class whites that they were victims. If the Democratic Party is to succeed at attracting support from working class voters, it is essential that the party leadership make a greater effort to understand where that sense of victimization comes from, and make an effort to describe how Democratic Party policies are likely to produce more positive outcomes for working class voters. In this article I will present what I believe is the root of that sense of victimization. The root of modern day GOP propaganda involves a blame-shift, where labor unions, environmental regulations, and Democratic Party policies are blamed for the loss of working class factory jobs in America. The root of working class anxiety is the loss of steady employment, and the substitution of far lower paying ‘Gig’ and retail jobs.”

“The real cause of that job loss has been the rotation of points of production and consumption among different countries; an outgrowth of economist Milton Friedman’s principle of ‘shareholder primacy’ and improvements in international shipping. Friedman was an idol to business friendly conservatives, and his ideology is rarely questioned among modern day business leaders. In short, Republicans managed to weaponize disinformation by blaming the Democratic Party for economic conditions that occurred because of the ideology of conservative business leaders.”