One overlooked aspect of this is the issue of race. Black unemployment and black income has always been lower than whites. This was not a national emergency. Blacks are being poisoned in Flint, Michigan. Again, this is not a national emergency, just like Athens blacks trapped by Katrina were not an emergency initially. Black wealth got decimated by the housing collapse, another non-emergency. Blacks suffered from heroine addiction, a criminal activity. Whites involved in the heroin "epidemic" have a health care issue. There is a glaring double standard.

The media and political parties react to issues on a racial basis. Class is a secondary issue. Whites are now facing the same economic issues blacks faced for decades. Whites have voted against there own interests for years. Kansas re-reflected a Governor who ran the state into debt. Trump has the majority of the white vote despite the absence of a coherent economic policy and despite his ties to white supremacists.

When whites face the economic downturn, they look for scapegoats. In Britain, it was immigrants. In the US it is Muslims and immigrants. Brits voted for Brexit despite the economic havoc. Whites in the US are voting for Trump despite his lack of rational ideas.In the United States, other racial groups recognize the dangers of Republican economic policy and Trump. The question becomes how can white voters be convinced not to vote against their own economic interests?