Advertisement
Opinion | After the midterms, Republicans and Democrats must tackle the true cause of American anger – automation
- Gwynne Dyer says Trump’s targeting of offshore manufacturing ignores the fact more jobs were and will continue to be lost to automation
- While Democrats suspect what the root of the problem is, they seem unsure how to deal with it
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Former US president Barack Obama said of the US midterm elections that “the character of our country is on the ballot”, and the outcome proved him right. The United States is a psychological basket case, more deeply and angrily divided than at any time since the Vietnam war.
Advertisement
It’s not evenly divided, of course. The popular vote saw the Democrats lead the Republicans nationwide by an 8 per cent margin, but that translated into only a modest gain in seats in the House of Representatives and in state elections because of the gerrymandering of electoral districts in Republican-ruled states.
The more important truth is that the Republican Party is now dominated by white nationalists, and totally controlled by Donald Trump. It is no longer conservative. It is radical right, with an anti-immigrant, racist agenda and an authoritarian style – and about 90 per cent of the Republicans in Congress are white males.
The Democratic Party is multicultural, feminist (84 of the 100 women elected to the new House of Representatives are Democrats), and even socialist. Only one-third of the Democrats in the new Congress will be white men – and many of the Democrats in the House of Representatives can be classed as Democratic Socialists.
Watch: US midterm elections – the key takeaways
Advertisement