There is a class divide that makes communication almost impossible.
If you are part of the population that is upwardly mobile and/or economically stable (mostly upper middle class and above), you aren’t feeling desperate and any political concerns are rarely immediate threats to your life, your family, or your community. Such people live in relative comfort, security, and privilege. They may not be super wealthy and still have problems like anyone else, but none of it is overwhelming most of the time.
It is far far different for the rest of the population, the downwardly mobile and economically precarious, struggling working class, the poor, and the unemployed. These people know in their personal experience that society is dysfunctional, that the economy is rigged, and that the government doesn’t represent them. They directly and personally feel what it means to mistrust and sometimes even fear one’s government, to know that they are on their own with little to save them if everything goes wrong.
These two classes live in separate worlds. The minority who are doing fairly well or, for some, doing great have absolutely no clue what is going on with majority of the population. It is a total disconnect. They don’t understand what it means to feel desperation, anger, outrage, and outright fear, verging on paranoia at times. In the middle-to-upper class defending the status quo, the lower classes unsurprisingly see them as part of the problem, even though the reality is most comfortable people are simply ignorant and only complicit to the degree that ignorance is willful, but mostly it is passive ignorance.
Most Americans no longer trust the government. Most Americans no longer think there is a functioning democracy. Yet the middle-to-upper classes are still acting as if nothing has fundamentally changed, just some reform needed, maybe an occasional signing of a petition or the joining in a march, but just keep on voting for the lesser evil. This is why Trump has been such a shock. Some of the comfortable people are suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable, a feeling that the lower classes have been feeling for a long time.
Will we finally get to a point where the class divide breaks down? Will the comfortable finally start paying attention, instead of remaining selfish assholes seeking to maintain the status quo? Will those on the bottom of society finally realize the average middle class professional is not the ultimate enemy and instead is simply a clueless ignoramus who, in reality, is no more represented by government than the poor? Will the American public, across all divides, finally see that the problems we face are shared concerns?
Marmalade 
Listen to your children cry because you don’t have money to buy something they desperately need, not want. Listen to your wife call you a loser and a deadbeat because you cannot find a job that doesn’t treat you like shit they could scrape off their shoes. You think I want comfortable people to pay attention to me? No, I want to pull the lever to let loose the guillotine and give them a taste of what they’ve done to others who make their lives comfortable.
I fully understand what you are saying. I don’t care about the comfortable people paying attention because I’m hoping they’ll be able to avoid the consequences of their actions and inaction. Quite the opposite. But what I know is that, when those comfortable people suffer, we will all suffer.
Those on the bottom will always be harmed the worse. And that harm could end up being immense. I care very much about lessening the harm to those who have already suffered too much. It is a lose-lose scenario. No good options are left. It’s depressing.
Recently a chick from east Germany around here commented her woes about America’s direction. She said that being from former communist bloc, low-trust of others was normal and many people always envied how Americans seem to trust each other, help each other, basically more “high trust” than eastern bloc, Russia, china, etc
She thinks that it’s gonna slip away from America with the current direction
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Japan-a-high-trust-society-while-ethnic-Chinese-societies-like-Singapore-and-Hong-Kong-are-not
Americans trust each other, really? If this is what a “high trust” society looks like, humanity is utterly fucked! I know there are far worse countries than the US. But no sane person should look to the US for an inspiring example of “high trust”. We are a society that was built on racialized slavery, segregation, genocide, stolen land, mass exploitation, and class war.
Sad example of this:
There are way too many Americans, especially in the liberal class, who are incapable of making basic connections. It’s not a lack of education because the liberal class is well educated. It is an ideological obtuseness built on class privilege and economic comfort.
Oh and this one too:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/clinton-election-polls-white-workers-firewall/
Gaining the votes of rich white people by sacrificing support from the rest of society turns out to not be a winning strategy. I’m shocked! We may not exactly have a functioning democracy, but a candidate still has to pretend to give a shit about the general public in an at least somewhat convincing way.
There aren’t enough rich people naturally.
View at Medium.com
Any community that is racially integrated would lead to interracial marriage. Within a few generations, there would no longer be separate racial populations. In that case, by American racial ideology, the entire community would then be minority because the children of a minority parent are still minorities even if the other parent is white.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/27/hispanics-more-likely-than-whites-to-say-global-warming-is-caused-by-humans/
The populations most harmed by global warming that is caused by humans are those who are most likely to admit that global warming is caused by humans. I bet it isn’t just minorities. If Pew looked at the poorest whites living near factories belching pollution, fracking operations, and toxic dumps, I bet they’d find those people also are on average more aware and honest about environmental problems.
https://underground.net/aristotle-and-the-middle-class/
But why does a disappearing middle class matter? “Why should I care about this thing called ‘inequality’?” you might ask.
The reason why you should care was clearly laid out by a Greek philosopher, Aristotle, 2,400 years ago.
Aristotle pointed out that if the middle class disappears, then the poor will become the majority. The poor tend to be less educated than the rich, and they tend to struggle just to make ends meet. If the poor are the majority, then in a democracy they will vote to take away the money from the rich!
So, what are the rich to do?
Well, do away with democracy of course! Democracy, at that point, becomes too much of a threat to the elite, and the elite start taking steps to limit the power of government. (Moves to limit voting by the poor, anyone?)
Therefore, as the middle class disappears, democracy disappears with it.
On the other hand, with a MAJORITY middle class, democracy works, and it works well. Why? Because the middle class tends to be educated and has just enough prosperity that members of that class can see themselves becoming rich some day, so they don’t punish the rich, and they have compassion for the poor, being that many of them came from poverty. The middle class stands between the two extremes, the poor and the rich, and you end up with a well functioning democracy.
Lol https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateAltRight/comments/5yrn7k/keeping_people_honestdread_game/
It’s plain delusional.
“Why would whites even want a “middle ground solution” though? What are minorities offering us that makes it worth compromising with them?”
Because whites are already a minority among the young generation. And they will be a minority in the whole population soon. This fate is sealed, even if all immigration was stopped.
Whites better realize that how they treated minorities will be how they will be treated one day. It’s the Golden Rule. Fuck with people and they will fuck with you back.
This is why the rich shouldn’t fight class wars that they inevitably will lose in the end. And this is why the US government shouldn’t commit state terrorism by killing millions of innocent people to fight non-state terrorism that has killed a few thousand.
I guess common sense is limited to the political left. Reality is going to smack these people hard right upside the head.
“I don’t know but this is what some leftists are trying to do now, probably because they have realized they’re losing their power. Only a minority has really realized it though.”
How is most Americans disagreeing with the alt-right dogmatism and agreeing with leftist policies somehow meaning that the leftists are losing power? The leftists are just getting started. They haven’t lost power. The American public has always been excluded from power, until they threaten the ruling elite and gain concessions.
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/10/anti-fascist-radicals-liberals-dont-realize-the-serious-danger-of-the-alt-right/
If you have ever carefully studied American history, one thing is clear more than all else. The elite, no matter how they identify themselves and what rhetoric they use, only ever do the right thing when they are forced to it by threat of civic unrest or worse.
A far left-wing radical like MLK was only able to be seen by the elite as moderate and reasonable because there were even further left-wing radicals who were threatening far worse, if MLK was ignored. We are now in a similar situation. Sanders is mild and mainstream compared to MLK, but the elite refused even that.
There are only two choices, reform or revolution. The elite and those who support them better choose carefully.