It has been identified by many commentators that middle-aged to old, low educated, white men seem to be very angry and that anger is leading to some very undesirable outcomes like the election of Donald Trump, Brexit and the resurgence of racism and bigotry in society at large.
There is a fair amount of analysis out there as to why this is. Alot of it is accurate and alot of it does partly explain why they are so angry but one thing that seems to be missing is the explanation that if you are a white male who was born between 1950 and 1975 a promise was made to you when you were a kid and that promise has been broken.
When I was a young teenager, in the late '70s, I remember having a conservation with one of my father's friends about my plans for the future. I do not remember the details of all of the conversation but he did say to me "You are white and you have your health so you will be OK". I do not know why that statement stands out for me. It just does.
However, it does explain why the old white guys are so angry. From about 1950 to the mid to late '80s white men were essentially told that if they finished high school and kept their noses clean there would be good well paying jobs waiting for them. They would be able to make a living and start a family with few problems. The promise made sense because they were witnessing it with their own fathers, who were the only breadwinners but who were able to raise families on that one income. No other demographic was made this promise of course.
Around about the early 1990's that promise was broken. Globalization took those jobs away. What jobs were replaced were replaced by low paying jobs or jobs that required much more education than highschool to qualify for. White men who made life decisions trusting that the promise would be honoured were left high and dry.
At the same time things began to change in society at large. The seeds planted during the civil rights movement began to grow and no longer were white men given first crack at all of the good jobs. Men of colour and women began pushing their way into jobs that were exclusively the domain of white men just a few short years previously.
That is when the anger of the white man began. Thirty years of conservative economic orthodoxy have allowed it to fester and to grow until it has finally come to a head. All it took was a catalyst to make that anger boil over and create the issues we are now observing.
It is interesting that the ones who broke the promise are the ones who identified and then exploited the anger they created to advance their interests. It is also interesting that the very changes in society they fought against are now being used by them to misdirect the anger they created away from them.
Old, low educated, white men are not the only demographic who are struggling but they are the only demographic that was promised a good life if they made certain life choices. They held up their end of the bargain but were then cheated out of that good life. That is probably the biggest reason why they are so angry and resentful and that is why they support those who claim they will take the country back to the way it was, to make the country "great again". When they here that they hear that the promise made to them so many years ago will be honoured.
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Much as they rail against "identity politics" they rebel against leaders who represent those changes they reject. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton... and Justin Trudeau.
The "demographic resentment" of Obama and Clinton is more obvious -- racism and misogyny -- but the anger directed at Trudeau might even be more intense because they see him as a gender and race "traitor." It's also more subtle in that he's not hated for who he is but who people think he is: the idea that if he supports the advancement of women he must hate men, and therefore himself, which in their view equates to him being transgender or gay. Populists on the right and left hate him for having a privileged background and therefore, in their view, being "out of touch."
Canada takes awhile to catch up to the trends affecting the rest of the world, but it would appear the zero-sum populist revenge moment has finally arrived. What's tragic is that for all the personal venom the conservatives (and a certain cohort of all-or-nothing populists on the left) whip up against the Obamas, Clintons and especially Trudeaus of the world as people who are out of touch and don't care about the "forgotten man," the only thing that stands a chance of lifting them out of their plight are the liberal policies they support. Anger and protest votes gets you the kind of slash-and-burn austerity that Trump and now Ford are pursuing, Brexit will bring about, and the CPC worship like a religion. But purity voting by the left against reasonable liberal compromise only ends up helping the conservatives. Yeats said it best: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.
What's even more tragic is that even when there's nothing left and the conservatives have laid waste to the landscape, the Obamas, Clintons and Trudeaus, as well as the diverse coalitions they represent, will still be the ones left to wear the blame. Resentment of the "other" is a powerful drug.
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