Compassion for Trump voters

 I am currently working on a book about the national debt. I am focusing on who owns the assets holding debt by both income quintile and race, as well as who owes it.

Per capita debt does not exist, because there are no per capita taxes. The debt is owed principally by high income individuals. The over/under for both tax paying and debt ownership is at the 97th percentile. Income taxes and debt obligation reaches down to the 75th AGI percentile, which is the 60th percentile for total income.

Higher income minority families have more debt obligation and assets than the entire bottom 3 income quintiles among whites. Lower income minority families have it worst of all and Black men are coming out more and more for the GOP.

Lower income households include retirees, whose income is largely tax exempt. They are the lucky poor and are used to voting GOP.

I used the Federal Reserve Survey on Consumer Finance. For the most part, the bottom 60% have little in the way of debt holding assets. The top 10% of White households have 2/3s of managed fund assets and 7 of 9 bonds. They have 40% of bank accounts, cash value life insurance and small dollar savings bonds.

If you apply the 80/20 rule (which is more 90/10 of AGI), the top 1% likely have half of the assets (or more) and have half of the income held by the top 10%, roughly 25% of income and probably assets (if not more). The top .1%, who make more from capital returns than wages, receive 12% of AGI.

More importantly, the .1% control almost all the human assets, both in the nation and probably the planet.

Marx thought that free societies would unite to pass laws seizing these assets and control of assets. Instead, the rich see division. It is a feature, not a flaw.

That Black men and the White underclass are uniting to support a faux billionaire shows the extent of their desperation. They want to believe that they can be like Donald. They held their nose and voted for them.

The illusion is about to be shattered by the Southern District if New York and D.A. Cyrus Vance of the City and County of New York. Cue Law and Order downbeat.

Their bubble is about to pop. We cannot gloat. Even this week, when Biden will likely pull away as mail in votes come in at 80% for Joe.

We have to offer them better cash and prizes and do so realistically. They can also not be punitive in doing so. 

More than a century ago, the cooperative movement spread through the farm belt. Land O Lakes is one of those ventures and is going strong. So is the Farm Bureau Federation, which was started by progressive Republicans. This year they welcomed Trump with open arms.

Progressives need to win them back. We cannot do so by gloating. The working poor need to see the possibility of cooperation and we need to do a better job of offering it to them.

To do so,  we must exercise compassion like never before.