WSWS: Class, Not Race, Explains Trump’s Rust Belt Defeat

I agree with this analysis.

We defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

WSWS:

“The defeat of Donald Trump in an election that produced the biggest turnout since 1900 was an expression of broad popular opposition to the fascistic politics of his administration. That it was far more an anti-Trump than a pro-Joe Biden vote was demonstrated by the poor showing of the Democratic Party in down-ballot contests (Congress, state legislatures and governors).

The election results overall were a clear refutation of the efforts of the Democratic Party and allied media outlets (e.g., New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, CNN) to promote a racialist narrative, which interprets virtually every aspect of American society as an expression of “white supremacy” and the supposed innate racism of white people, especially white workers.

The ideological and political function of this right-wing brand of politics is to obscure the central division in capitalist society, socioeconomic class, and sow divisions within the working class. …

An analysis of the vote results in the three Midwestern “battleground” states that were key to Biden’s victory—Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—confirms that the critical factor was a turn by substantial sections of white workers to oppose Trump. …”

It was the “Disaffected” or “Hard-Pressed Skeptics” or “Market Skeptic Republicans” who shifted against him in the Rust Belt. It was White men who are Moderates and Independents who make less than $100,000 a year in the middle suburbs. He activated them in 2016 and lost them in 2020.

The media pigeonholes us as “white supremacists.”