A huge swath of the electorate is angry because they agree that the country "is a mess" and the game is rigged. They think it's self-evident, as Trump says, that "the American Dream is dead.It was rigged in my favor, I earned multiple graduate degrees. I've long wondered what would become of the many Americans for whom school doesn't particularly "work." We can't all be software engineers and professors.
For many, the predominant feeling is pessimism rather than anger. Attend a Trump rally or a Sanders rally, and you'll see less anger than excitement. They're excited because they think they've found someone who stands for them, and with them. And the clearest sign of standing with them: declaring that the game is rigged and that America is a mess.
This pessimism sounds odd inside the Beltway, and among most Americans with college or graduate degrees. Most politicians, in both parties, operate in circles where the American Dream is alive and well. And if the game is rigged, it's rigged in their favor.
An economist on the PBS News Hour tonight commented that, in future, life for many in the U.S. will resemble serf's life during feudalism. Those finding work will likely end up doing the low-level service jobs not important enough to be automated. It's a dreary prospect.
