Frank : "Trump won because Clinton and the Democrats dismissed the concerns of working people" 

Give this man a prize, great informative video. Keep on rocking.

Thomas Frank was so prescient in 2016 and he remains so. He's also on target with his take on the Dems and the working class. Unfortunately, they don't listen to him nearly enough.

If you abandon your base, your constituents will abandon you....

How sad is it that we have to go to French TV to hear American intellectuals intelligently discuss American problems?

We should abolish the presidency and replace it with a triumvirate of Thomas Frank, Cornell West, and Chris Hedges.

I work in the service industry and deal with the professional class on a daily basis. They are convinced of their superiority. They seem to forgotten the meaning of hubris entirely. They see the working poor, like myself, as less than human. I face this on a daily basis. This is freely discussed in private by my coworkers. In Jared Diamond's book Collapse he describes a predictive feature of societies on their way toward failure. The elite believe that their fate is separate from those at the bottom. The professional class with its sneering dismissal of the "deplorables" should remember that when the ship sinks they are going to drown too.

This guy points out the utter hypocrisy of both the Democrat and Republican platforms.Both seek their own empowerment and financial gain at the expense of working American middle class.

He's dead right about those threats of closing factories during Union negotiations. I've seen it stated exactly like that.

US Steel just reopened a foundry in MI and they expect to be back at 1500 employees @ 55,000 avg per year salaries by October this year... from complete shut down.

Exactly right. I'm a blue collar small businessperson with a degree from UCLA with honors. He has it EXACTLY right. This is why Bernie's numbers against trump were better than Hilary's and he would have won. The independent working class people just couldn't stomach Hillary. I was telling my friends NAFTA was a terrible mistake... sheech. I've been telling my friends for years its not rich vs poor... its white collar professionals vs blue collar and small business. The democrats abandoned labor, except government unions. I work on everyone's homes talk to a wide variety of people, professionals, trump fans... I agree with Frank 100%... 100% and I'm like Frank a liberal...

Very insightful synopsis for those of us who weren't paying attention to politics in the 1990s

I didn't, and will never vote for Trump, BUT I now understand why he won.

Before the nomination of Clinton in 2016, I was at a local Democratic Party fundraiser, and in a conversation with a local party official, I gave my opinion that if Clinton was nominated, Trump would win. His response was, "We don't need you." I will never forget that. I wish I could remember his name, look him up now, and say "Need me now?"

People didn’t like Hillary. It had nothing to do with political parties.

They are all guilty and or compromised in one way or another and several psychopath in there too

Thankyou so much for talking about working class issues.

It's time for a new People's party IMO

We need a new verifiable, transparent voting system, no superdelegates or Citizens United. We need to end the libertarian (euphemism for fascist) takeover of the country by the Koch donor network these past 40 years.

He absolutely nails it.

This is spot on. Thomas Frank is great.

As a French person, I still wonder why the entire working class did not vote for Bernie Sanders ?

Great observations.. especially the Rhodes scholars and peers etc. Our past two Prime ministers have been Rhodes Scholars both exhibit the same qualities..

Thank you! Finally, someone points out the obvious.

Yes,absolutely true.

Both the Republicans and the Democratic leadership both have the same economic policies. That's why the policies have led to wage stagnation, corruption in government, and massive wealth inequality. There's no party actually addressing the primary economic issues of the entire country. Both parties are using the same advisors from Goldman Sachs and allowing massive mergers and monopolies to ruin economic opportunity. The leadership of both parties are now oligarchs who don't bother even trying to find out the economic realities of the bottom 80% of the country. "Had it been any other Democrat" is exactly the problem with the 2016 election. She bought the nomination so it couldn't be any other democrat ensuring the party would lose. She is the perfect mascot for failed neo-liberal arrogance and policy. She was the most publicly despised Democrat in the country and they forced her candidacy on the voters. The people she represents are policy conservatives that only represent the wealthiest 20% of the country.

This needs to be shared everywhere

We need to make America MAKE again, provide capital for entrepreneurs, invest in infrastructure upgrade, a strong fiscal policy, no more QE pumping into the finance sector, nothing for the industrial economy. This has created a two-tiered economy, the rentiers (FIRE sector) sets on top of the real economy (manufacturing and job growth). Nancy McLean wrote an important book, Democracy in Chains, detailing the history of how libertarian ideology permeated political thought and created the privatization, deregulation, private bank controlled world today.

Honestly who cares who won. Same shit.

Recall that Barack Obama was advising the Democrats and HRC!

Frank, Keep spreading the word about the professional class democratic party. We the working class always have somewhere else to go. Let me count the ways. I've been registered for decades... Our 2 party system doesn't work for the majority anymore.

Wow. This guy gets it.

At this point it is basically the same poison with two names!!

Here, here. You said it my friend. And very well. By making strong stands on social issues, but doing well financially (by serving financial interests), they've found a way to eat their cake and have it too. And that mental state will fight like hell, cognitively, to not see the reality of the injustice of the system they benefit from.

Thomas Frank is totally on, but he is a historian. His description is spot on.

The 1988 election (Michael Dukakis) was the breaking point for the classic Democratic Party, i.e.: the party of the working man. The aftermath of that election caused the creation of The Third Way within the Democratic Party, which turned the party into a more right-leaning party. Bill Clinton (the most Republican Democratic party ever) was the perfect candidate for The Third Way...good-looking, appealing, and not liberal. Barack Obama was both good-looking and appealing, but he really fooled Democratic voters into thinking he was going to be progressive with his "Change/Hope" campaign slogan. He was elected, and was almost as Republican as Clinton had been.

No charlatans in the Democrat party, right

Tommy you're the best!...The manufacturing sector has been shipped over seas never toreturn..This is also the dawning of age of ...Robotics which means job extinction.... No one gave a thought to the people left behind while this was happening. A large sector of the labor force has become superfluous... Do we deal with it by building universities? No, we evict, foreclose and build prisons.. I'm sorry, but the future looks grim...

Brilliant rant.His book "Listen,Liberal" should be required reading.

Frank still paints one side as "good" and the other "bad" --- they are both bad and always have been. The reason why they are both bad is because centralized power is bad and corrupts those in power and it just takes some time and money. I would not waste one second trying to fix a broke two party system -- I would go out and start a new party, there should be lots and lots of parties that represent the "people" and their interests. How could 2 parties ever represent the ideas of 330 million people -- it can't. Decentralization is the answer -- more and more parties.

This was quite excellent. I'm not an American, but I'm interested in American politics, and follow the topic pretty closely. May just get the book. (Just searched, and I see it's available on Audible.) Now, if only we could get ALL democrats (and republicans. for that matter) to watch this video.

Quit pretending we have 2 parties.

Frank is totally correct. I don’t agree with some of his views but he is totally correct. And they will keep losing if they continue with this strategy.

It's okay if we ignore the blue collar/middle class because they have no where else to go? Am I the only geezer that remembers Reagan Democrats from '80 and '84?

If there is more to this interview, please let it continue. Thank you.

NAFTA also destroyed small farmers in Mexico, leading to poverty, cartels, and violence there.

I want to thank all the liberals who supported HRC. Without your help, we couldn’t have won the presidency. MAGA

I think Trump is making good on the working class.

I will never vote for either party again.

I think I posted this on twitter some time back, but it is worth reposting, since Frank hits the bullseye with his critique of the NEO-Liberals. I am older Frank by several decades, so I have seen the destruction of the middle class that writes about; I also remember when the Democrats were the party of Jefferson, Jackson and FDR. Now it is simply the party of Oligarchy--just like the Republicans.

And yet the truly creative, the artists, if born without family wealth or connections may well condemn themselves to lives of abject poverty. The underclass.

When both parties are controlled by big money 1% interests you are not going to get either party to actually adopt policies in favour of the working class. THIS is the heart of the problem, not simply the attitudes of the educated white middle class. The first step to take is to get big money out of politics. The divide and conquer tricks of the 1% won’t work once they been defanged.

This is spot on analysis! I haven't called myself a Democrat for over a decade. That said I always vote for them because I'll always be an anti- Republican. I could not vote for Hillary.

In 2016, I voted for Evan McMullen because I couldn't vote for my party's candidate Hillary Clinton. Where do I go now?

So true. Arrogance x 10

Inequality is also because of mass migration from the 3rd world. Immigration from Mexico is up 400% since NAFTA was signed. You don’t really think all those Mexicans want to live here in the US do you? It’s because they are forced to by Neo-liberal policies like NAFTA. Importing people that need welfare and other benefit programs almost immediately makes poverty generational and drags down economic numbers, causing large inequality statistics.

The intellect of America is great but ignored by rich and powerful ... such a shame

Love, love love Dr. Frank!

Well said sir

I saw the map of the economic distribution of parties and I liberal guy said that it's poorer people that vote republican. I acknowledged what he said as a point but never though they voted because they wanted a better quality of life (obviously everyone does but I mean I never saw it as change the leader for an economic shift). What you say is interesting as I believe that the democratic party gave up on the working class and ignored policies for better quality of living and tried to target the younger generation with progressive hype: using buzzwords like racism, sexism and transphobia to create a problem they can solve, create peer pressure by having younger persons or persons buying into it become extremely radical and creating a perpetual idialogical hype where disagreeing with the avalanche was the equivalent of bringing a witch hunt on yourself and virtue signal by treating minorities like children that could not survive without the political power of the democratic party. All in all I was never a fan of politics. Wasn't interested but the democratic party and liberal ideals had gotten so out of hand I started consciously opposing it.

"Clinton and the Democrats" ...good band name, though.

I agree with 90+% of what he's saying, but the only thing that Hillary said during the campaign that was correct is that Trump supporters are the deplorables. I'm not talking everyone that voted for him, in talking about the 30% of Americans that would vote for him again and again. Anyone at this point, after seeing who he's put on his cabinet, the behavior of his administration who still supports him is deplorable. There is no other way of referring to them. I was also born in '65, and the Democratic party never represented the working class in my lifetime. They may have pretended to, but never really represented them. Voters voted for Reagan because they thought he was an outsider. He was nothing but a senile old man who was s puppet for the insiders. He began the destruction. Then they voted for Clinton, cause they thought he was change. Then they thought Bush was change, then Obama. None of them were change, and they just accelerated the downfall of the middle class. Then along comes shyster Trump, and they think he's change. The American populace is unbelievably stupid and uninformed.

I watched red spread on the map like wildfire election night with skepticism--and now I know why. Trump had this extra card in the deck. Why he isn't gone by now? Comey didn't help matters for all those on the fence about Trump.

An awful lot of awful things have been said about Trump, Republicans and race relations. However, the Left's accusations of racism couldn't be further from the truth that has played out in the halls of Congress over the last 150 years. It is shocking that as talk of statues and historical racism is being bandied about, no one has mentioned the Democrats' utterly shameful treatment of African Americans throughout history. Over the last 100 years, Republicans have stood up for African Americans while Democrats not only stood on the sidelines, but in fact served as obstructionists to civil liberties. Here are at least 12 examples in which Democrats voted against African Americans, and Republicans voted to free them: Democrats voted against every piece of civil rights legislation in Congress from 1866 to 1966 - a whopping 100 years. That is a dismal record for today's Democrats who would like you to believe that history has been on their side on this issue. It hasn't. Democrats voted to keep Africans Americans in slavery, opposing the 13th Amendment which officially freed the slaves. Only four Democrats voted for it. Republicans also passed the 14th Amendment which granted slaves U.S. citizenship; Democrats voted against it. Republicans also passed the 15th Amendment which gave slaves the right to vote. Not a single one of the 56 Democrats in Congress voted for it. Shame on them. Furthermore, Republicans passed all of the Civil Rights laws of the 1860s - including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 following the Civil War. The Republican Party itself was founded as the "anti-slavery party" in 1854. The party subsequently gave us President Abraham Lincoln and ultimately, the Emancipation Proclamation which led to the liberation of slaves. Republicans supported African Americans not only in the 1800s, but in modern times as well. In the 1960s, with the exception of Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was instrumental in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the truth is that Democrats were the largest single blockade to civil rights. But don't take my word for it. Long after slavery was over, the Democratic Party continued down their path to deny African Americans their rights. Wikipedia refers to this as the era of "disenfranchisement" when "Democrats worked to exclude blacks" from civil liberties. PBS reported, "The Democratic Party identified itself as the 'white man's party' and demonized the Republican Party as being 'Negro dominated,' even though whites were in control." The Democratic Party was responsible for passing Jim Crow laws, in addition to Black Civil Codes that forced Americans to utilize separate drinking fountains, swimming pools, and other facilities in the 20th century. Even Democratic icons such as Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Al Gore, Sr., D-Tenn., also opposed it. But you don't hear the "antifa" movement or anyone else on the Left talking about Democrats' shameful involvement in American history, nor do many speak of Republicans' brave work on behalf of African Americans. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, appointed Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren who penned the Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended school segregation forever. It was also a Republican, Sen. Everett Dirksen from Illinois (the "Land of Lincoln"), who wrote numerous pieces of legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which banned discrimination in housing. It was Republican President Richard M. Nixon who introduced the "Philadelphia Plan" that serves as the blueprint for affirmative action today. It was Republican President Ronald Reagan who in 1984 signed into law the holiday now known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That's right, these were Republicans - not Democrats. As more "antifa" protests are expected this summer and into the fall, leading up to their night of hell planned for November 4, it is vitally important that revisionist history is not permitted to be foisted upon Americans. The truth about who was on the right side of history and who was in the wrong lies in the voting records and those records lie in the National Archives and the Library of Congress. No amount of statue-toppling nor spin from the Left can ever erase it.

I'm middle class. I'm getting back more on my paycheck. Because Trump I don't have my taxes garnished anymore because of obamacare BS "fees" because Trump I'm hoping the deal in NK works for the people of North Korea. They need food & well...freedom. I'm not okay with everything he's done but he has done anything nearly as bad as Obama & Bush. Sad that's our comparison but.... BTW I'm ten times more offended by the things said by democrats than republicans about us working class. The fact they have been caught time & time again doing shady things and nothing happens but one single republican even says something it's pounced on. This has a lot to do with the fact that the media is owned by liberals & dems. Look at Podestas emails. The DNC would have a writer for *SNOPES* "tee up" stories for them. This was seen after the DNC was caught destroying phones & laptops with hammers at the state department. I'm an independent. I see the holes. It's plain & obvious to see

The recent comments that John Kerry was caught making tell you how true this is!

Re: the title in translation: The terms "Left" and "Right" were created by writers in France, and while they may be useful there, I find them mis-leading and un-helpful.

The nice thing is at least Thomas can use this to warn other countries. At home he's Cassandra, abroad he's Prometheus.

Exactly right. Too many Rockefeller republicans in pantsuits!

Democrats have carved out the most meaningful part of the platform, the support of workers, unions, and the poor.

This explains SO much. I wish it could be more widely heard. I think many of my MAGA friends would agree if they heard this and thought about it.

There is no middle class in the United States.

Why are white people so beautiful and intelligent

I can't believe it took this long for someone to bring this to the surface, I've bitched about this stuff in both parties for years. I want them both taken down.

Nice critique but don't forget that Mr. Frank voted for and supported Hillary.

I will say this. Thomas Frank would do us all a favor if he was able to convey what a “Harvard educated” brilliant individual who DID care about the working class and authentic progressive politics actually “looked like”....because they ARE out there! Robert Caro’s books on LBJ and Robert Moses are full of them. During Al Smith’s governorship of New York he had many allies who went against their “class”. They don’t all end up in medical school. The irony is that if we want to have any hope of “licking” something like climate change we WILL need the likes of Robert Moses, Leland Olds, Al Smith, FDR, Jimmy Hoffa....and only 2 of those didn’t finish high school.

I’d like to know how to solve this big issue Democrat bring it…at least Trump open our eyes. So we have to stand up some way.

Thomas Frank, you have an uncanny resemblance to my great granfather when he was your age.

Thank you

Markets have done more for people than all social programs put together. That being said. It is true that no party actually defends the working class anymore.

Accurate to a tee Thomas!

They just plain, were, dissed.

Boom!!!!!!

When you google Thomas Frank the first google puts up is some marketing guy with the same name. It is hopeless. You will never overthrow these oligarchs.

'The Republican party never actually does anything to help them out"

This video is 6 years old but it’s still so true.

The French title for his book is so profoundly STUPID that I can't believe Frank didn't step in and put a halt to it. "Why the Rich Vote Leftwing" is the translation of the title!!!!!?????? It should be Why the Poor Vote for the Party of the Rich -- jesus, leave it to the French... Thomas Frank -- one of the best American political voices we have.

Inequality is the first step of Revolution, open revolt is the final step.. after awhile, we will know that the final step is coming sooner than I expected.

imo Not disagreeing, but it didn't help that Hillary is a miserable campaigner. imo

Glad to have found you. You should go on David Pakman, Kyle Kulinski or Sam Seder.(Boost your subscriber count and on a good platform)

Spot on

Thomas Frank pour président!

All true.

Do something for "working" people? Don't you work?

his book Thomas's book listen liberal is excellent it really helps me understand the mentality of the laugh and how they think the way they do many Democrats don't understand why their party has rejected them as a whole and I mean the Grassroots slash progressives his book and listen liberal you get to learn a lot about how the Democrat Party went from the working-class to now they work for Wall Street and many senators and congressmen and even presidents are in bed with the megabanks he starts with the 1930s with Franklin Roosevelt in the New Deal and he goes all the way to President Obama's presidency in 2016 he talks about how the progressive left was mainly in the base of the Democrat Party would pay attention to back in the 30s 40s 50s and 60s but it all changed in the early to mid 70s with the loss of McGovern that's when the Democrat Party went to Silicon Valley and begin to work for them and now they're the party of Corporations the fact that the Democrat Party leadership made this decision open the doors for the clintons to come in in the 1990s and that led to the end of glass-steagall the NAFTA and GAP thing and it also led to the financial crash of 2008 this neoliberal policy has destroyed the Democratic party and it led to the rise of Hillary Clinton and then eventually the rise of trump Hillary Clinton's loss was the beginning of the end of neoliberalism so basically what you have left are leftist slash progressives like Kamala Harris who is a traditional leftist and Bernie Sanders who is a progressive that's all you have left are people to the far left or the center bath that's all you have left this is the failure of neoliberalism the party needs to shift back to the left like it did back in the thirties and forties that's all I have to say for now but I just wanted to lay that out I hope you enjoy his book if you guys get a chance to read it because I did it was really fun and I learned a lot.

Yep...truth hurts.

Such a shame.. this guy doesn't get it because he is a pretty good speaker. I am so proud of all those Hollywood people and all those left wing politicians that helped out the homeless people.. took in refugees and gave away all the excess and superfluous wealth they did not need.. If they donated just 1% they could eliminate poverty is the USA.. so lets push them to do it.

Please MORE ENGLISH (or English subtitled) vids PLZ!

I'm working class and I love the rolled back regulations and lower taxes thata great for jobs wtf u talking ab

this guy is vile we need bernard sanders now!!!!

Republicans and democrates are cut from the same cloth