An aside: Given the decline in life expectancy among middle-aged whites in some regions of America, it's difficult to understand the hostile attitudes toward government subsidized health care in those same regions. Of course, it's equally difficult to understand their Republicanism in the first place, given that Republican constraints on government's ability to reign in big business are responsible for a lot of the economic mess we've been through in the last decade.
I'm not sure the Donald's rise is entirely due to the economic woes of people in the US, for the reason that he is not an isolated case. Here in Czech Republic we have a President who's not so dissimilar to Trump (though thankfully the Presidential role here has less power). But he was not elected at a time of declining living standards. Median incomes are on the rise, and unemployment is at it's lowest level since the end of Communism. Living standards are improving, and yet people are dissatisifed.
And it's not just here. Just next door in Poland, another country with rising living standards, they recently elected a populist nationalist government, which after only a few months in power has already declared itself unbound by the decisions of the Constitutional Court, while in Slovakia - another country with rising incomes - fascist parties managed to get about 15% of the vote just a couple of weeks ago.
I can't help but feel that Trump is part of a wider pattern of growing disdain for liberal democracy in favour of populist demagoguery, of whose causes I'm unsure.
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