If we accept, as we should, that the rust-belt non-college educated angry white men who voted for Drumpf were motivated first by their declining economic prospects (and only second by the misogyny and racism occasioned by seeing the workforce increasingly penetrated by women and immigrants of color who became useful scapegoats for a diminishing standard of living), then part of the way the Democrats win back their trust is to give them reason to believe that it’s possible to create good jobs.  Drumpf lied cruelly to them about how he plans to do that.  He can’t bring back the coal miners jobs.  Obama didn’t kill those.  They were killed by LNG and by the declining price of wind and solar energy.  Drumpf cannot bring back the manufacturing jobs.  Even if he were to tear-up free trade agreements and slap tariffs on  products from China (and I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen), manufacturing jobs are going to continue to be displaced by robotics and automation.  (more…)