Thomas Brown
1 min readSep 29, 2020

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This is a good observation, although Trump certainly has a strong support base among the working-class in Southern and Mid West regions.

To add a historical example, the violent street politics of the Weimar Republic (the name of Germany before the Nazis took control) was waged largely by young men. They were hungry, poor, and angry, just as you said. However, they were also joined and inspired by the Front Generation (men who fought in WWI) who by 1930 were pretty much all middle aged. This played an important role in shaping their need to seek violence for political means, as it gave them an identity to possess as well as a cause to fight for. It also gave them comradery and community in a time where there was none.

There are strong parallels here - disenfranchised class of voters, poor economic conditions, disillusionment with current political stasis - but also important differences. In this case, one of these is the lack of a 'Front Generation'. Vietnam, Korea, Middle East hold no where near the same hold on political culture as did WWI to Germans in the '30s. Not that they necessarily need to, or that America needs an older class of right-wingers to be able to fight, but this came to mind when I read your comment!

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Thomas Brown
Thomas Brown

Written by Thomas Brown

Student of politics and history. Enjoying the circus before the tent burns down. Founder of Practicing Politics — https://medium.com/practicing-politics

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