Which is why middle America has become a boiling point right now. It has been that way for decades as the manufacturing industries have left, big stores on the edge of towns have closed all the mom & pop shops and you can see why people become so bitter. The heart of their towns have been destroyed and all the investment / infrastructure is going to the coastlines and one or two cities in each state. Take a drive from East to West and you see some beautiful old towns with gorgeous architecture but the main strip will be a ghost town. Your President never comes to see you or seek your vote as he knows he does not need it. Its been that way since the 70s as over 40% of the population make less than $15 an hour that's about 11 quid before taxes. They dont see much help coming as unless they move to a city where they probably cant afford to live or get a job they are unqualified for then what is going to happen? Well we saw 4 years ago they were ready to vote a grifter in as they were ready for something different as the status quo was not working for them. Call them fools but they will say they were desperate and what we saw last Wednesday is a culmination of that desperation. The vast majority are just hard working high school educated decent people who would say if you think working 50 plus hours a week to live in a shyte house barely scraping by is privileged then FU. 99.9% of them were not there at the Capitol as many of those idiots are just that but Biden cannot ignore 77m people is a huge indicator the country is broken and need someone to give them hope. For a country with so much potential to end up with such bitterness and broken spirit from both white and black societies highlights the system is not right. Trump can feck off as he was the user of all users and Joe might start the wheels in motion but I doubt it. Those in power are either happy with what they have or need the chaos to succeed.
While you make some valid points, we must be careful to absolve people of their responsibity of what happened last week. Being desperate does not justify violence in a democracy. You can protest, you can speak your mind, you can try to change things. You do not go and try to kill police and lawmakers. In many, maybe/probably in most cases, what happened last week was not out of desperation, but out of hate and election delusions after listening to lies for years and falling down that rabbit hole completely.
Also the myth that the poor and desperate make up the main part of Trump voters and those who flirt with the ideas of the extreme right... not so sure that stands. From various sources it is stated that among those last week there were lawyers, estate agents, middle class folk with jobs and a life. Now, I admit I do not have a proper breakdown of voter figures for the latest US election. But I do know that the same arguments are made about who votes for the right wing nazi party in my country: it is the destitute and poor, those who have been left behind and feel no one else gives them a voice. And it really is not true. Many of those actually vote conservative or social democratic parties. Instead there is an awful lot of middle to upper class people, who are well off economically and socially, who vote for the extreme right. It is not so easy as saying people are desperate with how their lives are going and so are bound to vote a certain way.
And high school educated as well as desperate folk were fine to vote for someone who told lies from the beginning and who fanned the flames of hate. You get no understanding from me when, as disillusioned with the status quo or as fearful of the future you might be, you point your fingers at immigrants and people of colour and think it will make your life better if you trample on and disrespect others.
When you were at that protest last week and you looked around you and you saw guys with 'Camp Auschwitz' shirts, confederate flags or any of the other shit widely on display there - not even mentioning what was being said - you fucking should have left. Anybody who lies in bed and votes for people who court nazis and proudly adopt their slogans and their thinking gets NO wriggle room from me, none. It's not that they try to sell you a better world by pretending to be nice people. It was clear what team Trump was from the start.
