How the Forgotten Man saw the rise of Donald Trump

In July 2015, I had dinner with Bob from church. Bob works as a general contractor and he thought Donald Trump would win the Republican primary. I laughed and dismissed him.

In 2012, I served both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney in their campaigns for President. Based on my experience working on a Presidential campaign, I didn’t think Donald Trump had the infrastructure or the temperament to be a successful Presidential candidate.

{mosads}You need an operation, a big operation, to be President. I thought for sure people would dismiss Donald Trump because of his comments on women, minorities and the disabled. Presidents don’t make those types of comments. 

After Trump won the Republican nomination, I saw Bob at church. I said, “Bob, you were right. How did you know he would win?” He said, “Jeff, I listened. Go talk to the guys swinging the hammers, and you’ll learn why.” 

Why did Donald Trump win the nomination? How did he beat 16 highly qualified, intelligent, principled candidates? Why is he challenging Hillary Clinton? Why is it even close? 

I don’t believe that people supporting Trump are doing so because they are racists or bigots, or because they support mocking the disabled. They are supporting Donald Trump in spite of those comments. But why? What am I missing? 

I began looking around. Many of my local friends are college educated, have good careers, and live in nice communities. My friends in Washington, D.C., run think tanks, are writers, and overall life is pretty good for them as well. How many friends do I have that swing hammers for a living?  

For many Americans, especially those that do swing hammers for a living, life is hard. They have done everything they were supposed to. They pay taxes, care for their families, work hard at their jobs, and yet nothing improves. When Trump says, “The American Dream is dead,” they nod in agreement. Health insurance costs more, housing costs more, food costs more, education costs more, everything costs more and yet wages have become stagnant. 

This past week, the Wall Street Journal detailed that our current pace of economic expansion in America is at its weakest since 1949. According to the Economic Policy Institute, only those at the top of the wage distribution scale have real wages higher today than before the recession began. 

I spoke with a friend who runs a rescue mission in town and he said the number of adult men with drinking problems is increasing in our community. The American Dream is dead for many Americans. 

These voters are Sumner’s Forgotten Man. They work hard for everyone else and yet life never gets better for them. The rich get richer, the poor get more government resources, and yet the Forgotten Man only knows sacrifice.  

I like that evangelicals and people of principle wrestle with supporting Donald Trump. That’s a good thing. Character matters deeply to us and it’s an indication of the health of our movement. But there is also something else at stake here. Regardless of where you stand in supporting Trump, don’t miss the loud voice coming from the often silent forgotten people.

They don’t fall along particular party lines, they aren’t weighing policy position papers, they want someone to fight for them. Someone who remembers them. They feel Donald Trump will fight for them.  

Don’t believe me? Watch that video of Trump visiting West Virginia coal miners. How does a billionaire from Manhattan connect with West Virginia coal miners? What do they have in common? Concern for the forgotten man is what they have in common.

Or survey the Pennsylvania electorate where over 60,000 Democrats have switched party affiliation to Republican since the 2015 election. A Los Angeles Times analysis said that it’s more new Pennsylvania Republicans than in the previous four years combined. 

Regardless of how the Presidential race plays out in November, if we miss the forgotten man’s voice in this election, we may be missing the point entirely.   

Jeff Hunt is the Director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University and host of the Western Conservative Summit.

The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.