An economist repudiates the idea that job losses from globalization drove Trump support: "Those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration, compared with people with unfavorable views of the Republican presidential nominee. The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed."

Jobs didn't leave America's manufacturing sector because they moved to China or Mexico. Manufacturing became more efficient because of technological improvements, and management decided to cut workforces for higher margins.

The popular notion right now is that Trump rode a wave of working-class white support to victory, with attention shifting in the media from Trump’s perceived weaknesses (racism, sexism, every -ism) to his alleged strength in channeling economic anxiety. Trump voters "are the people who have been the acceptable sacrifices for our trade and wage-deflating immigration policies that do boost our economy overall ... just not for them."

That’s not incorrect, but it is worth complicating. Trump supporters have higher-than-average income. So what trap have we fallen into? As Jamelle Bouie puts it, "Although it’s tempting to treat this as a function of some colorblind anti-elitism, that cannot explain the unity of white voters in this election. Trump didn’t just win working-class whites—he won the college-educated and the affluent."

In other words, Clinton did even worse than Obama did with blue-collar whites, signaling the practical end to Democrats' tenuous hold on the Midwest. She also pinned much of her campaign on the premise that wealthier whites would reject Trump's white supremacist tactics; they didn't.

Do the math on Trump's budget and you'll see the inevitable: he and the House Republicans are going to absolutely steamroll benefits for the poor. He says he'll cut $6 trillion in taxes, while House Republicans say they'll keep a balanced budget. But Trump says military spending, Social Security, and Medicare are off-limits. That means good-bye to federal housing, energy, and education transfers.

That's not to mention Obamacare, which also protects poor people without access to insurance through their employers, and is surely toast. That means it's not blue-collar whites with the most at stake: "The workers with the most on the line earn minimum wage, or close to it, and they often rely on government-paid or government-subsidized health plans. They are disproportionately black or Latino."