'Why The Republican’s Old Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Is Backfiring'

It's been awhile since we've checked in with Robert Reich:

Why The Republican’s Old Divide-and-Conquer Strategy — Setting Working Class Against the Poor — Is Backfiring, by Robert Reich: For almost forty years Republicans have pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy intended to convince ... the working class that its hard-earned tax dollars were being siphoned off to pay for “welfare queens” ... and other nefarious loafers. The poor were “them” — lazy, dependent on government handouts, and overwhelmingly black — in sharp contrast to “us,” who were working ever harder, proudly independent..., and white.  

It was a cunning strategy designed to split the broad Democratic coalition that had supported the New Deal and Great Society, by using the cleavers of racial prejudice and economic anxiety. It also conveniently fueled resentment of government taxes and spending. 

The strategy also served to distract attention from the real cause of the working class’s shrinking paychecks — corporations that were busily busting unions, outsourcing abroad, and replacing jobs with automated equipment and, subsequently, computers and robotics.  

But the divide-and-conquer strategy is no longer convincing because the dividing line between poor and middle class has all but disappeared. “They” are fast becoming “us.”... Three decades of flattening wages and declining economic security have taken a broader toll..., unexpected poverty has become a real possibility for almost everyone these days. And there’s little margin of safety. ... 

Race is no longer a dividing line, either. ... Most people are now on the same losing side of the divide. ...

Which means Republican opposition to extended unemployment insurance, food stamps, jobs programs, and a higher minimum wage pose a real danger of backfiring on the GOP. ... It’s not hard to imagine a new political coalition of America’s poor and working middle class, bent not only on repairing the nation’s frayed safety nets but also on getting a fair share of the economies’ gains.