Over at PBS NewsHour, which is working with political scientist, author and libertarian Charles Murray, is a survey that determines whether you live in a bubble. It’s poignant in an election year where the electorate is at once anxious and bewildered.
How is Donald Trump leading the GOP primary? How is Bernie Sanders nipping at the heels of Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side?
Murray, who wrote “Coming Apart: The State of White America,” has stoked his fair share of controversy. He is nonetheless influential, and “Coming Apart” was included in the New York Times’ list of 100 Notable Books of 2012. Murray told PBS NewsHour, which published online the quiz from his book, he wants to convince the “highly educated new upper class” that it is “largely disconnected from the culture of mainstream white America.”
Murray argues that the most influential places in the country are also the most out of touch. Leading the way are neighborhoods in New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., areas most likely to ignore this large segment of the population.
His survey asks questions like, “Have you ever held a job that caused something to hurt at the end of the day.” Murray argues that if you haven’t, “you fundamentally do not understand what work is like for a great proportion of the population.”
Other questions include, “Since leaving school, have you ever worn a uniform?” And, “Have you or your spouse ever bought a pickup truck?” From the answers, which include demographic details, your bubble is measured.
The opinion that there are two Americas is not new, but Murray has used his results to focus on elite zip codes, often centers for financial and media companies, he argues are ignorant to families that feel marginalized as the economy has shifted underneath their feet. That includes a large segment of the white working class, which can be difficult to see past the skyscrapers of the country’s metropolitan areas.
After all, the U.S. unemployment rate is 5 percent. So what’s the big deal?
For one, middle class wages have stagnated and bedrock jobs, especially those considered blue-collar, are disappearing. Just south of us, in Wyoming, an economy driven by energy extraction is waning as its jobless rate recently eclipsed the national average for the first time in 16 years. Matt Mead, the state’s governor, said, “as difficult as it is now, I think it can get worse.”
In Montana, we have the same divisions. As the tourism industry grows, along with the tech sector, the job recovery is discriminate. Ask the loggers, and miners and oil field workers.
When the Bakken oil field was bustling, eastern Montana struggled to provide housing for the influx of workers. Now, many of those good-paying jobs are gone and counties near the border with North Dakota foresee hard times ahead. Down the road employees in Colstrip are on edge as the coal-fired power plant that fuels the area’s economy faces a tough energy market and political headwinds. Hundreds of jobs are on the line.
Whether Murray’s thesis is entirely correct, it is persuasive. He argues that the appeal of Trumpism can be attributed to the growing division between an upper class and the American culture at large – a culture that is out of sight and out of mind from our country’s most affluent. Out of the bubble.