Quite funny to see it play out over and over again with even more ramped up rhetoric.
People seem to be not aware but those voters that voted for Ron Paul are probably the same ones that vote for Bernie/Trump now.
I think the Iraq war/September 11 had an enormous effect on the public's psyche. Coupled that with the housing bubble, rising student debt, and Congressional deadlock, people are now feeling the country is heading in the wrong direction. Whether this perception is reality is irrelevant. It is a perception that needs to be addressed. That's why Obama ran on hope and change. He was trying to tap into this frustrated base of young and now entering middle aged voters.
The previous generation saw the end of the Soviet Union and the first Gulf War. They were told NAFTA would make their lives better and new college educated would develop. Capitalism makes everyone richer. Buying a home is the American dream. This led to a heavy dose of nationalism, increase college attendance, a housing boom/bad lending, and warring against weaker entities.
September 11 was the first blow. How could the strongest nation attacked? No one should be able to attack us! First myth shattered.
The Iraq war was the second myth. Americans have a G.I. Joe image of how the world perceived them. We are not invading Iraq. We are liberating Iraq! It turns out people in other countries can resist and chaos can ensue. People don't greet invaders with flowers. They greeted us with bullets, bombs, and most of all resentment. The everyone loves us myth was shattered.
The housing bubble caused the everyone buy a house myth to shatter. Borrow against your house. Buy property! Lenders gave loans to just about anyone. The bubble crashed and what did government do? Bailout bankers who made bad loans. The buy a house/it's the American dream myth destroyed.
The previous generation told this generation go to college and you get a good job. Millennials did and faced a huge debt burden because states cut back on funding along with increase demand. The young graduates are struggling to find work that is comparable to what they are told. Their combine debt burden is enormous. Now they are being told to fend for themselves by the same generation who told them to go to college in the first place. Once again a myth gone.
Whether you believe these are myths is irrelevant. Perception is greater than reality. There is a group of people who feel they got the wrong end of life or hustled into buying into the above things. Now they are steadily becoming a bigger bloc. We need to confront this bloc. Rather than arrogantly dismissing. No tolerance for racism but that doesn't mean there are no legitimate issues that can be addressed. Right now the establishment is not getting this message.