Economic Anxiety (TM), Sponsored by Betsy DeVos
By 
One thing to note about the breathlessly covered DeVos astroturf protests is that they have no mass support at all:
more americans believe that vampires exist than agree with the protests that the media has spent all week giving wall-to-wall attention and validation to pic.twitter.com/xHoz4vkrbw— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) April 22, 2020
Alas, despite these DeVos-funded astroturf protests being such obvious examples of Trumpist identity politics, Jacobin simply can’t resist another Economic Anxiety Safari:
Still, it would be both analytically and strategically wrong for us to dismiss all of the protesters’ concerns. Even those who belong to thuggish right-wing organizations were in at least some cases motivated by legitimate economic grievances. Christian Yingling, a “former commanding officer of Pennsylvania’s Light Foot militia,” was quoted in one report explaining his willingness to endanger his health and the health of others: “My mortgage payment is late, my truck payment is late, and if I lose either of those I’m dead in the water.”
The “amazing” thing is that Yingling has been made so economically anxious by the pandemic he had to attend a Nazi march 3 years ago:
JACOBIN ARE LITERALLY WHITEWASHING A CHARLOTTESVILLE NAZI AS A VICTIM OF ECONOMIC ANXIETY pic.twitter.com/spq4PQFj6k— Galar Regional Medical Director (@weedlewobble) April 24, 2020
What’s particular unclear is what the audience for this “Nazis are economically anxious too” crap is even supposed to be. It’s not as if there isn’t already broad consensus among the Democratic Party that dramatic action is necessary. House Democrats have already proposed a broad array of cash assistance programs, aid to state and local governments, and free COVID-19 treatment for everyone insured or not. Even noted Thatcherite snake Elizabeth Warren has a $750 billion relief plan. Nobody on the borad American left needs to meet DeVos-funded Nazis to understand that 20% unemployment is creating economic misery. What’s holding up adequate relief proposals is, quite simply, Mitch McConnell. But acknowledging this would disrupt two Hard Jacobin Laws, namely 1)the Republican Party must only be mentioned if some pro forma gestures to populism can be willfully misinterpreted to make some standard-issue reactionary hack like Tucker Carlson or Josh Hawley into the reincarnation of FDR and 2)politics must be centered around white men, the angrier the better.