Blue-collar fears

Obama: Trump exploiting fears of 'blue-collar men'

By Nick Gass

People like Donald Trump are "taking advantage" of Americans' fears about their present and future, particularly those of "blue-collar men," President Barack Obama said in an interview airing Monday on NPR's "Morning Edition."

Obama cited his teenage daughters, Sasha and Malia, and their friends as indicators of a "more tolerant," "more welcoming," "more sophisticated" future, but at the same time acknowledged to interviewer Steve Inskeep that the country's changing ethnic makeup has not been welcomed by all.

"But I do think that when you combine that demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through because of the financial crisis, because of technology, because of globalization, the fact that wages and incomes have been flatlining for some time, and that particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck, you combine those things and it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration, fear," the president explained. "Some of it justified, but just misdirected. I think somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that. That's what he's exploiting during the course of his campaign.”

One such fear, in the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, comes from the threat of the Islamic State and the potential of self-radicalized individuals carrying out attacks on the homeland, a concern that Obama attributed to the terrorist group's "savvy media operations" and the American media's sensationalism.

"Look, the media is pursuing ratings. This is a legitimate news story. I think that, you know, it's up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things. There is no doubt that the actions of ISIL are designed to amplify their power and the threat that they pose," he said. "That helps them recruit, that adds in the twisted thoughts of some young person that they might want to have carry out an action, that somehow they're part of a larger movement. And so I think that the American people absorb that, understandably are of concern."

As he has reiterated in the weeks following those attacks, Obama cautioned Americans to keep the risk of the terrorist group in perspective, remarking that ISIL "is not an organization that can destroy the United States."

"This is not a huge industrial power that can pose great risks to us institutionally or in a systematic way," he continued. "But they can hurt us, and they can hurt our people and our families. So I understand why people are worried. The most damage they can do, though, is if they start changing how we live and what our values are. Part of my message over the next 14 months or 13 months that I am — remain in office is to just make sure that we remember who we are and make sure that our resilience, our values, our unity are maintained. If we do that then ISIL will be defeated.”

As far as his message for his successor in fighting the terrorist organization, Obama noted the importance of "not just to shoot but to aim" and to make decisions based on data, intelligence and military commanders on the ground, independent of political persuasions.

In explaining his comment about blue-collar workers later in the interview, Obama remarked that he was not suggesting that "everybody who objects to my policies may not have perfectly good reasons for it."

"If you are living in a town that historically has relied on coal and you see coal jobs diminishing, you probably are going to be more susceptible to the argument that I've been wiping out the economy in your area," he explained. "It doesn't matter if I tell them actually it's probably because natural gas is a lot cheaper now so it doesn't pay to build coal plants. If somebody tells you that this is because of Obama's war on coal, well, you know, that's an argument you may be sympathetic to. And that's perfectly legitimate."

Obama also touched on the role that national identity has played throughout the course of 2015's most hot-button issues, from the Black Lives Matter movement to immigration, from the Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide to whether the U.S. should admit refugees from Syria.

The question of who is an American is one that has remained constant throughout the history of the country, Obama said.

“That's at the center of the American experience," the president said, according to a transcript of the conversation, set to air in three parts over the course of the week. "You pick any year or any decade in American history and this question has been wrestled with. Sometimes it pops up a little more prominently, sometimes it gets tamped down a little bit, but this has been true since the founding and the central question of slavery, and who is a citizen and who is not. So I don't think there's anything new about it. I do think that the country is inexorably changing, I believe in all kinds of positive ways."

In addressing campus protests that have taken place across the country over the last year, Obama called such activism "a good thing" but warned students against trying to force those with whom they disagree into silence. "If somebody doesn't believe in affirmative action, they may disagree — you may disagree with them. I disagree with them, but have an argument with them," he remarked. "It is possible for somebody not to be racist and want a just society but believe that that is something that is inconsistent with the Constitution. And you should engage."