Columnist drops the mic on young Trump voters: 'You have been duped'

In a Facebook post that was picked up by the Memphis Flyer, a longtime editor dropped a truth bomb on young non-affluent Trump voters who believe their vote for the president will somehow translate into increased personal wealth.

In short, as he wrote, they have been "duped."

According to former Memphis magazine editor Ed Weathers, "Recently some younger Trump supporters I know — folks in their 20s and 30s — have expressed disdain toward fast-food workers who are asking for higher wages. They claim that such low-skilled jobs don't deserve higher wages and that a higher minimum wage for them would just devalue the work of more skilled folks like themselves — first responders, welders, mechanics, construction workers, and the like. They see all these folks as somehow damaging their own economic prospects or undermining their own small economic successes."

Weathers called that attitude "infuriating" and then proceeded to set the record straight.

"If you're a Trump supporter struggling to keep up with your rent, pay for your medicine, feed your kids, and maybe buy a small pick-up truck on long-term credit, then there's a good chance you're directing your anger, resentment, and disdain at exactly the wrong people," Weathers wrote. "You have bought into myths designed to protect the rich and feed their greed. You have been duped."

"Your enemy is the Wall Street broker and the oil tycoon and the $40 million-a-year CEO who are sponging up the wealth before it ever trickles down to you. Your enemies are folks like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, the DuPonts, and the politicians they have in their pockets," he continued.

"The super-rich want you to direct your resentments down the economic ladder at others, like yourselves, who are simply trying to get through the month without going hungry. They want to distract you from looking up the economic ladder at those who are exploiting the labor of folks just like you in order to pad their penthouses with more gold-plated trappings," he wrote. "I've spent time with the super-rich: They don't work as hard as you do, and the only smarts they have is the sophistication to work a rigged system. Most of them have simply been lucky — no better than the guy who made a gazillion dollars from Beanie Babies. As for how God feels about the very rich, I refer you to the New Testament."

"In fact, the super-rich are what they have always been: not job creators, but money manipulators and labor exploiters," Weathers added for emphasis.

"Yes, my young Trump-loving friends, you are being duped. When you look down at the fast-food server or the welfare mother or the immigrant farm worker, you're looking where the super-rich want you to look — in exactly the wrong direction," he lectured. "When you start looking up, so will our democracy."

You can read the whole piece here.