The 2028 presidential election has the potential to transform the country, at least if a Democrat wins. However, such a victory won’t address the cause of Donald Trump being elected twice.
He won because millions of Americans believe the American economic system has failed them. Millions of American jobs have been offshored and these people are angry. Many small-town plants that provided good jobs to our people no longer exist. These people now work at Walmart for a third of what they used to make. This means no Sunday barbecues, no new pickup truck, no new guns and no professional football tickets. For millions, these events and things defined the quality of American lives.
Simultaneously, 1 million kids drop out from our high schools every year, essentially for the past 30 years. We know that 70% of the 2.5 million people in prison and the 4.5 million on parole and probation in America are high school dropouts. This is known as the school-to-prison pipeline. It is actually worse in that three years after leaving prison, 70% are back in prison. Our country has not only failed the young people who became enmeshed in the criminal justice system, but also those who were murdered, raped, stolen from or dragged into prostitution. Both the perpetrators and victims are angry and many voted for Trump because no one seemed to hear their anger.
Now, the Democrats can alter the conditions in America that allowed the election of Trump. In a capitalist society, a job is the essential basis of financial and health insurance security. In order to get a good job in America today, you must have certified technical and soft skills. We don’t talk about it much, but America is a skill-based job market. The offshored job losers and dropouts are largely unskilled. They don’t have technical or soft employment skills. They are not worth much as workers and they know it. Automation and AI are making the job situation in America even more difficult.
Therefore, the solution to this angry mob of offshored job losers and high school dropouts is to upskill these populations with job training in adult education and community colleges. There are great certificate programs to create plumbers, electricians, electronics technicians, advanced manufacturers, chefs and marketing professionals. We must pass new legislation that provides a stipend of $20,000 to go back to school to get technical and soft job skills. In the bill, include a new national computerized job-placement system, and a relocation allowance of $10,000 to allow skilled people to move to where the jobs are. Then pass new legislation to reform our high schools to offer thousands of career academies to structurally alter America’s population to be a highly skilled workforce worth decent pay and benefits.
These moves will provide a well-trained workforce for a capitalist society. We cannot afford any more Trump-type billionaires screwing up our country. Thus, the one most important item the new Democratic president can do is create a highly skilled population in America. In doing this one thing, he or she will create a long-term future of rational government. The people will be happy economically and will vote more rationally.
Wilson, Ed.D., managed high school career technical education programs, earned his doctorate at USC and is the author of two books on high school career academies, “Disposable Youth: Education or Incarceration?” and “Cataclysmic Failure: American High Schools,” both available on Amazon. He is a San Diego resident.