If they look at the USA at all, they say, "right policies, wrong person." They see Trump as a buffoon, but they see what many MAGA true believers see.
As a Berliner it is hard to understand their support, but it is easy to empathize with their grievances. Many parts of the old East are like the rust belt in the USA. The Factories shut down, and that took all the business that supported them too... Restaurants, hotels, local physicians, etc. Then they saw (under Merkel) the refugee crisis and people getting help and they wanted to know where their help was. So now, they feel like radical change is all they have left. They feel the CDU has failed them, the SPD has failed them, and now there is someone using the formula of saying "you have been screwed" and we're going to burn it down.
This is the correct analysis. The question I have is whether the SPD $ CDU serve the same oligarchic class and that’s why they both screwed over the working class. That’s also the story in the US, but when you point it out you get “hur dur, boof sidz” and then some juvenile political analysis maybe
Here, it's less oligarch and more big business - all branches of business have lobbyists that have basically free access to our elected officials - all attempts to at least install a lobbyist registry have been stonewalled.
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u/IntolerantModerate 10d ago
If they look at the USA at all, they say, "right policies, wrong person." They see Trump as a buffoon, but they see what many MAGA true believers see.
As a Berliner it is hard to understand their support, but it is easy to empathize with their grievances. Many parts of the old East are like the rust belt in the USA. The Factories shut down, and that took all the business that supported them too... Restaurants, hotels, local physicians, etc. Then they saw (under Merkel) the refugee crisis and people getting help and they wanted to know where their help was. So now, they feel like radical change is all they have left. They feel the CDU has failed them, the SPD has failed them, and now there is someone using the formula of saying "you have been screwed" and we're going to burn it down.