They Lied to You: It’s Not Left vs. Right It’s All of Them vs. Us
While you were busy blaming your neighbor, they were cashing checks from billionaires. The working class keeps losing. That’s not an accident, it’s the plan.
By Yusuf from the Heartland
Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: this isn’t some liberal lecture. This isn’t a plea to vote Democrat. Frankly, they’re just as deep in the pockets of corporations and just as disconnected from working people as the Republicans. This is about truth. It’s about power, who really has it, how they use it to lie to you, and why things don’t seem to get any better no matter who you vote for.
If you’re a rural working-class American, odds are you’ve heard the same stories again and again: that immigrants are stealing your jobs, that Democrats are trying to destroy your values, that Donald Trump is a champion of the “forgotten man.” You’ve been told that Republicans are the party of hard work and tradition, the last defense against coastal elites and out-of-touch liberals.
But here’s the ugly truth: they’re all lying to you. Especially Trump. Especially the GOP. And it’s time to stop playing their game.
Donald Trump Was Never One of Us
Trump built his image on being a “successful businessman” who understood the common man. But the image is a con.
He inherited hundreds of millions of dollars. He ran multiple businesses into the ground. He left contractors, working-class tradesmen, unpaid. People who built his casinos, hotels, and golf courses were stiffed while he walked away unscathed. He bankrupted businesses over and over, using loopholes that average Americans don’t have access to. That’s not “business savvy.” That’s grifting.
And what did he do when he was in office? He passed a massive tax cut, not for working people, but for billionaires and corporations. In 2017, Trump signed a $1.9 trillion tax bill that overwhelmingly benefited the top 1%. It helped massive companies pay little or no federal taxes while wages stayed flat and jobs stayed scarce in towns like yours.
Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs sparked trade wars that crushed farmers across the Midwest. Soybean farmers lost China as their biggest buyer. Small farms suffered. And in the end, his “bailout” was just a band-aid, a temporary payout to calm the outrage while structural problems were left untouched.
The Market Myth: Trump Wasn’t Good for the Economy
Trump likes to brag about the stock market, but here’s the thing: most working-class Americans don’t live off the Dow Jones. Wall Street booming doesn’t put food on the table or make rent affordable. But even if we’re playing his game, the facts don’t hold up.
The worst eight days in the history of the Dow Jones? All under Trump. That includes February and March 2020, when COVID hit and the market collapsed. His chaotic response spooked investors, while average Americans lost jobs, homes, and healthcare.
Wages stagnated. Job growth slowed by the end of his term, even before the pandemic. Meanwhile, billionaires doubled their wealth while regular people waited in food lines. Does that sound like leadership?
Trump also lied about bringing manufacturing back. He made a big show of “saving” factory jobs, but most of those promises fell apart. Plants in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan were shuttered. The Foxconn deal in Wisconsin, once hailed as the “eighth wonder of the world,” turned out to be a scam, billions in subsidies for almost no jobs.
The Republican Party Isn’t Working for You
Forget the slogans and the flag-waving. The modern GOP is a machine for the ultra-rich. Their policies are written by lobbyists, funded by corporations, and sold to voters using fear and culture war distractions.
Ask yourself:
What have Republicans actually done for rural America in the last 30 years?
Did they raise wages? No. In fact, they fought against raising the minimum wage every time it came up.
Did they protect unions? No. They’ve spent decades gutting labor protections, weakening collective bargaining, and letting corporations fire workers for organizing.
Did they invest in rural hospitals, schools, or infrastructure? No. They’ve slashed funding, privatized services, and let your roads, bridges, and broadband rot.
What they do offer is a steady stream of scapegoats. Immigrants. “Woke” liberals. Drag queens. BLM. Trans kids. They point the finger at everyone except the actual people hoarding your wealth: billionaires, bankers, and corporate execs, the ones who fund both Republican and Democrat campaigns.
They wrap it all in God and guns and patriotism to make it feel like they’re on your side. But behind closed doors, they’re at $10,000-a-plate fundraisers with oil CEOs, hedge fund managers, and defense contractors.
If they’re so lazy and incompetent, how are they also pulling the strings of the entire country? They can’t be both too dumb to tie their shoes and somehow masterminds destroying America. You can’t have it both ways. Either they’re helpless freeloaders or they’re running the show. Saying they can’t do anything right but also control everything isn’t logic, it’s propaganda.
The Culture War is a Distraction
Let’s be real: your rent isn’t high because of a drag show. Your hospital didn’t shut down because of a pride parade. Your job wasn’t outsourced to China because of feminism.
Republicans (and Democrats, too) keep pushing culture wars because it keeps us distracted. While we argue about bathrooms and pronouns, they’re handing billions to defense companies, gutting safety nets, and selling off public services to the highest bidder.
They know that if working people, left, right, and center, ever united around the real enemy, the whole house of cards would collapse. So they keep us angry at each other. They sell you fear instead of solutions.
The Democrats Aren’t the Answer Either
This is where some liberals would tell you to vote blue next time. But that’s not what this is about. Because the truth is: the Democratic Party has failed working people just as badly.
They talk a good game, about equity, justice, opportunity, but follow the money. They take donations from Wall Street, Big Tech, Silicon Valley. They bail out banks, not families. Under Obama, millions of Americans lost homes while banks got bonuses. Under Biden, student debt relief was slow and half-baked, while corporate profits hit record highs.
And like the GOP, they’ve done little to rebuild unions, raise wages, or tax the rich. They’re just more polite about screwing us over.
Veterans and Veteran Care
And let’s talk about veterans for a second. How many times have you heard Republicans say they “support the troops”? They fly the flag, slap bumper stickers on their trucks, and scream about patriotism. But what happens when those troops come home?
Veterans are sleeping under bridges. Waiting months, sometimes years, for basic care at underfunded and broken VA facilities. Fighting for disability benefits they earned. Dying by suicide at staggering rates. And where’s the Republican outrage then?
Under Trump, the Veterans Affairs department was a mess. The administration pushed to privatize parts of the VA system, handing contracts to private health providers instead of fixing what’s broken. That didn’t help vets, it helped insurance companies and private contractors. Vets were left to navigate a mess of red tape. Meanwhile, the Pentagon budget ballooned to over $700 billion, with billions wasted on overpriced weapons and contracts that lined the pockets of defense CEOs.
If you really support the troops, that support doesn’t end at the airport tarmac. It means fighting for healthcare, housing, mental health, and jobs. It means not just thanking them, but actually showing up when they need help. And both parties have failed miserably at that.
Historic Failure of Both Parties Even with Full Power
Let’s stop pretending this is just a Republican problem though. Democrats love to say they’re the party of the people, but when have they really delivered?
There have been times in American history when Democrats had the White House, the Senate, and the House. Supermajorities. Complete control. And yet, we still had homeless vets. We still had kids going hungry. We still had people dying without insulin, rationing their meds while pharma CEOs made millions.
Right now, in blue states with full Democratic control, you still see poverty, broken schools, and housing crises. And in red states, it’s the same dang thing, just with different branding. Mississippi is Republican-run and still one of the poorest, sickest states in the country. California is Democrat-run and has a massive homelessness crisis. The common denominator? Neither party fixes the root of the problem.
They’ll tell you it’s complicated. They’ll blame the other side. But the truth is, they have the money. They have the power. They just don’t have the will. Because fixing these problems means confronting the rich donors who bankroll them, and they’ll never bite the hand that feeds them.
Compassion, Judgment, and the Myth of Equal Starting Points
And then there’s the cold-hearted idea that people don’t deserve help. That if a kid goes hungry, it’s the parent’s fault. That it’s not your responsibility. That kids shouldn’t get free school meals because someone else made “bad choices.”
Let’s be real: how is that any different from you driving on a taxpayer-funded road? You didn’t build that road. But you use it. Same with police, fire departments, the post office. Society works because we all contribute, and we all benefit. So why draw the line at food? What’s the point of a society if you don’t care whether the kid next door eats?
And to those who say, “Well, I had to work hard, no one gave me anything”, okay, but not everyone starts from the same place. For some, high school is a choice between college or a union job. For others, it’s a question of whether they’ll be beaten at home. Whether they’ll eat that night. Whether their electricity will be on when they get back. If you think everyone’s playing the same game, you’ve never looked outside your bubble.
If you call yourself a Christian, what happened to compassion? Judgment Day won’t be about how many taxes you dodged or how many flags you waved. It’ll be about how you treated people with less. If you don’t believe in God, do you at least believe in humanity? In mercy? In the idea that helping someone else makes the world better?
We don’t all have the same options. And if you can’t see that, maybe it’s time to ask why you’ve been trained to blame the poor instead of the powerful.
So What’s the Answer? It’s Us.
If neither party is fighting for us, then who is?
We are.
The working class, rural and urban, Black and white, conservative and progressive, have more in common with each other than with any politician or CEO. We all want the same things: decent work, healthcare, dignity, safety, a future for our kids.
We’ve been told to hate each other. To see neighbors as enemies and politicians as saviors. But that’s the scam. It’s how they keep power, by keeping us divided.
The answer isn’t in red hats or blue banners. It’s in organizing. In mutual aid. In solidarity. In recognizing that the people who grow food, build homes, drive trucks, care for the sick, and teach our kids, we make the country run. Not the bosses. Not the politicians.
It’s time to stop begging for scraps from millionaires and start building power from the ground up.
What Does That Look Like?
It looks like forming unions and fighting for better pay and conditions. It looks like workers walking out of factories and hospitals and Starbucks and saying “enough.”
It looks like mutual aid, communities feeding each other, helping each other through hard times without waiting for government crumbs.
It looks like striking coal miners in Alabama. It looks like railroad workers fighting for sick leave. It looks like teachers in West Virginia demanding respect.
It looks like class consciousness, knowing who your real enemies are, and it’s not your neighbor with a Biden sign or a different skin color. It’s the people hoarding the wealth while telling us to fight each other.
The Future Is Ours to Build
Trump lied. The GOP lies. The Democrats lie. And they all lie for the same reason: to keep us passive, divided, and distracted. To keep us voting, hoping, begging, while they cash checks and sell influence.
We don’t need another politician to save us. We need each other.
So next time someone tells you the problem is “woke culture” or “illegal immigrants,” ask yourself: does this person care if my job pays enough? If my town has a hospital? If I can afford insulin?
The answer is no. Because they don’t work for you.
But your neighbor does. Your coworker does. The person struggling just like you does.
We’re not enemies. We’re allies. And if we ever remember that, no party in Washington can stop us.
Bottom Line: Stop Falling for the Same Trick
They dress it up different ways; America First, Build Back Better, Hope and Change, but the game is always the same: keep the working class divided, keep the rich protected, keep real power out of your hands.
So stop buying what they’re selling. Stop fighting your neighbors. Start fighting the people at the top.
We don’t need Trump. We don’t need Biden. We need each other.
It’s time to get organized.
References
ECONOMIC POLICY & WORKING-CLASS IMPACTS
“Trump’s Tax Law Was a Windfall for the Rich, His Opponents Say” The New York Times, Dec. 17, 2019, accessed April 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/us/politics/trump-tax-law.html
“Wage Stagnation in America: Why It’s Real and What It Means” Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Aug. 2021, accessed April 2025, https://www.epi.org/publication/why-americas-workers-need-faster-wage-growth/
“Corporate Profits Soar As Inflation Hits Americans” The Guardian, Jan. 25, 2023, accessed April 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/25/corporate-profits-soar-inflation-americans
“Trump’s Dow Record? Worst Market Drop in History Happens on His Watch” CNBC, Mar. 16, 2020, accessed April 2025, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/16/dow-plunges-2997-points-worst-day-since-black-monday.html
“2025 Stock Market Crash” Wikipedia, last edited April 2025, accessed April 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_stock_market_crash
“US Stocks Fall as Trump Admits ‘Transition Difficulty’ Over Tariffs” The Times, April 8, 2025, accessed April 2025, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/live-stocks-trump-tariffs-today-latest-news-ptrrw6xvs
“Why Did the US Stock Market Crash Despite Trump Tariff Pause?” Financial Express, April 5, 2025, accessed April 2025, https://www.financialexpress.com/business/market-us-stock-crash-trump-tariff-pause-impact-3435914/
TARIFFS, TRADE WAR & INFLATION
“Trump’s Tariffs Threaten to End Quarter-Century Era of Cheap Goods for U.S. Consumers” Associated Press (AP News), April 2, 2025, accessed April 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-2025-import-prices-inflation-77a61c747d4b4a73a3873821bc6f6b4c
“The U.S. and China Are Going to Economic War—and Everyone Will Suffer” The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2025, accessed April 2025, https://www.wsj.com/world/china/us-china-trade-war-tariffs-trump-2025-83e812a4
“Trump Tariffs: The Economic Impact of the Trump Trade War” Tax Foundation, March 30, 2025, accessed April 2025, https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war-economic-impact/
“Trump Tariffs: Prices & Long-Term Economic Effects” Tax Foundation, April 2025, accessed April 2025, https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-economic-effects-2025/
“Aranceles en la Segunda Presidencia de Donald Trump” Wikipedia (Spanish), last edited April 2025, accessed April 2025, https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranceles_en_la_segunda_presidencia_de_Donald_Trump
“Economic Consequences of Trade Wars: Evidence from the US-China Dispute” National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Working Paper No. 26418, Oct. 2019, authors Pablo Fajgelbaum, Pinelopi Goldberg, Patrick Kennedy, Amit Khandelwal, accessed April 2025, https://www.nber.org/papers/w26418
HOUSING, POVERTY & SOCIAL SERVICES
“Why the United States Still Has So Many Homeless People” The Atlantic, Sep. 2023, accessed April 2025, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/us-homelessness-policy-history/675304/
“Veterans Face Rising Homelessness Despite Political Promises” Reuters, Nov. 10, 2022, accessed April 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/veterans-face-rising-homelessness-despite-political-promises-2022-11-10/
“Farmers Hurt by Trump’s Trade War Get Federal Aid, but Some Are Left Out” NPR, Oct. 14, 2019, accessed April 2025, https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/768735863/farmers-hurt-by-trumps-trade-war-get-federal-aid-but-some-are-left-out
“Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Falls Short for Many” NPR, Oct. 18, 2022, accessed April 2025, https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1129560147/bidens-student-loan-forgiveness-falls-short-for-many
CORPORATE WELFARE, FRAUD & WAR PROFITEERING
“The Foxconn Con” The Verge, Oct. 19, 2021, accessed April 2025, https://www.theverge.com/22684730/foxconn-wisconsin-trump-factory-con-job
“Defense Contractors Are Making a Killing” The Intercept, July 7, 2023, accessed April 2025, https://theintercept.com/2023/07/07/defense-contractors-pentagon-budget/
GOVERNMENT DATA & LONG-TERM TRENDS
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), regularly updated datasets on wages, inflation, and employment, accessed April 2025, https://www.bls.gov
About “Hope in the Heartland”
“Hope in the Heartland” is a Substack publication dedicated to exploring the intersections of class, culture, and politics in America’s Midwest. Through a blend of personal narratives, political analysis, and cultural commentary, it aims to shed light on the challenges and resilience of working-class communities in the region. The publication seeks to bridge divides, challenge prevailing narratives, and offer insights grounded in lived experiences.
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I think that when democrats turned their backs on unions and American workers during the Clinton administration and passed NAFTA that a real businessman had it right. H Ross Perot said we would hear a giant sucking sound as all the middle class jobs were moved to Mexico.
https://youtu.be/W3LvZAZ-HV4?si=K5spaSWvpjOpU4Sh