The Manufacturing Heartland Is the Key to Future Elections

The Manufacturing Heartland Is the Key to Future Elections
Workers at the NLMK Indiana steel mill in Portage, Ind., on March 15, 2018. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Amar Manzoor
8/1/2018
Updated:
8/2/2018

People want the easy life, the simple life, with predetermined expectations, predictability, and mundane repetitiveness. This is what existed for the workforce back in the 1960s and ‘70s.

But they want to be heard, made to feel important, recognized for their achievements, empowered, rewarded, appreciated, and respected.

There are two battles here: the inward battle, which is one of certainty and security, and the outward battle, which is one of appreciation, respect, and achievement. This harks back to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, extending from the base of the triangle embracing security to the apex of the triangle which embraces self-actualization.

Maslow’s triangle of needs is now top heavy. It used to have a strong stable foundation, back when we had a manufacturing industry and plants scattering the landscape of these Western lands.

That security has now gone, and we in the West are feeling the pressure of not keeping our foundations strong. It has led to economic, security, political, health, and social changes that we never dreamed of. Now that Maslow’s triangle of needs is on its head, the reverse effect is taking place. Those at the top of the triangle are heading to the bottom to feed on those who form the bottom of the triangle. This is resulting in economic cannibalism as the general population struggles to survive the incredible pressures required to survive on a daily basis.

To see this effect rising to the top of the sphere, we only have to look at the Donald Trump phenomenon. He moved with the people and saw what was driving his employees. He knew all about their motivations, needs, difficulties, challenges, burdens, and hopelessness and about the immense struggles they were feeling as they tried to raise their families. He knew exactly how to represent them, how to speak for them, how to understand them, how to respond for them, and how to see what they were seeing. Most of all, because of his established TV personality, he knew how to say what they were seeing.

Meanwhile, those in the established political climate looked for even further ways where the bottom of the triangle could release their pressures, buy some more time, and pretend that they were offering freedom when they were not. Trump spoke to the heart, and mainly he spoke to the core of the parent-child family unit that drives nations. This is how he won: He spoke directly to their wants and needs.

So what do the people want in this hierarchy of needs? They want to go to work in a manufacturing plant, just like their dad used to do. They want their factories back. They don’t want to spend money saving the outside world. They want security, health care, and protection from a world that was devastating their very lives. They want the old world back: a time of predictability, certainty, friendly neighborhoods, family, the right to worship their God, sustainability, simplicity, and community inclusiveness in their lives.

The key was manufacturing plants. As people drove by the old automotive plant, they missed the way in which the community was borne of the pride in the work they did—the products they produced and the value they brought to their lands. This was what America was all about, and it was all gone. The rusted out machining centers, the broken mills, the graffiti-ridden factories, and the derelict warehouses are exactly what drove these people. It was always going to be family security that motivated people.

According to a recent poll conducted by Gallup on July 18, less than 1 percent of Americans care about the Russia probe. They don’t care what happens in the outside world; all they care about is what is happening in their community. This is where the heart of the battle lies. Whoever understands the argument of industrial battle and industrial warfare will win the leadership in the next election.

The people don’t want to be sold out anymore. They want their work back, they want their plants back, and they want their life back. Any person who gives that back to them, who gives them those ideals back, regardless of the politician’s political party, race, color, creed, or religion, is the one who will win the prize of the presidency.

No, it’s not Trump that has spoken. It’s the people who have spoken. Guess what? The bottom of the triangle is where those 99 percent live.

Better start listening Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, and parties all over the world. The 2020 election will be all about one thing: the industrial heartlands and manufacturing industry.

An outside force cannot defeat you unless you sell out internally, and the people are pitchfork angry as they ask just one question. Who sold our plants out?

This the question that Trump likes to portray in his campaigns. The message is very powerful. It is all about one topic: industrial warfare. Trump understands industrial warfare, and he wields the message like Bruce Lee wielded a pair of nunchucks. As long as he understands the message and the requirements of the recipient of the message—the general public—Trump will win the next election, too.

Amar Manzoor is the author of the book “The Art of Industrial Warfare” and founder of the 7Tao industrial warfare system.