To the Editor:
The disconcerting rise in death rates among less educated middle-aged white Americans reflects their growing disenfranchisement in recent decades. The Democratic Party has become a haven for urban elites more comfortable in Whole Foods than Home Depot or Walmart. The economic concerns of working-class Americans are present in their rhetoric, but not their hearts or, in the end, their policies.
Republicans may appeal to this group on social issues, but their economic agenda blatantly serves business and donor interests, and they systematically undercut even the most modest efforts to lift the working class out of its economic trap.
I do not support Donald Trump and find it vile that he scapegoats the weak for economic dislocations caused by the powerful, but he may be the only voice on the spectrum that addresses the real interests of this beleaguered demographic.
MICHAEL FARZAN
Juno Beach, Fla.
