Left-Wing Icon Noam Chomsky: Clinton Must Win, But Listen To Trump Voters

In the past 15 months, Noam Chomsky has weighed in on the U.S. presidential race often.

“There are differences in the parties,” he said in February, when asked if he’d even consider a Republican over Hillary Clinton. “Small differences [coupled with] great power can have enormous consequences.”

Chomsky initially favored Sanders over Clinton, but insisted Democrats must win at all costs. Because, according to Chomsky, if Trump wins, “the human species is in very deep trouble.”

But as for Trump’s supporters, Chomsky’s not counting them out just yet.

“I’m basically judging by what I see and read about them, listening to talk radio and so on,” Chomsky admitted of the protests on the right. “But my strong impression is that these [right-wing protesters] are people with very real grievances.”

“They give the impression of being hard-working serious people who think they’ve been doing everything right. They’ve been doing what they’re ‘supposed’ to do [as] god-fearing hard-working, gun-carrying, you know patriotic, Americans,”  Chomsky continued.

“What are they doing wrong and how come their lives are so crummy?” Chomsky asked.

It’s a question that has plagued the election.

“They’re not getting answers,” Chomsky insisted. “The answers they are getting are not only crazy, but extremely dangerous, so the right response is to ask ourselves, why are we failing to organize these people?”

There’s nothing partisan about losing money to Wall Street or lacking health insurance; issues at the forefront of protests from both sides for nearly a decade.

“We have not succeeded in unifying people,” Chomsky noted. “It’s our fault.”

Reprinted by permission from Alternet