New study on Obama voters who voted for Trump

[Garrett78]

I've previously posted this article, and the following article only confirms what most of us have known all along, which has been confirmed by study after study. But some still need the education, so here you go: "It has to do with race."

There is tremendous evidence that Trump voters were motivated by racial resentment (as well as hostile sexism), and very little evidence that economic stress had anything to do with it.

This isn’t just a matter of historical interest or ideological ax-grinding. Understanding the precise way in which racism affected the 2016 election should shape how we think about the electorate in the run-up to the 2018 midterms. More broadly, it helps us understand the subtleties of America’s primordial divide over race — and why racism will continue to fracture the country politically for the foreseeable future.

For another, voting for Obama once or even twice doesn’t automatically mean that someone is not prejudiced against black people or immigrants. It’s possible to support Obama in particular while maintaining overall anti-black or anti-immigrant attitudes.

...there’s no use burying our heads in the sand by pretending this is about class when it isn’t.

Much more at the link.

[nycbos]

1. Exactly.

Obama campaign in the midwest in 2012 was based on everyone hates their boss and Mitt Romney reminded them of their boss.

[betsuni]

2. K&R

[JI7]

3. obama lost lot of white support after his comments on black and brown men being

unfairly targeted by cops. he never got that support back.

he was also very careful to avoid discussing racism and other bigotry in his first election. instead pushing the"post racial" thing.

[JHan]

4. Yep, could see the trend in 2014 - the backlash was coming.

[Garrett78]

5. From the article:

A second reason is that Obama’s very presence in office was racially polarizing. Michael Tesler, a scholar at the University of California-Irvine, has documented in detail how Obama’s very presence in the White House polarized America along racial lines. It would make sense that this effect would grow stronger the longer Obama was in office, setting the stage for a major backlash in his final year.

In spite of Obama speaking very little about race, and even going out of his way to appease those who stereotype persons of color.

Second, class was largely irrelevant in switching to Trump. Keeping racial attitudes constant, white working-class voters were not more likely to switch to Trump. The white working-class voters who did switch tended to score about as highly on measures of racial conservatism and anti-immigrant attitudes as wealthier switchers.

Third, the correlations between measures of economic stress and vote switching were either weak or non-existent. There’s just little evidence supporting the “economic anxiety” or “economic populism” explanations for the Trump surge.

That so many have been in denial about this has been incredibly frustrating.

[JHan]

6. I wondered in 2016 about the political remedies WWC wanted to hear specifically..

that didn't apply to non-white working class people. What was the juice only they could drink?

We were told over and over they need attention.

It was never fully explained. Coal- an industry that employs fewer people than Museums - had something to do with it we were told.


That graph tells a tale.

And we heard WWC apologia from people like Thomas Frank, Matt Bruenig and Matt Stoller. They truly believe that the WWC is just looking for a liberal populist who focuses on jobs, which just plays to the myth that working-class white men, in particular, are blank slates who can be persuaded and not at all motivated by their personal identity. Some people have relatives who voted Trump, and because they can't reconcile such a choice, avoid the possibility that a relative holds some really toxic ideas - because how on earth could anyone they know be malicious.. right?

[JI7]

7. Thomas Frank

he it totally absent during things like the Kavanaugh Hearings and Dr. Ford and issues of sexual abuse. and during charlottesville when the WWC Men told us what they were about.

he suddenly turns up again with his usual talking points when some other news take the front pages and not much attention is on the above type issues.

[JHan]

13. Frank thinks it's still the early 90's..

.. or maybe he is hiding his ISMs. I started reading more about WWC anxieties in Obama's second term - what a coincidink.

Maybe Frank can pass this through his class struggle transformer machine.



But convos with someone like Frank will always end up like this:

[betsuni]

8. +1

[BlueTsunami2018]

9. White people saw Ferguson and the whole BLM movement as a personal affront.

They saw Legitimate President Obama talk about Trayvon Martin as a person and not a thug. They saw him, in their cockeyed view, taking the side of criminals over cops who must be worshipped at all times. They saw Baltimore as just more Ferguson and thought it was going on way too much. They thought Obama let this happen because he’s black. They saw Тяцмр and his racist rhetoric as a reflection of themselves.

His support was and is about nothing other than racism and hate.

[JI7]

10. and the whole bs "bathrooms" issue. warning about transgender people yet they are the party

that supports sexual assaulters like trump, roy moore, kavanaugh.

only bigoted hetero white xtian men are allowed to do as they want.

[tblue37]

11. And misogyny, especially aimed at Hillary personally. nt

[Hortensis]

12. Let's include the Obama voters who refused to vote in 2016.

Mostly men of all colors. Of course racism was a factor in those, as well. Not all who had aligned Democrat under Obama felt they could vote for a Republican Party that had become the white man's party, but they could refuse to vote for the white woman Obama supported to follow him.

Racism is a huge societal flaw and weakness that is being deliberately fanned into flames right now. How many OPs on the subject of white injustice against POC have appeared on DU over the past week as we head into the last weeks before the midterms?

Stoking race divisions of course empowers the white Republican Party. Racial unity empowers all races.

The attempt in 2018 is to cut Democratic turnout by causing both many of the people who voted Trump in 2016 but regret it and many of the same people who refused to vote in 2016 to refuse to vote Democrat now.

Divide and conquer -- again -- in order to keep white conservative racists in charge of government.

Resist! Got anger? Turn it on the Republican white supremacy party.

"“I’m hopeful because out of this political darkness I am seeing a great awakening. ...I Need You To Come Through. But more importantly, the country needs you to come through. ... Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes." - Barack Obama calling voters to step up and fight the darkness