Trump Supporters' Main Problem Was Never The Economy

[Wicked Blue]

HuffPost
Emily Peck


Safe to say, the Donald Trump supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol last week weren’t short on cash or propelled by severe economic anxiety.

The insurrectionists came to Washington by plane. They stayed in Airbnbs and at the Embassy Suites. They wore costumes and carried weapons and iPhones. Some were cops. There were doctors, lawyers, a Chicago real estate broker, teachers ― even a school therapist. A CEO.

Sure, some of them could’ve been impoverished former coal miners, as so many pundits have described a certain sect of Trump voters. But these people weren’t raging over the decline of the carbon-based economy. This was a riot about race and power. If there was economic anxiety, it was spurred by the rioters’ false notion that their place in the world isunder threat.

We can stop talking about how white Americans voted for Trump because of economic interest. His appeal was never about money. (And Trump is leaving office with the economy in tatters, by the way. On Thursday, 1.15 million more people filed for unemployment.)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-core-support-never-about-economy_n_6000b785c5b62c0057bb6dfc

[Wounded Bear]

1. The economy was doing pretty well when Trump was elected...

This shit was always true. It was never about the economy, it was about white supremacists feeling threatened.

[Wicked Blue]

2. Trump made sure the filthy rich got filthy richer

and the rest of us got screwed royally.

[catbyte]

3. Yep.

[dubyadiprecession]

4. Usually, it's some woman that dumps them.

[dalton99a]

5. Democracy is a threat to white supremacy.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Tactical gear is expensive, and plane tickets aren't cheap.

Some "grassroots".

[Wicked Blue]

8. So is fresh organic food nt

[StarfishSaver]

7. Duh

[Goodheart]

9. trump's support is all about, and has ALWAYS been all about, racism.

It's about maintaining white as the superior class. That's why you see all these po white folks... scruffy, undereducated... voting trumplican. No matter how miserable their lives are, no matter how little they can appreciate the finer things in life (like poetry, mathematics, philosophy, art) they still took comfort in that they were within the privileged class.

And now that's all crashing down.

[MisterNiceKitty]

10. I agree, except that the group we saw last week was mostly but not uniformly white

There were blacks ("blacks for Trump&quot , Hispanics, Asians, and Jews standing side by side with white nationalists.

Isn't the organizer of the "rally" black?

I would hope in the future that the analysis of this movement can be expanded to account for the participation of these other groups. More qualitative research might be needed rather than macro analysis of groups.

Still comprehensive mental health evaluations for the insurrectionists are needed code emergency stat.

[Initech]

11. They voted becuase they wanted to embrace their inner hatred.

That's what this entire administration was about. They voted to "own the libs" and to "make liberals cry". They embrace their racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia. And Trump not only brought it out of them, he nurtured it and let it ferment. Because really that's all they have anymore.