The nine types of Trump supporters

[ck4829]

There was discussion after the 'election' continuing to this day about who exactly got Trump elected. There seems to be some disagreement...

Some people claim it's due to despair and that we can win over these voters:
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/we-must-win-over-not-deride-trump-voters/

Some people claim it's due to xenophobia:
https://www.thenation.com/article/fear-of-diversity-made-people-more-likely-to-vote-trump/

What if they're not mutually exclusive?

I propose looking at Trump voters from two axes:

Despair: Living in a depressed local economy, feelings of alienation from the government, unemployed, wanting to return to the "good ol' days", etc.

Xenophobia: Opposition to the 'other'; whether that person is a liberal, a Democrat, a feminist, a Muslim, a minority, a refugee, an immigrant, some other "uppity" person, etc.

Putting these two traits against each other and seeing if they are high or low gives us this system:

HDLX|HDMX|HDHX
----|--- --|-----
MDLX|MDMX|MDHX
-----|----- |------
LDLX|LDMX |LDHX

HDLX (High despair, low xenophobia)
The Unicorn vote
These are the kinds of Trump supporters and voters that we need to be told to look out for, not alienate them any further supposedly, and more. It was just pure despair that drove them to vote for Trump. I'm not sure how many of these voters actually exist though and if that is a large enough group to draw voters off of. I am sure they do exist, but everyone needs to learn about concepts of learned helplessness and system justification and so they can have realistic expectations when dealing with this group.

HDMX (High despair, medium xenophobia)
The Way-of-Lifer
The voter who blames his or her economic woes on "immigrants taking their jobs" and that Trump will force the coal companies to create jobs any day now. Pressure and reminding here is key, but don't get caught up in it.

HDHX (High despair, high xenophobia)
The Self-Gouger
The fact that the 'other' exists is a source of despair in itself. These are the people who if told by a man he would make liberals, Muslims, the GLBTQ, immigrants, refugees, feminists, minorities, etc. feel some pain later on if they would gouge out their eye now, then they would instantly do it. A bit of hyperbole, but they are willing to cut off government resources, their own networks, and capital just to spite the other. Don't bother with them, you're wasting your time.

MDLX (Medium despair, low xenophobia)
The It's Personal Voter
These voters have a wide range, maybe they're the ones who voted for Obama twice and claim that a lot. Maybe they just didn't like Hillary Clinton. I think that as Trump continues to alienate the public, we can reach out to these people.

MDMD (Medium despair, medium xenophobia)
The Anything Goes Crowd
Trump does X, with X being something contradictory to his campaign or being something really dangerous or stupid; they are the people who will support him no matter what. They are the people who nodded when Fox News said "The price of gas is high, it's bad, blame Obama" AND when Fox News said "The price of gas is low, but it's also bad, so blame Obama." There is nothing we can do here except tell ourselves and the politically uninitiated that this system can not be sustained.

MDHX (Medium despair, high xenophobia)
The Purger
These are type of supporters who reinterpreted "Drain the Swamp" to mean 'no liberals in the government'. These are the supporters who want to erase liberals from the discourse. They need to be challenged. Unite the left against them.

LDLX (Low despair, low xenophobia)
The Mercer
Rich people who live outside of Washington DC supporting another billionaire living outside of Washington DC. The DeVos family is here as well. People need to be reminded that this is where real class warfare is coming from.

LDMX (Low despair, medium xenophobia)
The Culture Warrior Voter
Your standard homophobe, transphobe, Islamophobe, etc. The sad thing is, they're not quite as extreme as...

LDHX (Low despair, high xenophobia)
The Dylann Roof Vote
Richard Spencer and other privileged twerps of the alt-right prepping for war against Muslims, immigrants, Jews, liberals, and others. I don't think it needs to be said that we shouldn't even bother here.

We need to find ways to split these forces against each other, that is key.

[Generic Other]

1. Your classifications are spot on!

I have met all of these types it seems.

[Hortensis]

25. Interesting all right. As for splitting them,

I believe they must and will finally accomplish that themselves as the extremes become more extreme and the results become more disastrous. We can nudge but wooing has failed because the one thing that unites all is the need to rally to oppose the Great Enemy all conservatives know is out there. In the post- Cold War era, that enemy is America's left.

Shockingly, horrifyingly, even the prospect of electing Rump president was not enough to split them. BUT many voted Rump because they felt a critical need to replace Scalia with another strong conservative, so perhaps their victory in that will finally allow more responsible sorts to part ways with the others.

[guillaumeb]

2. Recommended.

Rather than write off all Trump supporters as unreachable, it is better to look for commonalities of interest and build on that.

And given that over 41% of registered voters did not vote, the Democratic message is either not reaching these people or does not resonate with them. Perhaps a substantial number of the unmotivated subscribe to the "both parties are the same" philosophy.

[Averagegrunt]

21. Yep

I agree with this statement 110%

[guillaumeb]

23. Welcome to DU.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Interesting breakdown.

It's mostly spot on, but what about the truly clueless? Those who are completely uninformed and just think he's going to make America great again? Not particularly despairing or xenophobic, but true believers.

[yardwork]

17. Anything Goes crowd seems to fit there.

[ck4829]

18. My thought as well

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. They overlap.

[Alea]

5. Discounting party loyalty and a few others

Life long republicans, may have hated trump, wanted cruz or bush, or any other candidate, but were left with trump so they held their nose and voted for the party.

If trump was a democrat (i think he use to be) and our only choice on election day, how many of us would have stayed home and turned it all over to the republicans?

Also single issue voters- pro life, supreme court, gun rights.

I've talked with republicans that hated the choice they were left with but when it came down to it they voted for the party.

Some people here seem to think since trump was the repubs only choice, and he was a scumbag, they had a duty to not vote for him or even change parties and vote dem. Would we have done the same? Give it all up to the republicans because we hated the candidate?

[47of74]

6. Bottom line: 45's voters are all fornicating holes of donkeys

Regardless of the type

[heaven05]

8. apt description

of ALL voters for the orangemonkey calling himself potus.

[womanofthehills]

11. Seems to me, all the 45's I know were the people I knew previously as racists

[spooky3]

7. Protestant Evangelists went 80% for Trump

and they are a bigger share of the electorate than you would think.

Pair them with certain Catholics who ignore all teachings other than "abortion is forbidden" and that's a pretty big group.

[heaven05]

9. yep

that's "I fear god"Catholics, by and large. Very confused, as these silly, silly people, protestants and catholics, think god cares about a chump like trump. Saw one the other day in the filling station with his trump-pence bumper sticker prominent and just above it, a window sticker for our local catholic radio station-AM. I asked him if he had buyers remorse yet, he didn't answer.

[Fast Walker 52]

10. it's really sad how abortion drives politics-- a huge percent of the GOP vote is pro-lifers

and ONLY because of that issue. So fucked up.

[47of74]

12. They're anti-abortion, not pro-life

I refuse to refer to them as pro-life.

[Fast Walker 52]

20. you're right, my bad, I really need to be be more careful with that term

[47of74]

22. Thank you No problem.

It's easy enough to do since our wonderful news media does it so often.

Refusing to call em pro life takes away their bludgeon and focuses them on what they're really about, which is not in support of human life.

[Fast Walker 52]

24. btw, I got involved in an argument about abortion on twitter

and these two anti-abortion types were saying there's "no medical reason for abortion" or "no medical necessity for abortion", which sounds totally wrong to me. I asked them what that meant but they didn't respond, but they were making a big deal about it, and ranting about abortion in general.

I'm guessing this argument is something the anti-abortion people like to throw out and revolves on some weird definition of abortion and medical reason/necessity.

Personally I had an experience with abortion where my girlfriend had an ectopic pregnancy and it was necessary to terminate the pregnancy, we were not going to terminate otherwise. So that seems like a medical reason for an abortion to me.

But I'm wondering if these abortion foes have some odd way of defining abortion. Do you know this argument at all?

[Heartstrings]

27. I also despise the term "pro-abortion" so often tossed about...

No one is "pro-abortion"....

Pro-choice...

[IronLionZion]

13. This is good classification

and it's good that you identified where we can make inroads. Trump got states and voters that were blue in past elections. The map has been changing so there are some regional differences in despair and xenophobia. We should also acknowledge that there are many voters who don't put much thought or research into their votes, they just wanted something different or thought it would be entertaining to see how crazy things can get. And there are many on our side who for whatever reason did not vote.

The self gougers are an interesting bunch. I have encountered some who hate diversity so much they gladly voted for Trump to cut the very agencies they work for, as in their careers are are at risk.

I hope our party aggressively courts voters and listens to them and does whatever it takes to win back some congressional seats in the midterms.

[niyad]

14. k and r and bookmarking, because I am going to tea with the mad hatter.

[0rganism]

15. if Matt Groening illustrated the situation....

... we could have something like this:

and it would be FABULOUS

[OxQQme]

16. There is also a "dis-enchanted with the corrupt government" type.

"The System" is so f*d up, it needed changing, and who better then a non-politician."

The few in that category that I have spoken with had the 'anything's better than this current system' viewpoint prior to their vote.

They show no remorse.

Yet.

[underpants]

19. Excellent post.

Bookmarking

[LAS14]

26. I look forward to ideas for addressing all of these. A good way of thinking. nt

[stillsoleft]

28. Excellent work!

Spot on.