The demographic change fueling the angst of Trump's base - By Jennifer Rubin

[DonViejo]

The demographic change fueling the angst of Trump’s base

By Jennifer Rubin September 6 at 12:15 PM

The Public Religion Research Institute recently conducted a massive poll of more than 100,000 Americans. Its results go a long way toward explaining the transformation of the GOP from a conservative party into one fueled and animated by white grievance. In broad terms:

White Christians, once the dominant religious group in the U.S., now account for fewer than half of all adults living in the country. Today, fewer than half of all states are majority white Christian. As recently as 2007, 39 states had majority white Christian populations. …

Today, only 43% of Americans identify as white and Christian, and only 30% as white and Protestant. In 1976, roughly eight in ten (81%) Americans identified as white and identified with a Christian denomination, and a majority (55%) were white Protestants.

That demographic and social upheaval has had a huge impact on our politics. For one thing, the GOP has become the party for the dwindling white Protestant population. (“Fewer than one in three (29%) Democrats today are white Christian, compared to half (50%) one decade earlier. … Roughly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans belong to a white Christian religious group.”) White evangelicals are overwhelmingly situated in the South, where states have become less religiously diverse. “Collectively, white evangelical Protestants are twice as large in the South (22%) and Midwest (20%) as they are in the Northeast (8%),” PRRI finds. “At least one-third of the residents in the following states are white evangelical Protestant: Arkansas (37%), West Virginia (36%), Tennessee (36%), Alabama (35%), and Kentucky (33%). Additionally, Mormons (51%) are the largest religious group in Utah, one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the country.”

This is also an aging population. (“White Christians are not only declining, they are aging. Only slightly more than one in ten white evangelical Protestants (11%), white Catholics (11%), and white mainline Protestants (14%) are under the age of 30. Approximately six in ten white evangelical Protestants (62%), white Catholics (62%), and white mainline Protestants (59%) are at least 50 years old.”) It’s a population that is far less educated than other groups. (“Close to half (48%) of white evangelical Protestants have a high school education or less, compared to fewer than four in ten white mainline Protestants (38%), white Catholics (37%), and Mormons (34%).”)

This group of Americans — a shrinking white Christian population of older, Southern, more rural and less educated Americans — might be culturally aggrieved, but they are not economically distressed. “Fewer than one-third of white evangelical Protestants (28%), Mormons (26%), white mainline Protestants (22%), and white Catholics (19%) have household incomes of less than $30,000 per year.” And it is this group that forms the base of the GOP:

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/09/06/the-demographic-change-fueling-the-angst-of-trumps-base/?utm_term=.2cef68355e77

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Fear of becoming a sociological and political minority.

Having to share power, money, and employment with people they think are not as "good" as they are. Or worse, fear of being persecuted by them as a former minority (now majority).

Partly desire to continue to dominate, partly fear of retribution, and partly a desire to continue to get advantages at the expense of others.