Liberals/progressives have to be honest with themselves

[betsuni]

44. That was because of race.

"According to the Pew Research Center surveys from 2007, whites were just as likely to call themselves Democrats as they were to call themselves Republicans. But by 2010, whites were 12 points more likely to be Republicans than Democrats (51% versus 39%).

"These voters were 'cross-pressured' -- with their partisanship and views on racial issues increasingly in tension -- and prior scholarship has shown that these are exactly the voters that a campaign can push into the opposite party's camp. Indeed, identity-inflected issues stand out for the sheer number of white Obama voters who seemed at odds with Obama's own positions and those of the Democratic Party. ... Many observers dismissed the role of race in 2016 by arguing that Obama voters could not have had unfavorable views of racial minorities. The liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said this about voters who had supported Obama and then Trump: 'They're not racist. ... They twice voted for a man whose middle name is Hussein.' But this is just as inaccurate as saying everyone who voted against Obama was racially prejudiced. In fact, Obama even garnered support from whites with explicitly prejudiced views. ... Many whites with less favorable views of blacks would up supporting Obama because of partisanship or some other factor. Although many of those voters then left the Democratic Party during Obama's presidency, there were still plenty of white Obama voters who could end up voting for Trump, specifically because of a campaign centered on issues like race and immigration."

From "Identity Crisis"