Quote:
Originally Posted by O.A.F.K.1.1
The election of Trump does not have to be mostly about economic populist outrage to have been caused by wider economic social conditions though.
As I said before average Trump voter is going to have little actual objective awareness of the actual social and economic conditions that create them.
They will have a sense that things are not fair, and then Trump/Fox or whoever provides the narratives to explain that sense.
Exploited classes being made to vote against their own self interests by having their exploitation mis represented is centre stage in political history. Its a common occurance.
OK, but this feels pretty squishy leftist stuff now. And I'm with you, to an
extent. But the data about the economic depravity of Trump voters is pretty mixed. In a lot of ways, many (not all) were doing well.
To be glib, you seem to be doing what I described earlier: well, sure, they have the outward appearance of simple haters, but really they are exploited and subconsciously angry about it. They're really rebelling against the elites, no matter how much they fret about the future of America for white children. What they're really anxious about is economic stagnation, what they tell you and what the data says be damned.
I'll repeat it's a just-so-story. It's convenient for leftists since it builds into a bunch of Sanders type narratives about what the problems and prescriptions are from here. And it helps us live nicely with the white world and not spend our time hectoring 75% of white America about how they transgress over desirable democratic norms. And it solves a problem for the right-winger types to pile on about all the liberals who were mean to them and don't appreciate the hard-scrabble life of white guys in America, who must suffer from the indignities of PC culture. It ticks a bunch of convenient boxes for some elements of the left, the right, and people anywhere from a little to very exasperated being asked to put aside their white guy sensibilities. So here we are. I remain skeptical it's the best empirical explanation.