4 ms·

Trump is president because 1) Facebook made easy to find the "latent Klansman" in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. OR 2) There are large swaths of working class w

Trump is president because 1) Facebook made easy to find the "latent Klansman" in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. OR 2) There are large swaths of working class white people in the middle of the country unhappy with how their economic prospects have been trending in the last 10 years.

minikites 8y ago
It's not about their economic prospects: https://twitter.com/stevenvmiller/status/1014967443813519360 https://twitter.com/stevenvmiller/status/1014967443813519360 https://github.com/svmiller/earr https://github.com/svmiller/earr https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-rac... https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/25/debunking-election-economic-anxiety-myth/BnrFb0K14C62VrPZgKDR6M/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/25/debunking-ele... https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-make-people-vote-trump-racism-did/ https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak...
- trocadero 8y ago
  >https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak.. https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak.... >We created a stereotyping scale which measures views like believing people of color are more violent or lazier than whites, but it was not included in our final models because it did not predict voting behavior. Let's just ignore the thing that disproves our premise.
tclancy 8y ago
Even if one accepts your proposal only one of those is true and it must be the less offensive one, why aren’t those working class white folks rising up en masse given the group they voted for have done nothing good for them economically and seem transfixed on driving out nonwhites from the country?
alejohausner 8y ago
Option 2, for sure. Remember Bill Clinton's slogan during his 1992 campaign: "It's the economy, stupid." People vote with their wallets first. The recession at the time lost Bush the presidency. The lousy job market cost Hillary the presidency too. Trump is a protest candidate. His supporters are not knuckle-dragging troglodytes who crawled to the voting booth, drooled on the voting machine, and grunted "make America great again!". They are rational beings, who looked back at Obama's presidency, and were not impressed. Yes, employment improved during Obama's tenure, but new jobs have been low-paying and low-status. No bankers went to prison. The corporate-friendly policies of the Obama era didn't earn him friends in the working class. And Hillary promised more of the same. Targeted advertising can prod racists to vote, as the OP suggests, but that only works if the non-racist voting majority feels some hope.

minikites 8y ago

It's not about their economic prospects: https://twitter.com/stevenvmiller/status/1014967443813519360 https://twitter.com/stevenvmiller/status/1014967443813519360 https://github.com/svmiller/earr https://github.com/svmiller/earr https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-rac... https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/25/debunking-election-economic-anxiety-myth/BnrFb0K14C62VrPZgKDR6M/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/25/debunking-ele... https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-make-people-vote-trump-racism-did/ https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak...

trocadero 8y ago
>https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak.. https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-mak.... >We created a stereotyping scale which measures views like believing people of color are more violent or lazier than whites, but it was not included in our final models because it did not predict voting behavior. Let's just ignore the thing that disproves our premise.

tclancy 8y ago

Even if one accepts your proposal only one of those is true and it must be the less offensive one, why aren’t those working class white folks rising up en masse given the group they voted for have done nothing good for them economically and seem transfixed on driving out nonwhites from the country?

alejohausner 8y ago

Option 2, for sure. Remember Bill Clinton's slogan during his 1992 campaign: "It's the economy, stupid." People vote with their wallets first. The recession at the time lost Bush the presidency. The lousy job market cost Hillary the presidency too. Trump is a protest candidate. His supporters are not knuckle-dragging troglodytes who crawled to the voting booth, drooled on the voting machine, and grunted "make America great again!". They are rational beings, who looked back at Obama's presidency, and were not impressed. Yes, employment improved during Obama's tenure, but new jobs have been low-paying and low-status. No bankers went to prison. The corporate-friendly policies of the Obama era didn't earn him friends in the working class. And Hillary promised more of the same. Targeted advertising can prod racists to vote, as the OP suggests, but that only works if the non-racist voting majority feels some hope.