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Culture, Not Money, Drove White Working Class to Trump
Attendees at a Trump rally recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Donald Trump was elected President because angry, white, working-class voters wanted more jobs, bigger paychecks, and a larger slice of government cheese. At least that’s been the conventional wisdom, claimed by coastal journalists and amplified by social commentators.
But a new survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic magazine seems to disprove that narrative. The largest motivation to pull the lever for Trump came not from pocketbook concerns, but cultural ones:
Controlling for other demographic variables, three factors stood out as strong independent predictors of how white working-class people would vote. The first was anxiety about cultural change. Sixty-eight percent of white working-class voters said the American way of life needs to be protected from foreign influence. And nearly half agreed with the statement, “things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country.” Together, these variables were strong indictors of support for Trump: 79 percent of white working-class voters who had these anxieties chose Trump, while only 43 percent of white working-class voters who did not share one or both of these fears cast their vote the same way.
The second factor was immigration. Contrary to popular narratives, only a small portion—just 27 percent—of white working-class voters said they favor a policy of identifying and deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally. Among the people who did share this belief, Trump was wildly popular: 87 percent of them supported the president in the 2016 election.
Finally, 54 percent of white working-class Americans said investing in college education is a risky gamble, including 61 percent of white working-class men. White working-class voters who held this belief were almost twice as likely as their peers to support Trump. “The enduring narrative of the American dream is that if you study and get a college education and work hard, you can get ahead,” said Robert P. Jones, the CEO of PRRI. “The survey shows that many white working-class Americans, especially men, no longer see that path available to them. … It is this sense of economic fatalism, more than just economic hardship, that was the decisive factor in support for Trump among white working-class voters.”
The poll found another repudiation of conventional wisdom: Respondents who said their finances were “fair” or “poor” were twice as likely to vote Clinton than those in better financial shape.
In my admittedly anecdotal discussions with apolitical Trump voters (family, friends, neighbors) over the past few years, feeling like a “stranger in my own country” is a common theme. Rioters burn down cities and politicians coddle them. Illegal immigrants are deported only to be welcomed to sanctuary cities upon their return. The well-connected can mishandle classified information and the justice system proudly refuses to prosecute. Big businesses are lauded for admitting men to women’s bathrooms, while mom-and-pop stores are shut down for quietly holding more traditional views.
And if someone so much as questions any of the above, they are immediately labeled a bigot.
Do you agree with the study’s findings?
Published in Culture, Politics
A Republican Senator from Arizona joins with Democrats to thwart conservatives year after year and that’s just “business as usual”?! Why?!
Hey, people have been asking that for the last couple of decades.
Everything is NeverTrump’s fault, and will be long after Trump is out of office.
Its not Never Trump’s fault per se, but a lot of Never Trumpers go out of their way to support people like John McCain while complaining about Trump not being a Conservative.
This but unironically.
This ftw. Literally. Identity politics, Political Correctness, and Gun Control — the 3 reasons I can’t call myself a Liberal. Because they go against the Bill of Rights (kinda the best part of the Constitution).
I’m a little late to the party, but I 100% agree. The vast majority of Trump voters I know are blue collar, salt-of-the-earth types who have all been freaked out by the rapidly encroaching hostile takeover by PC Culture and SJW millenials. I’m from a farming family, and I voted the same way though I’m college educated and hold a white collar job. I never thought I would be here, but I actually agree with some of the radical feminists (insultingly labelled TERFs) that it’s a terrible thing for the trans community and their supporters to silence women for voicing safety concerns about some of the bathroom/locker room policies. I find it appallingly hypocritical that someone can screech about women getting raped because ‘patriarchy and rape culture’ one minute only to turn around seconds later and invite men into areas where women are extra vulnerable due to nudity and privacy, or applaud men for being better women than women.
Personally, I don’t care if you’re a female who wants to dress like a man, or a male who wants to dress like a woman. I’m not going to be mean to someone just because they don’t conform to societal standards. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let someone order me to perceive reality in a false way and jeopardize the safety of women and children just to spare someone’s feelings.