Hurting Economically Does Not Absolve a Trump Vote

[_Some Schmo]

One of the things I've heard far too often is that people voted for Trump because they didn't like the way the government was operating, and they were hurting economically.

I would be completely sympathetic to these very real concerns if the people who had them weren't idiotically pushing their proposed solution. If I'm dissatisfied with the water pressure in my shower, for instance, the solution is not to burn my house down.

There's an idea floating around that we should give these people a pass, because of their pain. My opinion is that if people don't like the headache, it would help if they quit banging their heads against the wall.

Forgiving people for being stupid will not help the current situation.

[_EAllusion]

Trump voters were better off, on average, than non Trump voters. This is true even if you look specifically at white working class voters. The better off ones were more likely to vote Trump.

"Economic anxiety" had very little predictive value in figuring out who was likely to vote Trump. Bigotry - measures of racist and sexist attitudes -, on the other hand, was highly predictive. It was especially predictive of figuring out people who voted for Trump, but not for Romney. What happened is that because calling people bigots is generally an impolite thing to do, portions of the press ended up using "economic anxiety" as a fig leaf to describe the influx of support for Trump among people who were not doing it for economic reasons at all. Of course, if you ask a person, few are going to say, "I like Trump because he vocalizes bigotries I identity with and am frustrated I can't get away with saying," but they will say, "I'm worried about the economy."

There's now a whole genre of commentary that sarcastically refers to stories of Trump supporters saying and doing bigoted things as "economic anxiety."

[_Smokey]

Given the choice between a Billionaire reality Television star and a murderous, corrupt, Satanic Witch that would have led us to war, the People made the best choice they could.

Satanists BTFO for 8 years!

[_ajax18]

Trump voters were better off, on average, than non Trump voters. This is true even if you look specifically at white working class voters.

I thought Trump voters were uneducated. Shouldn't this mean they were worse off economically as well?

[_honorentheos]

Forgiving people for being stupid will not help the current situation.

Expand on this. What exactly do you think is the call to action contained in your OP?

[_EAllusion]

Trump voters were better off, on average, than non Trump voters. This is true even if you look specifically at white working class voters.

I thought Trump voters were uneducated. Shouldn't this mean they were worse off economically as well?

That's counter intuitive at first blush until you realize there's lots of people who have money without having a college degree and Democrats still do pretty well among the very poor. Part of this is embedded in the fact that old people like Trump and old people aren't as educated on average as young people.

Trump won the "some college or less" category by about 8 points while losing the popular vote by 3. Among white voters in that category, he won it by 40 points.

He slightly won people in middle income and above despite losing the popular vote. He was crushed in the category of people making less than 50k a year.

[_EAllusion]

Trump has been continuing to lose support among the educated, especially in suburbs, and it would not be surprising if he loses the professional class in 2020 (assuming a fair vote exists). The very wealthy still overwhelmingly prefer him. At the same time, he has been gaining support among poorly educated white voters, and this might deepen some support among the poor, but he's still got a lot of ground to make up there to even get close to parity.

People most justified in having "economic anxiety" don't like Trump and Trump has overall done best among the people least justified in having it. Economic vulnerability just doesn't explain support for him and it especially doesn't explain shifting voting patterns. What does is his identity politics, but that's less comfortable to talk about.

[_ajax18]

He was crushed in the category of people making less than 50k a year.

That actually makes a lot of sense.

My second thought would be is it possible that a lot of college degrees are worthless?

[_EAllusion]

The prototypical Trump voter is something like a older white man who made decent money despite not having graduated college. Find one of those and chances are that person loves Trump.

He's got the Archie Bunker voter locked up.

[_EAllusion]

The prototypical Trump voter is something like a older white man who made decent money despite not having graduated college. Find one of those and chances are that person loves Trump.

He's got the Archie Bunker voter locked up.

My second thought would be is it possible that a lot of college degrees are worthless?

Remember that the voter pool spans across some shifts in our economy. It was less important to have a college degree 40 years ago than it is today. Trump's support is heavily skewed towards the end of the spectrum where college degrees were not as frequently a requisite to decent salaries.