Posted on 05/18/2018 11:08:10 AM PDT by ethom
In the year and a half since Donald Trumps unexpected election to the presidency, a prevailing theory has emerged: It was economic anxiety that led disillusioned, working-class white voters to cast their ballots for the New York real-estate mogul.
A recent study out of the University of Kansas suggests otherwise. Drawing from American National Elections Studies data, KU sociologist David Smith found that theory to be an inaccurate stereotype, albeit a well-intentioned one, that ignores the millions of white, working-class voters who he says voted against Trump because they opposed his attitudes toward minorities, Muslims, immigrants and women.
The election study results show that pocketbook worries are common across all boundaries, says Smith, a professor of sociology at KU. Trump voters, Clinton voters, pretty much all voters expressed a similar level of pocketbook concern.
In other words, financial stress didnt distinguish Trump supporters from other voters in the 2016 election, says Smith.
His findings, co-authored by Eric Hanley, an associate professor of sociology at KU, were recently published in the journal Critical Sociology. For their analysis, Hanley and Smith used American National Election Studies data on 1,883 presidential election voters, of whom 52 percent voted for Trump.
They examined voting behavior along demographic lines gender, education, age, marital status and income level and in connection with a dozen different attitudes. Among these were biases and the desire for domineering and intolerant leaders who are uninhibited about their biases, according to the Critical Sociology paper.
After the 2016 election, a lot of people in the liberal camp and others looking to understand Trumps victory accepted the notion that his supporters were simply rallying behind an outsider who promised to shake things up, says Smith. Some hoped that a lot of people voted for Trump with regrets, he explains, referring to the idea that some reluctantly supported Trump because of economic concerns, not because they liked everything they heard from him.
Some of that may be part of the story, Smith says. But the major finding from the election study is that Trump voters, whether strong or mild, share opinions that are very close to each other and quite far from other voters.
The attitudes that fueled Trumps victory were more prevalent in some groups than others, Smith found married, older, male and less-educated white voters were all more likely than average to vote for Trump. But Smith attributes this trend to Trump-like attitudes being more widespread among those groups.
For example, younger, college-educated, unmarried and female voters who shared Trumps attitudes also voted for him in large numbers, Smith found. Whats more, plenty of older, married, college-educated white men didnt vote for Trump, Smiths analysis shows.
He seems to be a lightning rod in a way that previous politicians were not, Smith says of Trumps popularity.
Understanding Trumps meteoric rise to the presidency doesnt begin and end with the 2016 election, Smith says. He and Hanley are now turning their attention to data from earlier elections in order to better comprehend the nations growing political divide.
They hope to submit their findings, which will also examine the stereotype of the white working class, for publication within the next few months.
The clear point is that 2016 is quite different from 2012, Smith says, drawing comparisons between Trump and Mitt Romney. We suspect that 2012 and 2008 were not as different as 2012 and 2016, but thats a guess. Were hoping to understand it better.
“We are the sorest losers in the history of the universe.”
Bull!
I must have missed all the studies done on the Obama election of 2008.
Sounds like the same excuse they used to start the Civil War.
Same sh*t, different century.
This study is correct. I am very intolerant of liberals and other forms of communists.
Bagster
Lesser Oracle
Lawrence, Kansas = Moonbat Central.
You just know that they are never gonna let this go!
It is entirely possible that listening to intolerant libs screech and whine drove some folks to vote for Trump.
now THAT is a thesis that is worth exploring with polling!
It’s hard to image what they’ll be like at the end of Trump’s second term.
The critical form of sociology rose to prominence through the work of various members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory in Germany, including Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, during the middle 20th century.
this is the reason for Trump. one politician was obviously a crook and the other was not...I my self was very Luke warm about Trump. thank god he won because the Clintons are professional criminals. they are organized crime on a scale that the mafia only could dream about. So instead of a criminal organization heading up out government we lucked into a president that is going to go down in history as the best president ever....I no longer am lukewarm about the president.
About time too!
The Left has been on a roll with poofter and trans advancement and it needs to be derailed entirely.
Don’t give Hellary Clinton any more ideas or excuses! lol
And if that is true, what of it? is one to believe that such things must be politically ignored? that holders of unapproved attitudes are to be denied the vote?
it was worth Trump winning just to watch this liberal meltdown! they are going to burn their own party down...
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