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Researchers Say ‘intolerant’ Attitudes, not Economic Anxieties, Fueled Trump’s 2016 Victory
Lawrence Journal World ^ | May 17 2018 | By Joanna Hlavacek

Posted on 05/18/2018 11:08:10 AM PDT by ethom

In the year and a half since Donald Trump’s 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 didn’t 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 Trump’s 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 Trump’s 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 Trump’s attitudes also voted for him in large numbers, Smith found. What’s more, plenty of older, married, college-educated white men didn’t vote for Trump, Smith’s analysis shows.

“He seems to be a lightning rod in a way that previous politicians were not,” Smith says of Trump’s popularity.

Understanding Trump’s meteoric rise to the presidency doesn’t 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 nation’s 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 that’s a guess. We’re hoping to understand it better.”


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: davidsmith; kansas; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; smearmachine; sociology; uofkansas
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your tax dollars hard at work !
1 posted on 05/18/2018 11:08:10 AM PDT by ethom
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To: ethom

“We are the sorest losers in the history of the universe.”


2 posted on 05/18/2018 11:09:42 AM PDT by thesharkboy (Charter member of the Basket of Deplorables)
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To: ethom

Bull!


3 posted on 05/18/2018 11:10:34 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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To: ethom

I must have missed all the studies done on the Obama election of 2008.


4 posted on 05/18/2018 11:10:48 AM PDT by outpostinmass2
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To: ethom; jeffersondem; BroJoeK; Bull Snipe
Researchers Say ‘intolerant’ Attitudes, not Economic Anxieties, Fueled Trump’s 2016 Victory

Sounds like the same excuse they used to start the Civil War.

Same sh*t, different century.

5 posted on 05/18/2018 11:11:42 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: thesharkboy
Intolerant attitudes...

This study is correct. I am very intolerant of liberals and other forms of communists.

Bagster

Lesser Oracle

6 posted on 05/18/2018 11:12:02 AM PDT by bagster (The Bagster Alliance is insidous. The B clique is mighty.)
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To: ethom

Lawrence, Kansas = Moonbat Central.


7 posted on 05/18/2018 11:12:21 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: thesharkboy
“We are the sorest losers in the history of the universe.”

You just know that they are never gonna let this go!

8 posted on 05/18/2018 11:12:50 AM PDT by ethom
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To: ethom
BS!...........................
9 posted on 05/18/2018 11:14:02 AM PDT by Red Badger (Remember all the great work Obama did for the black community?.............. Me neither.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

10 posted on 05/18/2018 11:14:45 AM PDT by ethom
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To: ethom

It is entirely possible that listening to intolerant libs screech and whine drove some folks to vote for Trump.


11 posted on 05/18/2018 11:14:59 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: rktman

now THAT is a thesis that is worth exploring with polling!


12 posted on 05/18/2018 11:16:20 AM PDT by ethom
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To: thesharkboy

It’s hard to image what they’ll be like at the end of Trump’s second term.


13 posted on 05/18/2018 11:17:54 AM PDT by CaptainK ("no collusion, no obstruction, he's a leaker")
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To: ethom
No no no, it's Climate Change.
There is nothing Climate Change can't do.

14 posted on 05/18/2018 11:17:57 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: ethom
When you see "Critical" in front of any common field of intellectual endeavor, you might as well read "Marxist". In case anyone is wondering:

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.

SOURCE

15 posted on 05/18/2018 11:19:23 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: ethom

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.


16 posted on 05/18/2018 11:19:54 AM PDT by PCPOET7
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To: ethom

About time too!

The Left has been on a roll with poofter and trans advancement and it needs to be derailed entirely.


17 posted on 05/18/2018 11:20:00 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: BitWielder1

Don’t give Hellary Clinton any more ideas or excuses! lol


18 posted on 05/18/2018 11:20:01 AM PDT by ethom
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To: ethom

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?


19 posted on 05/18/2018 11:21:06 AM PDT by arthurus (knuguytfrsdeas)
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To: PCPOET7

it was worth Trump winning just to watch this liberal meltdown! they are going to burn their own party down...


20 posted on 05/18/2018 11:21:16 AM PDT by ethom
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