Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds

[workinclasszero]

Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds
By NIRAJ CHOKSHIAPRIL 24, 2018

Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.

Or so that narrative goes.

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come.

White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. These voters have no one to blame but themselves...

They are loosing status because they are behind the times and not willing to keep up w/ the rest of us. Farmers in the US and in small towns are facing the same issue. If you don't keep up, then you're out of the ball game. Simple. Simple economics is driving everything, that is, if a huge corporate farm w/ tens of thousands of acres puts a 1,000 farmers out of business, either the small farmers didn't react enough or in time to respond to the market pressure being put forth by the corporate farm.

Don't blame the rest of us if you choose to live in a small town...oftentimes, the economics of doing just about everything in today's small towns end up mandating that the small banks, the small nickel and dime stores, etc., in that town are unable to compete. Unless you have a stable environment that fosters healthy completion and enables new competitors and businesses to come in, then the small towns are doomed.

Status? How can you have status if you're losing your living as it has been done for generations? The relentless pursuit of cheaper prices, competition is what's driving all of this.

[Cha]

2. Thank you, working!

Bookmarking!

[EffieBlack]

3. Duh

[maryellen99]

4. The ones I know who voted for him are not suffering from economic anxiety

It was based on race,religion,and the fact that they can’t handle the world changing.

[mythology]

5. The author uses a simplistic definition of economic anxiety

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/stop-saying-trumps-win-had-nothing-to-do-with-economics/

She assumes economic anxiety means list a job today and that any future fears are cultural and thus racial. Instead of understanding that people are complex and that pretty clearly history shows racism rises with economic issues, it's easy to just say that the other side is all racist.

[uponit7771]

12. This study address's that, "WHAT WE FOUND: IT'S RACIAL ANIMUS, NOT ECONOMIC ANXIETY"

Not all but a good amount

https://www.thenation.com/article/economic-anxiety-didnt-make-people-vote-trump-racism-did/

In our models, racial attitudes towards blacks and immigration are the key factors associated with support for Trump. The way that these variables impact Trump support can be seen in the charts below. Both racial resentment and black influence animosity are significant predictors of Trump support among white respondents, independent of partisanship, ideology, education levels, and the other factors included in the model. The results indicate a probability of Trump support higher than 60 percent for an otherwise typical white voter who scores at the highest levels on either anti-black racial resentment or anti-black influence animosity. This compares to less than 30 percent chance for a typical white voter with below average scores on either of the two measures anti-black attitudes. There is approximately a 10 percent probability of a Trump vote for an otherwise typical white voter at the lowest levels of racial resentment

[IluvPitties]

6. Voters afraid of losing white privilege?

That means they are actually aware of it and actively protect it.

[Orsino]

7. In my day, we called that racism and xenophobia. n/t

[ehrnst]

8. Yep. And economic strategies will NOT win them over.

Especially if it requires that the federal government does more.

We must outnumber them, and support those that they hate.

[Cha]

9. KICK for MORE

Exposure!

[uponit7771]

10. Yep, 50% of people would rather make lower wages if everyone else wages are lower vs higher

... wages with the same buying power but everyone else's wages are higher

https://www.albany.edu/~gs149266/Solnick%20&%20Hemenway%20(1998)%20-%20Positional%20concerns.pdf

This was tested 3 times in the study and no racial component added.

Add a racial component and people go nuts

[dalton99a]

11. The only way to please these racists is to be racist like them.

So, fuck them.

[Bettie]

13. I've never understood

why so many people I know, grew up with, and am related to seem to think that other people having rights is somehow going to make them have fewer rights. There's no logic to it, but they really seem invested in the idea that others are taking from them in some way, simply by existing in the world.

The only thing I can come up with is that they fear losing exclusivity.

They think that they deserve to be the only people with full rights, full membership in society as they envision it.

Since the election, the circle of people I choose to interact with has contracted considerably. I just can't with some of these people.