white backlash politics at the heart of Trumpism

[Demovictory9]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/24/17603190/trump-evangelicals-race-status-threat

This conversation explains a vital reason why Trump is so popular on the right
“It’s about the survival of the Christian nation,” said one woman — expressing the white backlash politics at the heart of Trumpism.


https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZW6veiezEU0NEt8nxosPSpGsYpw=/0x0:1601x1601/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1601x1601):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10586035/minority_racial_attitudes_chart.jpg

Craig and Robinson dubbed this effect “group-status threat”: When whites felt like their control over society was slipping, they were more likely to embrace anti-minority ideas and support policies that might slow the rate of demographic change (like immigration restrictionism). When whites feel like the privileged status of their group in society is threatened, they will want to do something to preserve it.

This study wasn’t a one-off: As my colleague Brian Resnick documents, study after study has confirmed that white status threat is a major force driving white Americans to the right on issues of race and tolerance. And since the Republican Party has become overwhelmingly white, this has an effect on the party as a whole. A July poll found that 50 percent of Republicans felt that “increased racial diversity” had a negative impact on the United States, while only 43 percent thought the effect was positive.

The University of Maryland’s Janelle Wong looked at the political attitudes of white evangelicals like Sheila and found that status threat is the key reason why they, as a group, have been so overwhelmingly supportive of Trump.

“Rank-and-file white evangelicals have the most negative attitudes toward immigrants of all U.S. religious groups,” Wong writes at the Monkey Cage. “Their conservative reaction to demographic change is at the heart of their political agenda.”

This is how you make sense of the shocking, seemingly un-Christian lack of charity toward the vulnerable that you see in the conversation between Sheila and Linda.

[dalton99a]

1. They hate nonwhite people, both native and immigrant, and hold them inferior

They are white supremacists at heart - their true religion is white supremacy

[SergeStorms]

9. Bingo!

We have a winner.

[tblue37]

2. K&R for visibility. nt

[MarcA]

3. When the Dominate group has its dominance challenged

they can try to assimilate the Others, surrender or attack. This was based
on some late 20th Century PoliSci work but the principles are not new.
Of course some of these people are just hypocrites rationalizing getting it
for themselves but denying it to others.

[ProudLib72]

4. I'm suprised 43% of Rs thought diversity had a positive effect

I would have guessed it was much, much lower. Then again, what is the "positive effect" of racial diversity in their minds? Maybe people to fill menial jobs?

[Garrett78]

10. And you have to wonder how many are saying that just because they think it's what they *should* say.

[BigmanPigman]

5. And no matter how hard you try to reason with them

it won't matter. This was an excellent article about it.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/insider-explains-rural-christian-white-america-dark-terrifying-underbelly/

"In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn’t that coastal elites don’t understand rural Americans. The problem is The problem is they don’t understand themselves or the reasons for their anger and frustration.

In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn’t that coastal elites don’t understand rural Americans. The problem is that rural America doesn’t understand itself and will never listen to anyone outside its bubble. It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen, what language you use…if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted. I’ve had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they will not even entertain the possibility that it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact that I’m the enemy because I’m an educated liberal."

[Demovictory9]

6. this quote from the article;

When a 2,700-year-old book that was written by uneducated, pre-scientific people, subject to translation innumerable times, and edited with political and economic pressures from popes and kings, is given higher intellectual authority than facts arrived at from a rigorous, self-critical, constantly re-evaluating system that can and does correct mistakes, no amount of understanding, respect or evidence is going to change their minds and assuage their fears.

[BigmanPigman]

8. Yep, don't bother wasting your time and energy

using facts and logic. It is like talking to a "flat Earther". The thing is is that they always have an answer that it completely rational to THEM so it is the only possible rationale and everyone else is wrong(no matter how correct you are).

[blue-wave]

7. K&R

I am amazed, appalled and repulsed by the fact they will never ever realize how un-Christian their views are and that they are destroying their own religion in the process.

[ck4829]

11. K&R