What about the other Trump voters?
November 21, 2016 12:24 PM Subscribe
There have been a billion new thinkpieces on why white rural and working-class voters voted for Trump. Where are the articles and books on the other Trump voters?
Book and article recommendations equally appreciated. Ethnographic approaches especially. I am coming from a left background, so an etic perspective is great.
I've read approximately everything on white working-class and rural voters that's come out recently; my favorite was Arlie Hoschild's Strangers in Their Own Land in terms of approach.
Book and article recommendations equally appreciated. Ethnographic approaches especially. I am coming from a left background, so an etic perspective is great.
I've read approximately everything on white working-class and rural voters that's come out recently; my favorite was Arlie Hoschild's Strangers in Their Own Land in terms of approach.
Boy have I got the link for you.
Preface: I've already spoken with the mods about this one, no FPP of it please. Be mindful of the stress we're all under, mods included.
Just-as-important preface: Before reading this, please have something you can use to cleanse your mind and soul afterwards. Prepare it NOW.
Trigger warnings: utterly disgusting anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ, and a general insult to anyone with a sense of humanity anywhere.
This is written by a leading member of the alt-right. A Normie's Guide To The Alt-Right. He claims there are several million members, that they're the driving force behind Trump's candidacy and success, and those claims are pretty believable given the links to PUAs/MRAs/4chan/8chan/Reddit/etc.
posting this under a sock for obvious reasons
posted by MarionnetteFilleDeChaussette at 12:40 PM on November 21, 2016 [8 favorites]
Preface: I've already spoken with the mods about this one, no FPP of it please. Be mindful of the stress we're all under, mods included.
Just-as-important preface: Before reading this, please have something you can use to cleanse your mind and soul afterwards. Prepare it NOW.
Trigger warnings: utterly disgusting anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ, and a general insult to anyone with a sense of humanity anywhere.
This is written by a leading member of the alt-right. A Normie's Guide To The Alt-Right. He claims there are several million members, that they're the driving force behind Trump's candidacy and success, and those claims are pretty believable given the links to PUAs/MRAs/4chan/8chan/Reddit/etc.
posting this under a sock for obvious reasons
posted by MarionnetteFilleDeChaussette at 12:40 PM on November 21, 2016 [8 favorites]
New York Times, which is doing an amazing job considering the number of times it has been attacked (and I am sure will be attacked) by this man, has a number of great articles on these voters
posted by metajim at 12:59 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by metajim at 12:59 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
You act as if it's unusual for people to vote for the Republican Party, which is generally equally as popular as the Democratic Party. I also have to roll my eyes at the explanation that 48% of the electorate are secret neo-nazis and belong to tiny fringe hate groups.
The truth is that Trump promised jobs and prosperity and lower taxes, which is what they say every 4 years and it works about half the time. Hillary promised jobs and prosperity and higher taxes, which is always a harder sell.
posted by w0mbat at 1:39 PM on November 21, 2016 [11 favorites]
The truth is that Trump promised jobs and prosperity and lower taxes, which is what they say every 4 years and it works about half the time. Hillary promised jobs and prosperity and higher taxes, which is always a harder sell.
posted by w0mbat at 1:39 PM on November 21, 2016 [11 favorites]
Response by poster: You act as if it's unusual for people to vote for the Republican Party, which is generally equally as popular as the Democratic Party. I also have to roll my eyes at the explanation that 48% of the electorate are secret neo-nazis and belong to tiny fringe hate groups.
Nope, I'm very well aware it's not! But I'm seeking to understand that better. I am interested in a current, sociological analysis of Republicans.
posted by quadrilaterals at 1:43 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
Nope, I'm very well aware it's not! But I'm seeking to understand that better. I am interested in a current, sociological analysis of Republicans.
posted by quadrilaterals at 1:43 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
Pro-life voters.
After Mitt Romney's under-performance with pro-life voters uncomfortable with his Mormonism, a lot of people thought Trump would do even worse with them, what with his notorious bachelor days, two divorces, and the fact that his and his family's Christianity is of the loosest sort (or not at all, in the case of Ivanka and his grandchildren), his strong (for a Republican Presidential candidate, at least) support for gay rights, and other past and present heterodoxies.
Trump saw this, made the call that doctrinaire pro-choice voters were a lost cause and he could go hard pro-life, and it worked very nicely. He not only promised to appoint pro-life judges but actually published a list (vetted by the key pro-life movement lawyers) of judges which he promised would be his sole source of Supreme Court justices. No matter what those voters thought of him personally, the contrast with Clinton was simply too stark. Don't be surprised if detailed surveys ultimately find that this was a BIG part in his holding or beating Romney's share of Asian, Black and Hispanic votes: considerably pro-life segments of each of those demographics.
Some reading material. Lots more out there.
posted by MattD at 1:52 PM on November 21, 2016 [7 favorites]
After Mitt Romney's under-performance with pro-life voters uncomfortable with his Mormonism, a lot of people thought Trump would do even worse with them, what with his notorious bachelor days, two divorces, and the fact that his and his family's Christianity is of the loosest sort (or not at all, in the case of Ivanka and his grandchildren), his strong (for a Republican Presidential candidate, at least) support for gay rights, and other past and present heterodoxies.
Trump saw this, made the call that doctrinaire pro-choice voters were a lost cause and he could go hard pro-life, and it worked very nicely. He not only promised to appoint pro-life judges but actually published a list (vetted by the key pro-life movement lawyers) of judges which he promised would be his sole source of Supreme Court justices. No matter what those voters thought of him personally, the contrast with Clinton was simply too stark. Don't be surprised if detailed surveys ultimately find that this was a BIG part in his holding or beating Romney's share of Asian, Black and Hispanic votes: considerably pro-life segments of each of those demographics.
Some reading material. Lots more out there.
posted by MattD at 1:52 PM on November 21, 2016 [7 favorites]
Mod note: Folks, let's try to keep this focused on the asker's request for articles/books/resources and not wander too far into personal takes and analyses or other election commentary.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:55 PM on November 21, 2016
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:55 PM on November 21, 2016
i don't know if this is much help (not great journalism, spanish language), but our paper interviewed some chileans voting for trump.
posted by andrewcooke at 2:59 PM on November 21, 2016
posted by andrewcooke at 2:59 PM on November 21, 2016
Here's I’m a Muslim, a woman and an immigrant. I voted for Trump.
posted by lovableiago at 3:14 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by lovableiago at 3:14 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
The single best piece of analysis I read before the election was George Packer's piece Hillary Clinton and the Populist Revolt in the New Yorker. And it was very provocative, because it suggested that the media elite - forgive me for using the borrowed and facile term, but I'm trying to be brief - were basically too smart to eat their own. It is easier to punch down and blame this victory entirely on the lower/working classes than to turn to the person seated next to you on the commuter rail train to the burbs and call them out. Those are the people who buy ads and subscriptions, graduate from the same colleges, and live in the same neighborhoods.
There is a lot of truth to this. I grew up in a very moneyed area of NJ (I wasn't moneyed, just lived near there) and the richest counties went red. Yet all we hear is about the downtrodden poor workin' man in the Rust Belt. It's a lot more complicated than that, and I'm glad at least someone else is wondering about this. The poor once again are carrying water for the rich.
posted by Miko at 8:57 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
There is a lot of truth to this. I grew up in a very moneyed area of NJ (I wasn't moneyed, just lived near there) and the richest counties went red. Yet all we hear is about the downtrodden poor workin' man in the Rust Belt. It's a lot more complicated than that, and I'm glad at least someone else is wondering about this. The poor once again are carrying water for the rich.
posted by Miko at 8:57 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
This is sort of tangentially related, but Emmett Rensin's The Smug Style in American Liberalism article on Vox kind of comes at this from the other direction and looks not at why many people would vote for Trump but why they WOULDN'T vote for Hillary or any Democrat. It was written before the election (and is eerily prescient as a result) and it was a really good read.
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:37 AM on November 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:37 AM on November 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
I think honestly the answer is that 40% of the country would vote for a ham sandwich with an (R) after its name, and another 40% would vote for one with a (D) after it. But anyway, This American Life did a bunch of profiles on people who voted various ways, and few of their profiled Trump supporters were poor rural whites:
That's One Way to Do It profiles a black gay teenager who is Trump supporter
The Sun Comes Up includes interviews with two Latino cops who support Trump, as well as a Trump-supporting Army officer from Long Island.
Seriously? includes an interview with Ira Glass's Trump-supporting uncle
If you'd prefer content in article format, all of the episodes have associated transcripts.
posted by phoenixy at 10:23 AM on November 22, 2016
That's One Way to Do It profiles a black gay teenager who is Trump supporter
The Sun Comes Up includes interviews with two Latino cops who support Trump, as well as a Trump-supporting Army officer from Long Island.
Seriously? includes an interview with Ira Glass's Trump-supporting uncle
If you'd prefer content in article format, all of the episodes have associated transcripts.
posted by phoenixy at 10:23 AM on November 22, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:36 PM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]