Why Did 74 Million Americans Vote for Trump? This Jewish Sociologist Has the Answer

[Newest Reality]

Arlie Hochschild spent five years interviewing tea party members in Louisiana prior to Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, and is now hanging out with non-college-educated white guys in Appalachia. Democrats should listen to what she has to say

There are some who think the answer to America’s problems is building walls. Others believe that relief will come only when people can scale the walls already dividing them. Arlie Hochschild is definitely in the latter category.

SNIP...

In it, she offered insight into what would soon lead decent, intelligent people to support en masse a huckster candidate who promised to restore their country to a former greatness by way of his own version of the “Think System.” That, you may remember, was the method of music education pioneered by Harold Hill – the title character of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” – who offered to teach children to use the instruments he sold them by having them simply think of the melody they wanted to play.

The morning after this month’s U.S. elections, though relieved by the apparent defeat of the incumbent president, I, like many, still found myself unsettled by the overall results. This was not the clear repudiation of the politics and policies offered by the Republicans and their leader that many professional observers had been predicting.

SNIP...

Hochschild traveled back and forth between her home in the People’s Republic of Berkeley and Louisiana, in her attempt to explain what she termed the Great Paradox: Why were the states with the worst statistics – in terms of health, income, educational attainment, environmental pollution, divorce and teen births, to name a few categories – almost unanimously populated by voters who opposed government regulation and government assistance, and of course taxes?

More at link...

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-did-74-million-americans-vote-for-trump-this-jewish-sociologist-has-the-answer-1.9330836

[liberalla]

1. This looks very interesting but I can't read it now

Bookmarking for later!
Thanks!

[ismnotwasm]

2. "Get rid of the word racism"

Hard pass on that.

[billh58]

5. Exactly.

This apologist for racists and far-right hate-filled maggots is no better than Trump and his deplorables.

[JI7]

8. Does she really say that ? That means they don't want to face the real problem

[betsuni]

19. "they should get rid of the word 'racism.'"

"Listening to Kamala Harris' speeches as if I were a white man, I wouldn't hear myself acknowledged."

It's like every American is obsessed with thinking they're being ignored. I don't know, I just don't know.

[Withywindle]

48. It's only straight white men who get upset about not hearing themselves acknowledged

THAT is "identity politics." Straight white male IS an identity. They've just been used to thinking of themselves as the default face of humanity for so long, they think anyone in power who deviates from the norm they're used to must have come by it illegitimately somehow.

There's a word for that.


Racist is that word. Or Misogynist if it's about women.

As a woman, I've never felt represented by a President yet on the identity level. I still manage to show up and vote and not make a whiny ass of myself.

[betsuni]

50. YES.

[shrike3]

33. Yep, that's what she said.

No, thanks.

[yardwork]

52. Yeah, I'm sick of these uninformed, willfully ignorant people. I really am.

I read the entire article. We're supposed to have empathy for white men who "feel" like their privilege is slipping away because other people - who have never had any breaks - are supposedly "cutting in line."

This is the propaganda the Republican Party has spread since the 1960s. I'm not buying it.

[Hugin]

62. +1

"This is the propaganda the Republican Party has spread since the 1960s."

See my post #61.

[Hugin]

61. During the '60s and '70s there was a movement to remove all of the "-isms" and "-ists"...

along with most other labels. Interestingly, it was driven by the academics in the budding fields of anthropology and sociology.

My response was, "Fine, I'll call them haters."

[yardwork]

65. I didn't know that.

Many academics - and I say this as somebody who has been adjacent to academe all my life - are clueless.

[Hugin]

67. As you so astutely pointed out the movement was picked up by the...

then Republican establishment in the form of the angry young (white) men. As a means to play the victim. WAAAAA! See, they're calling us names!

Which was false. The main stream academics were only doing what science does and describing their behavior. If nobody did those things there would be no need for the descriptions and terms.

The AYWM were a group of ivy league educated well-to-do Randians and the founders of many of the think tanks and right-wing institutions of today which have been co-opted into a newer and more radicalized (and far dumber) incarnation. Thanks to the efforts of some of the principals of the Lincoln Project and others who are now fighting the Frankenstein monster they created.

As far as I know, the last of the AYWM, William F. Buckley Jr. died several years ago. Maybe the Kochs were or they took advantage of the situation to get very rich. Roger Stone would like to think he's one, but, never was.

[shrike3]

69. I wonder how she'd feel about getting rid of the word "antisemitism."

[kcr]

70. Agreed

No thanks

[Skittles]

3. just the same old

repukes "rescue" them, despite all evidence to the contrary

RACISM is the overriding factor, NOT economics

[leftieNanner]

4. Arlie Hochschild is brilliant

I took a Sociology class from her at Cal back in the day.

I read most of her book The Second Shift, but it made me so angry that I had to stop.

[LisaM]

6. Parts of this make sense.

But she's acting as if liberals never get mocked by the right and that is simply not true. "Limousine liberal". "Have some whine with that cheese". "Feminazi". The list goes on, but you get the drift.

[Nay]

16. Yeah. Don't forget "snowflake," "baby killers," "libtard," social justice warrior." nt

[XanaDUer2]

7. I'm afraid it really boils down to racism

nt

[JI7]

9. Most lower income poor people vote democratic . Many of those struggling in red states

vote democratic. They are often minority communities.

Just look at the communities hit hard by covid.

[coti]

10. This focus on the number of people who voted for the loser seems like psyops

How about we focus on on the 80+ million decent human beings who voted for Biden and against Trump and fascism?

[Progressive Jones]

44. Agreed. I also don't buy Trump's vote numbers. I presume GOP fraud in any election. nt

[JI7]

11. They oppose those things becsuse black and brown people might benefit also

opposition to government funded programs to help people came about as there were advamces in civil rights.

[brush]

15. They're not doing so well themselves. Crazy. So they oppose...

policies that would help themselves because the policies may also help black and brown people.

Again, crazy, or really just racism.

So many are too stupid to realized they're in the same economic boat as working class and struggling black and brown people who they should be allying with them.

Boy, the divide-and-conquer strategy of racism works every time, along with the cuts in education budgets so poor whites don't learn critical thinking.

[Blue_true]

22. Be chance, I know poor Whites here in Florida who have a problem rubbing two dimes together

on many days. I normally don’t come in contact with that type. They don’t seem to be overt racists, but have a really screwed up sense of the country’s real history, so they pine for the days when some members of society were held back by government mandate. They ancestors had the benefit of being White in racist America but were too incompetent to move ahead, so now they are dirt poor and full of resentment.

You make an excellent point, instead of becoming allies with people that are in or near their same status, they vote for the very type of people that have for decades took the fruits of their labor while giving them nothing real in return.

[brush]

38. Yes, your last graph for sure, one thing though, they will never think of...

allying with poor blacks and browns because they are touched by racism whether they're consciously aware of it or not and to break that wall is unthinkable.

[yardwork]

53. Their votes are strongly influenced by Republican propaganda and lies.

I know some in real life, back in my hometown in the rural Midwest. They listen to hate radio, watch Fox News, and follow Trump's tweets. Their FB feed presents them with lies, lies, and more lies. They believe every word. Why?

They resent smart people. They resent anybody who is successful. They resent scientists. And they really, really resent black and brown people who are working hard to get ahead. Why?

Because for decades they've watched as their local factories and businesses closed, and their power wanes, and and and....

How do reach people who have their fingers in their ears and are shouting at us?

[treestar]

26. I read something saying

If this country was all white, it would have the best social safety net in the world.

I’ve got to find out who said that. So true!

[pansypoo53219]

12. my brother hates trump, but voted for him cause the r. tons of born Rs out there.

[Boogiemack]

13. Does anyone ever ask those Trumpers to listen to us? They do not listen outside of their FOX bubble

The problem is they willfully ignorant. Saying so is not looking down on their intelligence. It is merely making an observation that these people do not ever want to learn or hear anything that might give them another perspective. It is willful, on purpose, racist hatred. All the excuses in the world about feeling looked down upon, or feeling left out, or feeling "controlled by government" do not make sense when they prefer to be "controlled by" people who use them and have very little in common with them as a means of keeping the wealth and the power. I doo not nee anyone to tell me to listen to them. i believe we have been listening to them for far too long and not challenging them.

For one brief moment in history, Appalachia listened when Jesse Jackson ran for President. He garnered a sizable portion of their vote. They heard him, they believed him, and they chose to respond. He never gained the position or power to bring about the change he sought for them. But they did "choose" differently. So it all gets down to THEIR CHOICE not our LISTENING. We have heard them ad nauseam. When you ask someone what they think about Obama care and they tell you they hate it but they like the ACA...tht is all you need to know and hear...you don't have to LISTEN to another damn word from them.

[OnDoutside]

17. If Dems could win the WH, House and Senate at the same time, the solution is to just go ahead and

pump big infrastructure money into WV/KY etc, and show them positives examples of what Democratic policies can do with their lives. A lot of them just want to be helped, but are siloed by the GOP/RW.

[Stargleamer]

20. Kynect/ACA did help many poor in those regions. . .

but they still resisted and vote for Trump & the Republicans. Hochschild doesn't seem to fully grasp the effects of Propaganda aka Fox News, OAN, Right-wing talk radio have on them.

[Blue_true]

23. Good point. Democrats have done efforts that made some aspects of those people's lives easier,

but those people still vote republican. People like Mitch McConnell, who policy-wise don’t give a shit about them, rely on their votes to hold power.

[StClone]

29. And as far as Government funding goes Kentucky and a lot of Red states

Get twice what they pay in. What is the deal!

[OnDoutside]

43. That's a fair point, and if we go back to the Dem messaging problem, we found out later that they

LOVED the ACA, but hated Obamacare, not knowing that the ACA WAS Obamacare ! That impression is largely the effects of the RW propaganda. You have to do, but also make sure they know that you did.

[yardwork]

55. She didn't seem to ask them where they heard all this crap they believe.

I guess, as a sociologist, her job is to find out what people are thinking. She did that. I already knew that vast swaths of low-income rural whites believe that they're being deliberately abused and left behind. They've been complaining about this ever since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. And the more people's rights are expanded, the more the formerly privileged poor whites complain.

I understand that the global economy has been hard on working class Americans. I understand that many people have lost ground and may feel hopeless. But why do they vote Republican?

And is it really about abortion and saving babies, or is it about "women's lib" and those smart women who go to college and "take men's jobs?" In the minds of the Trumpsters, legal abortion is just one more right enjoyed by uppity women with jobs and freedoms that they shouldn't have. That's why they love Amy Barrett. They finally got Phyllis Schlafly on the Supreme Court.

[brush]

40. Siloed is exactly the rignt word. Not just physically siloed by...

neighborhood boundaries/real estate redlining, but also by the information silos of 24/7 hate radio, FOX, and now News Max and qAnon, etc.

The small chance we have to break out of this quagmire of trumpist division is if we win both Georgia Senate seats and Biden/Harris become the next FDR/LBJ admins with safety net programs to pull us out of this.

If Moscow Mitch keeps his place as Majority Leader it'll be better minimally but not nearly what it could be.

[OnDoutside]

74. Yes indeed, and whether it's the 24 months from Jan (50-50 seats) or post 2022, Democrats need to

blitz Congress with a huge amount of changes. Everyone wants change, but 40% of the country are listening to a twisted version of reality. Even if the Dems get into that position, they need a plan to get past Republican Governors blocking a la the ACA/Medicaid where they blocked financial subsidies.

I have no hope that McConnell will change from his hardcore F.U, position, and if he doesn't, the Dems should spend the next 24 months exposing the shit out of Republican crime, and reminding people how they did nothing when they had all three branches.

[Withywindle]

46. Appalachia listened to RFK too

Because he actually went there.

[betsuni]

47. So did Hillary Clinton.

[LisaM]

71. And got no credit for it.

Still very mystifying.

[treestar]

75. They don't care

I wonder if their media anywhere has an article wondering why 80 million people voted for Biden.

[SharonClark]

14. So right wing talk radio, Fox News, and their

anti-gay/anti-choice/anti-science preachers had nothing to do with their victimhood mentality?

Not buying that they vote for trump because late night comics make them feel bad about themselves.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

18. This misses something big

Donald Trump promotes racism and he allows his followers to do the same.

DT connection to evangelicals is overblown, these are fake and phony people of no real faith, who follow whatever FAKE mega church pastor tells them too. (people with Faith can think for themselves and Trump shows no indication of even being able to spell FAITH)

Economics ? What exactly has Trump done ??? That big tax break in 2017, that helped people in real estate and people who make 7 figures. $1200 dollar checks ???

His handling of COVID ????? Enough said!

What about an alarming amount of Trump followers who want to own libs ? Where did they come from, AM talk radio, started in the 90's and is in full bloom now.

Even when FOX news seems rational, Tucker, Hannity, Laura I and FOX and Friends all spew the same crap as Rush and AM radio. It's almost coordinated ?

Maybe they just love Trump, the role model. Divorce, Raw dogging porn stars, cheating on your taxes, stiffing your business partners ??

are we supposed to love and understand their hate and ignorance ???????? BINGO that's it !!!!! Not gonna happen. I have empathy for people who need it. Tump fans don't need it.

[Blue_true]

24. They like Trump because he "tells it like it is", which means he uses the same imagery that they

use when in small groups of like-minded friends. When they are out of those groups, they are lost and feel set upon. So Trump gave them an all powerful savior that made them feel like their hardscrabble lives were worthwhile.

[betsuni]

21. She says polling shows that the majority of Republican voters join Democrats in thinking

the government should do something about climate change. Sure, when asked if they want the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, clean air and water, safe food supply, good public schools, good jobs and higher wages, affordable health care, etc.. they agree. Doesn't matter. They don't vote on policy.

No wonder the Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction is a Trump rally favorite. Should be the national anthem. The people in the article come across as weak, insecure, greedy and selfish.

[yardwork]

56. All of Trump's rally songs were chosen carefully.

Almost every day for more than four years I've read on DU that Trump just did something "stupid" or "has no idea what the words mean" or "this proves he has dementia."

In fact, Trump's propaganda machine has been brilliant. The songs played at his rallies are brilliant propaganda. Many of his tweets - especially the ones that sound insane to informed, decent people - are brilliantly on target for his audience.

Over and over when I read one of Trump's tweets or see a snippet of one of his rally speeches - labeled as the deranged ramblings of a madman by many of us - I think, wow, my cousin in rural Michigan thinks exactly that way. He's going to love this.

[XanaDUer2]

63. Well put

my relatives in NY hear things from Trump and think he's articulating perfectly their feelings.

[c-rational]

25. Interesting read. Thanks for the post.

[tulipsandroses]

27. Uhm yeah, Another person asking me to understand the poor white man's anger

Where is the deep dive to understand what has happened to black men? No interest there huh?

Yes, they are mad that just being white doesn't necessarily get you a cookie anymore. Whoopdifuckingdo.

[andym]

28. Basically, she characterizes Trump supporters as selfish: angry that "others" are getting ahead

potentially through government help, which they contribute to via taxes. At the same time, they are either stuck in place and often tend to be downwardly mobile. The selfish part comes in because they find themselves earning a bit more as Trump keeps people out and takes away opportunities for others. Though she doesn't mention it, one could see these people would oppose forgiving college loans, for example.

She also neglects to mention the huge Right-wing propaganda network that supports and fans such grievances.


IMHO, The core principle here is selfishness and narrowly defining which group one belongs to-- goes back to human relations based on kinship in anthropology. The demonization of the other, whether by race, language, background etc. plays a role.

[dawg day]

35. potentially through government help, which they contribute to via taxes.

Of course, people living in Louisiana and Mississippi are contributing much less than they get from tax money.

They will never believe that, but one problem is that they refuse to believe the truth, and they insist on believing untruths...

And there is nothing we can say that will get through to them.

[yardwork]

57. You nailed it. This is a great argument for getting rid of the Electoral College.

All my life I've listened to rural white people complain about everybody else, while they are mostly unwilling to do the work required to get ahead. I know these folks. I went to school with them, growing up in the rural Midwest. They taunted and ridiculed those of us who worked hard to get good grades, go to college, and get jobs outside the little rural community where we grew up.

They're still there. Many of their lives are disappointing to them. They resent the rest of the country. They hide behind supposed fears that the "cities are burning," but I think they know it's not true. They don't want to believe that many Americans live happily and even prosperously in cities and suburbs that are diverse, with people of different colors, nationalities, and beliefs, harmoniously as neighbors.

The influence of the ignorant, propaganda-driven white rural voter is way over represented in our government. It's time to save them from themselves and get their vote back into balance.

[maxrandb]

30. You could save a lot of time if you just listened to LBJ

President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best black(sic) man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

[Happy Hoosier]

31. What am I supposed to do with this?

NOT call racists racist because it makes them feel looked down on? Well... yeah. I look down on racists and anti-intellectual idiots.

[dawg day]

32. I literally cannot imagine a more worthless way to spend years:

"Arlie Hochschild spent five years interviewing tea party members in Louisiana prior to Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, and is now hanging out with non-college-educated white guys in Appalachia."

I guess it's the eternal mystery: "How can so many people be so stupid and venal?"

Why not spend years interviewing Democrats? Oh, right, because they're normal and sensible and don't vote for fascism and lies. That is... boooooring.

[JI7]

36. And there are poor struggling people in California and other states . In fact MOST who are poor and

lower income vote Democratic .

But for some reason they obssess over this one particular group.

[dawg day]

34. This (from the reporter, not Hothschild) is offensive and false- though I guess it's their 'feeling'

The deep story she imagined for her subjects in Louisiana pictured them standing in a long line moving slowly up a hill, just over whose brow lies the American Dream. They are white, they are Christian and have different levels of education. Behind them are many people of color, “poor, young and old, mainly without college degrees.” Suddenly, people from the latter group begin cutting to the front of the line.

Gee, the people held back legally and illegally for centuries "cut in line"?

Cut in line?

"Equality seems like discrimination when you're used to privilege."

[betsuni]

42. I want to know what jobs are being taken away from them.

Nobody ever gives details about that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

45. The problem is *she* is doing the *imagining*

No, I think that's Hothschild who's the problem, not the reporter. Sociologist should not be "imagining" people's stories; she should be finding them out, and finding out what the people feel (whether or not that matches reality), not suggesting it.

And if the people did actually say "people of color are cutting to the front of the line", she should look to see if that's the truth (it isn't - hence Black Lives Matter), and then examine why these white Christians have this false belief.

I also find it interesting she paints it as white Christians with "different levels of education" feeling people of color "mainly without college degrees" are "cutting in". That doesn't match the polls that show that Trump's support is mostly among white Christians with less education. The more education someone white gets, the more likely they are to vote Democratic.

[betsuni]

51. +1

[yardwork]

59. The problem is that tens of millions of Americans believe these lies.

This sociologist didn't make this up or create this myth. She's exactly described the way millions of poor whites (and increasingly, some Latinos) feel and what they believe.

Their beliefs are based on lies and fed by propaganda, but they are genuine, pervasive beliefs.

[dawg day]

60. You're right...

It's important for a scholar to identify the truth, which is definitely not that Black people "cut in line". The people she interviewed and became friends with might feel that way, but they are deliberately refusing to admit the truth of the long history of racism and segregation. And she even ordered that n o one should call this racist!

It sounds like she thinks saying this is racism is much worse than doing racism. These people's "feelings" are so important? Well, maybe being assured their feelings are more important than anything is why they voted for Trump.

[yardwork]

58. It's an accurate representation of how these people feel. It's based on lies, though.

This is the propaganda the Republican Party has churned out since the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s started to limit institutional racism.

The whole premise is false, though. It's not poor blacks who are taking jobs away from rural whites. It's the super-wealthy owners of corporations who sent the jobs to poorer countries so they could pay low wages and zero benefits, without those pesky OSHA regulations.

Those are the people making sure that their puppets like Trump and Mitch McConnell get re-elected. And these poor saps in rural Louisiana and Appalachia keep voting them back in.

[UTUSN]

37. K&R

[TheBlackAdder]

39. Hopefully, she spent time in Rockland County, Long Island and NYC to see why so many Jews did too.

.

Quite a few in Metro Philadelphia and Central & South NJ voted for him.


Heck, you have Stephen Miller near the top of the Trump administration and his wife.

Something must also be amiss at the temples.

.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

41. Insight: con-artist religion and racism. The cult is programmed to believe insane lies.

[betsuni]

49. Unions.

Hillary Clinton: "It's hard to compete against demagoguery when the answers you can offer are all unsatisfying. And years of economic pain provided fertile ground for Republicans' cultural and racial appeals. Union membership, once a bulwark for Democrats in states like West Virginia, declined. Being part of a union is an important part of someone's personal identity. It helps shape the way you view the world and think about politics. When that's gone, it means a lot of people stop identifying primarily as workers -- and voting accordingly -- and start identifying and voting more as white, male, rural, or all of the above."

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

54. We can't fix stupid.

We can only quarantine it to the best of our ability.

We cannot convince brainwashed, deluded people, who have lost touch with reality, not to cause harm to themselves or others. Especially with self-interested, power and profit motivated billionaire owned fascist media reinforcing their fascist delusions 24/7.

They have been brainwashed into living against their own interests, and are not conscious enough of the difference between fantasy and reality to discern and understand that they have been conned into living a lie.

I feel bad for them, and would love to help them, but it is impossible to help people who repeatedly shoot themselves in the face when opportunity for something better appears right in front of them.

What Arlie Hochschild is describing seems like a Stockholm Syndrome Culture. Trump, Republicans, RW Media have kidnapped them, and abused them over the long term, and Trump supporters have been abused for by the cruel Right Wing for so long that they have learned to identify with their captors/abusers as a coping mechanism developed to deal with their terrifying situation.

So they vote for Republicans, against their own interests, repeating the same mistake over and over and over and over, while expecting a different result.

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response. It occurs when hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers. This psychological connection develops over the course of the days, weeks, months, or even years of captivity or abuse.

With this syndrome, hostages or abuse victims may come to sympathize with their captives. This is the opposite of the fear, terror, and disdain that might be expected from the victims in these situations.

Over the course of time, some victims do come to develop positive feelings toward their captors. They may even begin to feel as if they share common goals and causes. The victim may begin to develop negative feelings toward the police or authorities. They may resent anyone who may be trying to help them escape from the dangerous situation they’re in.
snip----
Many psychologists and medical professionals consider Stockholm syndrome a coping mechanism, or a way to help victims handle the trauma of a terrifying situation. Indeed, the history of the syndrome may help explain why that is.

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/stockholm-syndrome#definition

Trump did not help them, or save them. He abused them repeatedly, and they love him for it.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

64. Sympathy, really?

Yet another article about misunderstood rural white folk. If this article was about urban black people, well, I think we all know how that would go.

[JHB]

68. She only barely touches on conservative media...

...and even there only on social media like Facebook. Calculations about “financial gain attached to using polarizing algorithms" have been at work long before computers were doing the calculating. Nursing grievances and grinding axes has been a conservative staple since at least the 70s, and they've built entire media empires to foster it.

The effects of that echo chamber aren't part of her analysis.


Any time we reach a hand out, try to address the issues affecting them, they slap it away and call it "socialism".

[gulliver]

72. We really blew it with rural and non-college whites again.

When there's a lack of trust in the air, you have to say what you're not saying, and you have to say it very plainly and with feeling. The article is absolutely right that we came off (largely because of right wing propaganda, imo) as if our plans might, in effect, rob Peter to pay Paul, and Peter didn't like it. Republicans convinced rural (and far too many Latino) voters that they were Peter, that they were being set up to have their stuff taken away from them.

We need to get most rural folks Democratic again. We don't need "outreach." We need results. And I'm not talking about "meeting their needs" or "providing them safety and security." We need rural folks to experience gain on their terms just as much as we need metro area and all Americans to experience gain. We need to be creative enough to be win-win and stop fighting. We're fighting over the last donut on a sinking ship filled with donuts. It's nuts.

[Hotler]

73. 74 million people support the orange one just to hurt democrats and liberals.

Hate for us is what drives the GOP today. It's a 2-part hate; one for people of color and an overall hate for anything supported by democrats or liberals.