So, Who Are Donald Drumpf’s Voters?

[KamaAina]

http://billmoyers.com/story/so-who-are-donald-trumps-voters/

Many people on both the left and the right are scratching their heads, trying to understand the puzzling appeal of Donald Trump to his supporters. For Dr. Robert Jones, the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, (PRRI) it’s no mystery — it’s a matter of understanding the role that religion, culture and the economy play in shaping the landscape of American politics....

We called Dr. Jones after the Mississippi, Michigan and Hawaii primaries on March 8 to help us understand why Donald Trump’s and even Bernie Sanders’s “surprise” victories were not so surprising after all....

Robert Jones: Well certainly to some extent. I think we’re seeing some of the same dynamics play out and I think we have a helpful snapshot in these two states, you know, one in the Deep South, one up in the upper Midwest and kind of part of the manufacturing belt. And what we see — somewhat remarkable — is Donald Trump winning in both places and I think part of his appeal certainly has been that America’s in bad shape and we’re going to make America great again.

I do think that the most important word in his slogan is that last word, “again.” And what our research is telling us is that Donald Trump has been able to convert what many pundits had been talking about as “values voters” in previous elections, white evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholic, white Catholic, voters, into what I’ve dubbed “nostalgia voters.” And what I mean by that is voters that are harkening back to a mythical golden age when working class wages paid a living wage, when conservative Christian values were more at the center of American culture.

[maxsolomon]

1. they're nostalgic for the era when unions were strong, the upper tax rates were high

and it took 1 working class salary to raise a family and own a house.

essentially, they have no idea what made their golden age possible. nor of the dark side of that era, because they were kids, or not even born yet.

[jpak]

2. Yeah right - Trump will give them a living wage

deluded morans

yup

[LonePirate]

3. Deflection

Trump has channeled American economic anxiety at foreigners (and minorities in some cases) instead of at the wealthy, Republicans and corporations where that anger belongs.

[pampango]

6. Well said. It could be called 'scapegoating' to avoid focusing anger on our own 1%. n/t

[0rganism]

4. i think it's an easier read than that

Trump's crowd is composed of the social conservative bigots (and their descendants) that Nixon brought into the Republican party in 1968.

they began leaving the Democratic party in 1948 when Truman integrated the military, and fled in droves when LBJ signed various civil rights legislation in the '60s. these political refugees found a warm place by the fire in Nixon's GOP. (of course, it took Reagan to really unify the gobbledygook of pro-segregation social conservatives with the standing agenda of the bankers and military industrialists who call the shots in the GOP up to now, and many remember him fondly for it.)

with this context, it is actually very easy to understand what the "make America great again" dogwhistle signifies to Trump's supporters: a return to the policies of 1947 and re-segregation. it's not some "mythical golden age", but rather a romanticization of a very real time in America when bigots could ply their bigotry in public without repercussion (cf Trump's comments about "political correctness&quot .

every day for more than 7 years, these Trump supporters have had to wake up to a black president. that's pretty irritating for a racist. who was there to comfort them? not the people who disagreed with president Obama's policies -- as disagreeing with the president in such a way only serves to legitimize him as president, furthering their discomfort. only Trump. Trump had the recipe to soothe their pain: Obama was never a legitimate president, he was born in Africa, see? thus, the "whiteness" of our institutions is preserved. that's why Trump doesn't reject endorsements from David Duke and the KKK: they're his base!

tl;dr: Trump is the "Great White Hope" and his fans are racists.

[Agnosticsherbet]

5. Anyone who feels the election Barack Obama, and the changes during his administration,

stole their sense of entitled empowerment.

I don't know whether he could win, but I do know that he will have surprising strength, and in Republican Controlled States he will have a real advantage when it comes to counting the vote.

[backscatter712]

7. Authoritarians. n/t