The Atlantic - Does 'Economic Anxiety' Explain Donald Trump?

[TomCADem]

While Trump is often criticized for not offering workable solutions to the Nation's problems, he actually offers something better to his supporters: weak scapegoats who cannot really fight back. This is what many people want. A scapegoat to blame for their struggles, rather than an actual solution to such concerns.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/donald-trump-and-economic-anxiety/496385/

In the first week of November, tens of millions of Americans will vote for Donald Trump with a range of motivations. But two of those motivations have become a fascination of writers and analysts in recent weeks: whether Trump’s rise is the result of “racial anxiety” (e.g., a racist fear of Mexican, Muslims, blacks) or “economic anxiety” (e.g., financial angst among those without bright economic prospects).

Trump’s support is strongest among older men without a college degree, a once-dominant demographic that has been battered by globalization and technology in the last 40 years. This alone would make Trump’s rise seem like an economic phenomenon. But according to several analyses, the median Trump supporter makes an above-average wage and is far from indigent. And so, on Twitter, the ironic quip “Economic Anxiety!!” has become arch code for mocking the racist outbursts of Trumpians, a way of pointing out that their devotion to Trump has nothing to to do with their supposed financial plight.

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Why? One reasonable explanation is that in areas where richer whites don’t trust poor black families, there is less support for the very policies that would raise social mobility among the poor (including poor whites!), like business investment in low income areas, support for high quality schools, support for integrated housing, and support for public services in rich and poor parts of the metro area. And so, racial selfishness can ultimately punish everyone. Indeed, when Jonathan Rothwell, a Gallup researcher, isolated factors to try to explain nationalist support for Trump, he concluded that segregated areas with poor social mobility were particularly likely to support Trump.

The “economic anxiety” joke has its place; racism is truly at the heart of Trump’s appeal. But racism’s latent virus blooms into fullest view when majority groups fear the scarcity of their winnings. How fitting that when Trump is not fanning his supporters’ racism, he is reminding them that America’s winnings are scarce.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Yep! White Mediocrity needs to blame someone else for their lack of success....