The white, low income swing to Trump wasn’t just about economics
A study by the UK’s Resolution Foundation shows data that, yes, white lower income voters went for Trump to a greater extenet than they did Romney, but it wasn’t just about income.
Click here for reuse options!The standard narrative of Donald Trump’s victory is simple: Trump won in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania on the back of unprecedentedly strong support from white working-class voters. Those making less than $30,000 swung to Trump by 16 percentage points relative to the 2012 election, narrowing the Democratic lead among low-income voters to a mere 12 points. Very few of the voters were people of color.
The natural upshot of this analysis is that class was a huge reason why Trump won, that poor whites found Trump’s attack on economic elites revitalizing. It was “the revenge of the forgotten class,” as ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis puts it…
Researchers Stephen Clarke and Dan Tomlinson looked at the effect of income on Trump’s support — and, at a surface level, found a correlation between income in a particular area and support for Donald Trump. But when they took a closer look, they found that this effect was less powerful than it seems. Instead, sociodemographic factors, particularly race and education, ended up being more important explanations of the unexpected Trump surge.
That suggests the vaunted swing among voters making less than $30,000 might not have happened simply because of the fact that they make less than $30,000. It might have more to do with the fact that these people tend to be less educated and white — factors that incline people to support far-right anti-immigrant politicians around the world, like France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders…
The biggest factor, according Clarke and Tomlinson’s regression analysis, was education. In counties with large percentages of people with high school degrees or less, Trump got a lot more support than Romney did. In counties with more educated voters, Trump’s gains were far more modest. The correlation is extremely strong.
Copyright 2016 Liberaland
9 responses to The white, low income swing to Trump wasn’t just about economics
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Larry Schmitt November 22nd, 2016 at 15:03
Is this supposed to be surprising? Or even news?
mea_mark November 22nd, 2016 at 15:20
Lack of education can be related to one’s economic situation in life. This is a what came first scenario, ‘the chicken or the egg’. It’s a distraction from the truth that a part of the population is unhappy with being left behind economically while the rich continue to get richer. The way they express their anger is a personal bias. We should be focused on the fact that they are angry, not how they are expressing their anger.
Budda November 22nd, 2016 at 16:06
o to make this into a bullet point: dumb people voted for the Dumpster.
Larry Schmitt November 22nd, 2016 at 19:42
Couldn’t figure out where else to post this.
Shop at Target as much as you can!
http://anywherebuttarget.com/ https://youtu.be/fswQbP_J4YA
Red Mann November 22nd, 2016 at 22:26
Target it is then. What an ignorant POS.
robert November 22nd, 2016 at 20:04
Trump loves the uneducated until further notice
Obewon November 22nd, 2016 at 20:19
Smart Money: Clinton won 2/3 of U.S. Record $18.65 T+ GDP growing +4.4% APR.
Dems are far better for econ; Trump lost most of the American economy in this election.
Democrat Al Gore in 2000, won counties that generated about 54% of the country’s gross domestic product, the Brookings researchers calculated. In between 2000-2016 elections, U.S. economic activity has grown increasingly concentrated in large, Blue-State “superstar” metro areas, such as Silicon Valley and New York. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/22/donald-trump-lost-most-of-the-american-economy-in-this-election/
Red Mann November 22nd, 2016 at 22:29
The subtext: “Them ni**ers and sp!cs is taken our jobs! I’ma voting fer the guy who likes the Klan! Make Amerika White Agin!”
fahvel November 23rd, 2016 at 03:00
the uninformed poorly educated sad multi children households, those people who will not have any opportunity to rise up an iota with their orange dikhead at the helm – really sad.