Shocking no one who pays attention, it wasn’t the economy or the imaginary claim that Hillary Clinton didn’t talk about economic issues for white voters that drew Trump supporters to the reality TV show star. It was racial animosity.
Yes, there is yet another study proving this just in case anyone missed the Nazi support or the Confederate flag support or the white supremacists in the White House or weren’t sure what those things meant. No, they don’t mean that Hillary Clinton failed to attract white voters over policy issues, who were magically drawn to the policy-free candidate Donald Trump.
“A number of recent studies suggest that individuals who exhibit high levels of racial animosity strongly support Donald Trump, while racial liberals strongly oppose him,” a new study by researchers Matthew Luttig, Christopher Federico, and Howard Lavine, which is going to be published in Research & Politics determined.
Their results? Trump voters looking at a picture of a black man were more opposed to the assistance policy presented and blamed the person for their situation, “We find that white Trump supporters randomly exposed to a black (versus a white) man in the context of soliciting their support for a housing-assistance policy were more opposed to the policy, angrier about the policy, and more likely to blame beneficiaries for their situation. The opposite pattern prevailed among whites with unfavorable opinions of Trump. Our results help provide new insight into how Trump supporters and opponents differ in their responses to the salience of race in American politics.”
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Trump’s support was rooted in “racial animosity” (aka, “whitelash” post Obama). It wasn’t “economic anxiety.”
“Perhaps most important, analysts have focused on Trump’s appeal to white Americans who harbor animosity toward ‘undeserving’ racial minorities. Trump’s lack of support among people of color and his popularity among white subgroups with less tolerant attitudes (such as whites without college degrees) provide suggestive evidence that support for his candidacy was rooted in racial hostility… More diagnostic still are studies showing that variables measuring white in-group favoritism and those measuring bias against racial and ethnic out-groups strongly correlate with support for Trump (e.g., Cohen et al. 2016; Gest 2016; Tesler 2016a; Tesler 2016b; Nteta and Schaffner 2016; Schaffner et al. 2017; Wood 2017).”
So science agrees that bias against racial and ethic groups strongly correlates with support for Trump. Yes, you can quote those studies when Trump supporters claim you’re pulling the “race card” by citing reality.
Conclusion (my bold), “Among citizens with favorable views of Donald Trump, black racial cues increased opposition to mortgage assistance, anger at such assistance, and the tendency to blame policy targets for their own plight. In contrast, among citizens with unfavorable views of Donald Trump, black racial cues had the opposite effect: decreased opposition to mortgage assistance, anger and individual blame. Importantly, these effects were exclusive to attitudes toward Trump: effects of the racial cue did not differ according to feelings about Hillary Clinton. Thus, Trump supporters and opponents respond in fundamentally different ways to racial cues in the environment.”
German Lopez writing in Vox noted that this is yet another study showing the impact of race, but it’s notable because “all it uses is an image of a black man to produce its results. That suggests that Trump has a powerful incentive to get people to keep thinking about race: If his most ardent supporters just need a slight racial cue to come around to his conservative policy views, then Trump simply has to bring up race to get his supporters fired up for him.”
Cue Donald Trump pivoting to his “wall” every time he’s in political, legal, moral, or ethical trouble. Race is Donald Trump’s Get Out of Jail Free card.
While conservatives accuse liberals of playing the “race card”, Donald Trump really is playing the race card. The white resentment race card. It works, every time.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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