All the progressives I know understand perfectly well that this thinking influences Trump voters.
The part in bold is kind of sad, right? What do we do about that? If Trump is popular among NCEWM because he’s the only candidate that advocates hurting liberals/SJWs/feminists/LGBT etc, I’m not seeing a viable outreach solution for them.
I don’t think there is any “viable outreach solution” for them. The best we can do is say “we have these plans that will tangibly improve your life and the lives of those you care about”, and hope that they eventually get over their grievances against liberals/minorities/migrants/etc. I don’t think there’s much politicians can do about that – some people just get over that kind of nonsense, and some people don’t.
The only thing I can suggest is toning down the cultural-war stuff. I don’t think voters pay all that much attention to economic and jobs stuff any more these days. Nowadays, it’s all about social stuff and how people feel. It doesn’t matter how much $$$ is being pumped in or out of the economy, if one side - be it NCEWM, gays, lesbians, feminists, atheists, Muslims, Christians, etc. - feels that one political party side is giving them the middle finger, they’ll give it right back.
That’s mostly based on Fox News and other crap infotainment sources. In reality, most Democratic politicians and policies are focused on the economy, foreign policy, etc., and relatively little is focused on social issues. There’s nothing the Democrats or liberals in general can do about the right wing infotainment sphere.
The irony here is that the only ones waging “cultural war” are the ones that are willing to prioritize identity politics over their own festering economic situation.
Honestly, I think this is a huge reason.
Completely anecdotal: I have a few conservative female friends. One immediately offered a public mea culpa for voting for Trump after his first attempt at the Muslim Travel Ban. Many others came around more slowly… but surely.
There is an intense level of stubborness in the men I know who voted for Trump. Their own ego prevents them from accepting they were wrong. I hope this changes. I hope their public bravado in defending Trump will mask their personal mea culpa in the privacy of the voting booth. But who knows.
Sure, happy to elaborate.
They have not yet been trying to sell the idea that those policies would improve THEIR lives. Not as any sort of emphasis.
At this point they are aiming their messaging elsewhere and packaging it with those targets in mind.
The ideas CAN be ones that sell to NCEWMs in the general if an effort is made to do so.
FWIW, my one close female friend who supported Trump is still all in for him. I don’t want to make it sound like I think only men can be stubborn.
A lot of this demographic could not care less if the Democrats would improve their lives, they just don’t want to improve the lives of “those others”, be they Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, etc. They’d give up all of their government goodies in a heartbeat if it would just cause pain to those that they detest.
For most Trump voters, (not just NCEWM,) the issues that they cared about which made them pull the lever for Trump are still there, perhaps even more strengthened.
Abortion? Yes, they opposed abortion, and Trump has been more pro-life than any D ever will be.
Judges? Trump got Kavanaugh and Gorsuch onto SCOTUS, and numerous conservative judges onto the district and circuit courts.
“Does he speak for us?” Yes, Trump “speaks for” these voters more than any D ever would. No other candidate in the upcoming election does the Blue Lives Matter, it’s-okay-to-be-white, All Lives Matter, don’t-kneel-during-the-anthem, America-is-headed-the-way-of-the-Roman-Empire talk more than Trump.
Etc. etc.
You can’t name a single issue on which one of the Democratic nominees does things better for Trump voters than Trump.
If a Republican primary challenger were to unseat Trump, then these issues could move them to vote for the R, but that is as unlikely as Appalachian State beating Michigan a 2nd time.
What’s your point? Just to reiterate how ignorant and horrible these Trump supporters are?
What would that look like in practice? Are you saying these people need a politician to tell them that non-college educated white men, stand to benefit higher paying jobs, affordable healthcare, and affordable college? And if someone doesn’t explicitly emphasize this point to them, then they won’t get it?
For some reason, other groups can make this inference without the hand holding. For instance, you don’t see politicians explicitly saying that being able to go to the doctor without incurring bankruptcy will help black women. But somehow black women can figure that out themselves. What is it about NCEWM precludes them from doing this?
I’m sure NCEWM understand it as well as anyone else. But it ranks lower on their list of priorities. It probably works like a mental-points system:
A Democratic politician like Biden, Warren or Bernie promises low (or free) tuition, cheaper healthcare, jobs, etc. In the minds of NCEWM, maybe each of those things gets “1 mental point.” So now the Democrat gets 5 mental points in the mind of a NCEWM. But then this voter also knows that the Democrat stands for things that he dislikes, such as Black Lives Matter, amnesty for illegal immigrants, LGBT, multiple genders, reparations, Planned Parenthood, gun control, etc. Each of those things deducts one mental point. So the Democrat might have 15 points deducted, and now stands at minus-10 in the mind of this NCEWM voter.
Meanwhile, Trump come along, and he also promises jobs, infrastructure, revival of Rust Belt (note that Trump can’t deliver on most of these promises, but to the ears of many voters, a bad promise is as good as a good promise), which gets Trump a few mental points. And Trump **also **supports building the wall, ejecting illegal immigrants, says that there are only two genders, says that marriage should be between men and women only, opposes Black Lives Matter, wants athletes to stand during the anthem, and overall triggers the libs. And now Trump stands at positive-10 or even positive-20 in the eyes of this NCEWM voter.
So when a minus-10 Democrat goes up against a positive-10 or positive-20 Trump, there’s no reason for this NCEWM to not pull the lever for Trump.
A political agenda is a product. Voters are consumers of the product.
A laundry detergent doesn’t sell well just because it gets clothes clean. It is packaged and marketed with target audiences in mind. In ways that speak the language of those targets.
Maybe consumers should ignore marketing. But they don’t.
An agenda is no different.
Marketing that includes NCEWMs as a target speaks specifically to them. It identifies how Trump and increasing wealth inequality is screwing them. It use vignettes that include them. It assures them that their specific circumstances matter. It takes pains to help them feel part of us and not a them.
In fact some D candidates are not doing so bad at honing that sort of packaging, but right now it’s playing only in Iowa and New Hampshire.
I have hope.
I have read that when you control for various forms of bigotry and authoritarianism, the education gap among whites pretty much disappears. Control for hostility towards muslims, blacks, immigrants, women, etc and the education gap mostly goes away.
So yeah I think that is accurate. The GOP appeals to racism and authoritarianism are driving away college educated whites but appealing to high school educated whites.
Possibly, but college educated white men are moving away from Trump while high school educated white men are not.
Thats my problem with a lot of these explanations. They don’t identify what is different about high school educated white men.
People can say ‘men in general do XYZ’ which is a fair explanation but why does it only apply to high school educated men and not college educated men?
When people say ‘its identity politics’, why are high school educated women (who supported Trump by a 30 point margin in 2016) now moving away from him? They engage in identity politics too. So do college educated whites (just not as much). Of the 4 demographic groups discussed in OP I’m sure all 4 engage in identity politics, but 3 are moving away from Trump and 1 isn’t.
If people say its because women are victims of sexual abuse, why didn’t that stop them from voting for Trump in 2016? And why are college educated white men moving away from Trump if it is about sexual abuse?
Labor unions tend to move high school educated whites to the left by a big margin. I can’t find the article, but it was written after 2004 and discussed the deficiency democrats have with rural, high school educated white men.
That demographic supported the GOP about 2-1 in 2004, unless they were in a labor union. Then their allegiance shifted and they were closer to 60-40 for the democrats. So getting rural, white, high school educated christian men to join labor unions is an effective outreach program that works.
I think most white men realize neither party is really looking out for their economic interests, so on that front it doesn’t matter who you vote for. No matter if you vote GOP or democrat we still have low paying service jobs, outsourcing, mass automation, etc. Yeah democrats are better, but the fundamental and structural economic problems persist with both parties.
I"m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that it’s the education part. Men go to college because they are:
This leaves the majority of NON-college educated men (not all, but most) as:
These are the Trump demographic. As a bonus, they were probably pissed off that a black man was in the white house for 8 years, and are likely misogynistic to boot.
You can’t reach them with logic, or policy or anything that requires them to use anything other than their brain stem to make a decision. It just won’t work. Their only explanation for their failure to get ahead in life is to find someone else to blame. Trump helps them find someone to blame.
They form the classic type of Trump supporter; Someone who would be happy to live in a cardboard box and eat a cooked rat on a stick, as long as the black family down the street has a smaller box, and their rat is uncooked.
Trump is a stupid and/or poorly educated person’s idea of what a successful businessman looks like. He is also a stupid and/or poorly educated person’s idea of what a good President looks like.
Is it any wonder that those who are stupid and/or poorly educated, and who happen to fall into Trump’s preferred racial group support him?
FWIW, I work in an environment with a lot of blue-collar workers, and virtually all of the white men without college degrees appear to be Trump supporters. Most of them do not attempt to hide it. One lamented to me that his daughter (who just finished her Master’s degree) is a “Trump-hater,” apparently expecting me to commiserate with him. I also live in a rural town in which the majority of the population voted for Trump. I’ve had a very hard time since the election working and living with these people. It’s like a form of mass hysteria. I don’t know if they’re deluded or what it is. 
We just had a primary in Town yesterday, and one of the incumbent Selectmen who has honorably served the Town for decades failed to make it onto the ballot for the general election because he had the temerity to criticize Trump in a tweet a few months ago (in response to Trump’s racist tweets about the four Congresswomen). It’s like watching a cult persecute anyone who questions the leader. 
That’s because it is. Or something like that anyway.
“Right-wing authoritarians are people who have a high degree of willingness to submit to authorities they perceive as established and legitimate, who adhere to societal conventions and norms and who are hostile and punitive in their attitudes towards people who do not adhere to them.They value uniformity and are in favour of using group authority, including coercion, to achieve it.”