Tom Jacobs reviews recent research by Rachel Watts of the University of California and Robb Willer of Stanford in Pacific Standard, which adds to what we’ve known for the past two years— White people support the White supremacist policies and statements of Trump (and the GOP more generally) because they feel their White privilege is waning:
"When a welfare program was portrayed as primarily benefiting whites, threatened white participants reported almost identical support for welfare as unthreatened white participants," the researchers write. "The same threatened white participants who expressed opposition to a program benefiting minorities on average expressed greater support for a program benefiting whites."
That's pretty conclusive evidence. "Racial status threats," the researchers conclude, appear to be "a causal factor shaping whites' opposition to welfare."
The zombie narrative of a shift of White Working Class Voters to the GOP in 2016 due to ‘economic anxiety’ continues to be trotted out (no matter how many times, and in how many ways, it’s debunked) and it leads to the faulty notion that just the right economic messaging will somehow win over WWC GOP and independent voters to the Democrats. Problem is, the narrative never had any basis in reality:
The results are consistent with studies showing a perceived loss of status increased the white vote for Donald Trump. Even before the 2016 election, research found many white Americans were more likely to support the Republican presidential candidate if they were reminded that, in a quarter-century, people of color will make up a majority of the population.
We need to get the message: target the base to win elections, not people who feel threatened because as progressives, we embrace diversity, and pursue equal opportunity and equal justice for all Americans, not just Whites.
In fact, for the White GOP rank and file, that’s precisely what makes Democrats the threat to their privilege, and they know it.