Why Trump's populist appeal is about culture, not the economy
Why Trump's populist appeal is about culture, not the economy
A Harvard political scientist on the West's cultural crisis
Updated by Sean
[email protected]@vox.com Mar 27, 2017, 9:40am EDT
There is a long-running debate about the reasons for Donald Trump’s populist appeal. Is it about economic angst among the white working class, or is it primarily a cultural backlash?
Writers like the Atlantic’s Michelle Cottle worried that “Trumpism has, in part, made the rest of the nation all the more eager to ignore the millions of white voters living on the edges of the economy.”
But as my Vox colleague Dylan Matthews noted, “there is absolutely no evidence that Trump’s supporters, either in the primary or the general election, are disproportionately poor or working class.” The median household income for Trump voters, as reported by FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, was
$72,000, roughly $10,000 higher than the median household income of non-Hispanic whites.
Sean Illing
A few months ago, I spoke to another political scientist, Justin Gest of George Mason University, and he was making what seems to me a crucial point, one you’re making here, and that is that Trump voters aren’t opposed to the welfare state or entitlement programs. What they're opposed to is the idea that minorities or other “out” groups are receiving those benefits.
They’re wrong, of course, in believing that minorities are “taking” all of the benefits, but the perception is real nevertheless.
Pippa Norris
That's exactly right. This is welfare chauvinism. It’s about who should get the benefits. Think about Trump: He slashed all sorts of things like the arts, for all the people who go to the opera, or for people like myself, who like NPR. But he doesn't touch in any shape or form Social Security, because Social Security is for the older voters who are voting for him.
On other economic issues, other welfare issues, the budget slashing will have mixed effects on the poorest sections of society. But the perception among a lot of Trump supporters is that these outside groups have come in and “taken” benefits that they don’t deserve, and that therefore they should be penalized.
Sean Illing
So it’s not time to panic yet?
Pippa Norris
That’s right. It’s not yet Chicken Little time. The courts have done what the courts should do. The media has done what it’s supposed to do. Civil society is still vibrant. The protests are amazing. Young people are energized. Opposition groups like the ACLU are seeing a tremendous spike in contributions.
But we haven’t yet been properly tested. The tests are not in the good times or safe times. The tests are when the major crises occur. There will be another crisis in the next four or eight years, another terror attack or some other emergency.
This will be the real test.
http://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/3/27/15037232/trump-populist-appeal-culture-economy
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