From Reagan Democrat to Trump Republican

[kpete]

Saturday, March 19, 2016
From Reagan Democrat to Trump Republican

Heather Digby Parton took a look at some data from Alan I. Abramowitz, Ronald Rapoport, and Walter Stone about Trump supporters and reached a conclusion that has seemed obvious for a while now. Parton zeros in on the fact that these voters display an embrace of nativism, authoritarianism and economic populism. She adds nationalistic militarism to the list.

I guess I don't really understand why this is such a mystery. This the profile of Republicans who used to be called Reagan Democrats. They've been part of the GOP coalition or more than 30 years. And their views have always been the same. Nativism/racism, authoritarian/lawandorder, nationalist/militarist, economic populists. These are blue collar white people who used to vote for Democrats until Democrats became the party of civil rights, civil liberties and anti-war protests. In other words, the party of black and brown people, gays, and feminists, globalists and critics of authoritarian police agencies and military adventurism.

After that happened Democrats remained more responsive to economic populism although they foolishly muddied their message so that their differences with the GOP were obscured. But it wouldn't have mattered, not really. People who hold that set of beliefs are Republicans because they do not want to be in multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition where "liberal peaceniks" and uppity feminists are equal partners. The GOP's fundamental nativism and racism and "patriotic" militarism are the reasons they prefer the Republicans and they are the reasons they prefer Donald Trump. They love him so much because they've finally found someone who boldly expresses all those beliefs.

While Ronald Reagan made a direct appeal to these voters via finely-tuned dog whistles, the Republicans began wooing them to their party after passage of the civil rights laws of the 1960's via their Southern Strategy. Because of that focus, it is tempting to assume that these voters all reside in the South. But as we've watched the rise of Donald Trump, it is obvious that they are also to be found in so-called "Rust Belt" states as well as the Mountain West.

http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2016/03/from-reagan-democrat-to-trump-republican.html?spref=tw

[jaysunb]

1. Duh ?? n/t

[MisterP]

2. I'd also like to add the economic dimension: they're middle and even upper middle class,

but not secure, and in fact insecure because of the policies they vote for--but the point isn't just to get the policies passed and the votes collected from those it harms, but to keep up a political system where you can slap a voter in the head and then say "that guy over there did it," a system where the pols can keep the poor and overworked from learning about what policies you back that keep them that way, a system where the pol can shower Fed money on their home state while damning "gubmint spending"

this economic dimension, and this long history of ruling the country through misdirection so that the voters you most harm are your most loyal ones, is what makes the Trump phenomenon so dangerously *volatile*

we've had warmongering, lawnorder candidates who promise everyone pie in the sky and to keep Those People out of your burb by the barrelsful; in fact many of them are Republicans!

but Trump isn't just saying "that minority/Demmycrat did this to you" (I mean, he IS, his nativism has gotten anti-Irish by this point), he's upsetting the whole apple cart of "rah rah Reaganomics!" that the party's run on since 1978: now the gravy train is being threatened by the angry, pig-ignorant mobs the party's ran on since the late-70s Powell Memo swing to the right and the Gingrich Revolution; now the targets of resentment include the billionaires and the party itself; it's being remade in his own image

[Octafish]

5. They're always the last to know.

Take Enron.

[MisterP]

6. it's the mushroom tactic--keep them in the dark and shovel manure at them

but let's take Amtrak (not literally): it's the GOP's whipping boy for its whopping one BILLION DOLLAR shortfall that's breaking Washington's back, proof gub'mint can't do nothin', and now those fruits and nuts want JerryRail! (they favor the private MuskPod)

now, the funny thing--and this is the secret to this sort of combination of rabble-rousing and provincial politics with neoliberalism--is that it's losing its money on the transcon routes that the Red States rely on and that have formed a Republican transcon bloc in the Senate; if you touch one route they hit the roof because their constituents rely on it to move about within the state and region: they want the Desert Wind and Pioneer back, they want the North Coast Hiawatha to juke south through MT, they want Dallas-Amarillo-Denver, San Antonio-OKC-Chicago, they want to revitalize the Appalachians and connect ATL and Birmingham with NOLA and TX--and they want to keep being able to condemn passenger rail as a boondoggle, on Amtrak's own dime

the trick, of course, is in presenting it as a boon from the pol themselves--they fought for their hard-working take-no-crap flag-waving honorably-serving gun-brandishing red-blooded state; it's why North Louisiana really and truly does think that their tax dollars are keeping all of LA, SF, NYC, and Chicago afloat singlehandedly--they've been flattered into a political Neverland

Trump is a goddamn nightmare, but he wants the trains to run on time: Clinton isn't anti-train, but "let the money go wherever you want and you'll have jobs and wages and pensions forever and ever" has sucked all the infrastructure money out, under the glossy new gated developments and downtowns that neoliberalism builds

[Old Codger]

3. There are

Racist bigots all over the country... no one area has a monopoly on that.

[Rex]

4. +1

[pampango]

7. "their passions are ignited by Trump's nativist, racist, sexist, militaristic appeal, it is safe to

assume they aren't coming back. That should have been clear from the fact that they were willing to remain Republican despite the fact that the GOP has never supported policies that address their economic populism. But if there were ever any doubts, it is now obvious what is driving their political leanings...it is nothing more than an appeal to tribalism.

This the profile of Republicans who used to be called Reagan Democrats. They've been part of the GOP coalition or more than 30 years. And their views have always been the same. Nativism/racism, authoritarian/lawandorder, nationalist/militarist, economic populists. These are blue collar white people who used to vote for Democrats until Democrats became the party of civil rights, civil liberties and anti-war protests. In other words, the party of black and brown people, gays, and feminists, globalists and critics of authoritarian police agencies and military adventurism."
Nice article, kpete.