President Trump‘s campaign was built on the promise of new jobs, changing the perception of Washington government, all along with the suggestion that race also played a factor. While Democrats and Republicans both think the former business mogul’s shocking win was based on voters hoping for an economic revival, a new study reveals that racial prejudice had a larger role.
While party leaders and President Trump himself have touted his win as being a response to voters hoping to see some manner of a financial boon, a study from the American National Election Studies reveals a different picture. In a report from The Intercept, an expert examined the findings of the ANES data to support the differing views.
From The Intercept:
Philip Klinkner, a political scientist at Hamilton College and an expert on race relations, has pored over this ANES data and tells me that “whether it’s good politics to say so or not, the evidence from the 2016 election is very clear that attitudes about blacks, immigrants, and Muslims were a key component of Trump’s appeal.” For example, he says, “in 2016 Trump did worse than Mitt Romney among voters with low and moderate levels of racial resentment, but much better among those with high levels of resentment.”
The new ANES data only confirms what a plethora of studies have told us since the start of the presidential campaign: the race was about race. Klinkner himself grabbed headlines last summer when he revealed that the best way to identify a Trump supporter in the U.S. was to ask “just one simple question: is Barack Obama a Muslim?” Because, he said, “if they are white and the answer is yes, 89 percent of the time that person will have a higher opinion of Trump than Clinton.” This is economic anxiety? Really?
Read the full report from The Intercept by following this link.
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Photo: WENN.com
