Arlene Stein, Rutgers University The white working class surprised many pundits and social scientists by supporting Donald Trump, leading some to describe the election results as a “whitelash.” The fact that the president-elect successfully mobilized this population was far from inevitable. After all, a fair number of Trump supporters once […] Read more »
History repeats itself
A number of people have remarked on parallel between Donald Trump and Senator Joe McCarthy (e. g. this post from Andrew Gelman in June). In light of the election results, there’s another one: they both got more support among less educated people. In November, 1954, a NORC survey asked “all […] Read more »
President Obama’s Approval Rating Is the Highest in Years
President Obama is leaving office on a high point, though that may be cold comfort as his successor Donald Trump prepares to dismantle major components of his agenda at home and abroad. In the latest Allstate/Atlantic Media Heartland Monitor Poll, 56 percent of adults said they approved of Obama’s job […] Read more »
To move forward, Democrats must address class and race
How can the Democratic Party best respond to Donald Trump’s election? The current debate rages around whether to unify around class or instead to build a coalition of identity groups, key among them racial minorities. We reject as fundamentally flawed the implicit assumption that class and race are incompatible bases […] Read more »
Surprised by Trump win? Stop ignoring the white working class.
THE HAND-WRINGING has been going on for weeks: How did the media miss the biggest political story of our lifetimes, the revolt of the white working class that ushered in the Age of Trump? Here’s why: We just don’t care about the working class. We in the national news media, […] Read more »
The Comey effect
… In mid-October, I said I didn’t think Trump would clear 240 electoral votes, a statement I paid for later by eating a bug on CNN. My error seems to be accounted for by two events: (1) undecided Republican voters coming home, and (2) FBI Director Jim Comey’s letter to […] Read more »