… Trump won because he managed to peel away enough working class white voters while retaining the middle-class and rural Republican base. A classic pattern of support for right-wing populism follows the shape of a V-curve with most support coming from either end of the political spectrum: the relatively deprived […] Read more »
Trump’s Victory and the Rise of White Populism
It will take weeks or months to fully parse Donald J. Trump’s upset presidential victory, but his campaign was driven, at least in part, by the dramatic rise of a new kind of white populism. … I have spent the past year investigating the rise of that new kind of […] Read more »
Behind 2016’s Turmoil, a Crisis of White Identity
Call it the crisis of whiteness. White anxiety has fueled this year’s political tumult in the West: Britain’s surprising vote to exit the European Union, Donald J. Trump’s unexpected capture of the Republican presidential nomination in the United States, the rise of right-wing nationalism in Norway, Hungary, Austria and Greece. […] Read more »
Sources of Trumpism
… Other things being equal, those who feel hard-pressed are no more likely to support Trump over Clinton than those who are optimistic about their potential for improving their economic lot. Trumpism, then, is not primarily about economic dislocation itself; rather, it arises from the story people tell themselves about […] Read more »
How race and identity became the central dividing line in American politics
In 2016, race and identity has emerged as the central dividing line in American politics. Though race has always lived close to the surface of politics in the US, it has rarely been so explicitly front and center in political campaigns. So how did this happen? The easy answer is […] Read more »
Beyond Trump: Where will the Republican Party go after 2016?
When Donald Trump entered the presidential race in June 2015, the Republican Party was divided. By the time he accepted his nomination just over a year later, it had shattered into pieces. … Whether or not Trump prevails in November, the GOP is set for a rebuilding process like none […] Read more »