… Trump voters believe (75 percent to 25 percent) that with Trump’s tax plan the percent of income paid to taxes will fall more for the middle class than the rich (Clinton voters were 33 percent to 67 percent in the other direction). Despite what his tax plan actually says […] Read more »
Democrats search for a path back into rural America’s good graces
… As much as anything, the 2016 election highlighted the degree to which Democrats have lost favor among voters in rural and small-town America. Heading toward Election Day, Democrats dismissed the possibility that there were enough white, working-class voters in these nonurban areas to overcome their advantages with African Americans, […] Read more »
Trump Voters Are Feeling It
Donald Trump’s supporters from the white working and middle class are, for the moment, elated. In a survey conducted by Pew after the election, 96 percent of those who cast votes for Trump said they were hopeful; 74 percent said they were “proud.” They were almost unanimous in their expectation […] Read more »
Americans Expect Economic Improvement in a Deeply Divided Country
After the bruising 2016 campaign, Americans are broadly optimistic that Donald Trump’s election will invigorate the economy but fearful that it will further divide the nation along lines of class, race and party. While a solid three-fifths of American adults indicated that as a result of the election they expect […] Read more »
What’s the Matter With Kansas? aptly describes the 2016 election — but was written in 2004
Thomas Frank’s 2004 book What’s the Matter With Kansas? ignited something of a firestorm within political science. It was attempting to explain recent trends in American politics, but its analysis wasn’t reflected in much actual data. Yet that book explains the 2016 election far better than it did the election […] Read more »
The revolt of the dispossessed
… Turnout, fake news, voter suppression, emails and a hundred other things also mattered. But Donald Trump succeeded in eliciting support from a large minority of Americans, and it’s worth understanding why. … To say this election was just about the economy or culture though is to miss its broader […] Read more »