Which Group Gave Trump the Majority? A Poll at the End.
In a poll on Robert Reich’s site, the readers gave their opinion of who gave Trump the Majority. I have attached the poll at the end of this commentary. Granted you can not directly answer this poll by Robert. You can leave your pick in the comments section here. I will give the results from his site in a separate post when Robert completes the poll in two days.
Office Hours: Who gave Trump a majority?
– by Robert Reich
Friends,
I keep asking myself how the hell more than 70 million of our compatriots could vote for a jerk. For the purpose of thinking through what happened and what Democrats should do in the future, I’ve organized Trump voters into four groups.
1. The fanatic MAGA base: racists, misogynists, homophobes, nativists, xenophobes, and know-nothings. They’ve always been part of America, but they’re more visible now because they wear MAGA hats and attend MAGA rallies. (They also don’t always admit to pollsters they’re voting for Trump because they don’t want to admit their bigotry even to themselves. Democrats shouldn’t try to court them.)
2. Those who haven’t yet felt the beneficial effects of Biden’s policies. These voters work hard and play by the rules. They are not ideological, are not wedded to one party or the other, and are pragmatic. They’ll listen to reason if and when they perceive Democrats to be genuinely on their side.
3. Angry voters who have been shafted for decades. They don’t have college degrees and live in areas of America that have been abandoned by industry. They want to flick their middle fingers at college-educated elites — successful, affluent, healthier, seemingly happier people with wonderful futures. Democrats should listen to their legitimate grievances and stop acting as if Democrats are superior and enlightened.
4. Men — white, Black, and Latino — who have been losing ground, status, and power. They want to return to an America when their fathers or grandfathers were the major breadwinners in their families and ruled the roost. They wouldn’t describe themselves as misogynistic, but they feel bewildered and lost in a society that no longer values or rewards physical strength, endurance, stamina, tenacity, toughness, and other traditional “male” virtues. Dems should open paths to them toward good jobs.
Please identify which of these groups you believe were most responsible for Trump’s win of the popular vote.
Men. More precisely, working class and middle class men, white, brown and black. Either by voting for Trump or by staying home.
Thank you
I would add; single men, or men who really don’t love or respect their wives, girlfriends, sisters, or mothers.
It’s men and the low information set that doesn’t understand the (mostly long term) benefits of Biden policies. Lots of crossover there.
The Dems need to come to understand that the median voter is a 7th grader – intellectually, socially, emotionally. They are consumers (not citizens) who need to be sold a product. They don’t know how things work, much less how the government works.
The little bright spot may yet be that he doesn’t get 50% of the vote. Not much but it’s something. Mandate?
Thank you
spot on with the 7th grader comment. reminded me of this video on cnn a couple of days ago: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/18/politics/video/ufc-trump-fans-digvid
believes a congenital liar about not taxing tips, has no career ambition and works as a server at a restaurant, smokes weed in public, and has no problem being on tv while doing so. most people would be embarrassed about all of this, but not trump voters.
SoftLanding, Right on. Messaging & product sales is everything, & Democrats are terrible at it. (see my mandate comment below)
Trump 2024 got more votes than Trump 2020, but a more numerically significant driver of his popular vote win was the vote drop from Biden to Harris. Maybe the survey should be redone with more categories.
Eric:
At 6:30 AM you plague me.
Yes women running to be the president do not get the same number of votes as a jackass of a man. Why is shall?
What drives them to vote for Mickey Mouse, the family dog and themselves (and they belong in this category)? Two well qualified women have run for the presidency and instead a knowledgeable population did not vote (a pox on you), voted for other things (cartoon characters, etc.), or minority candidates who will not win. In the end their votes express their prejudice. In the end, they have put the nation in jeopardy.
I hope by your vote (if you voted for trump, etc.), the result of doing so comes back to target you. If you did not vote, the same . . .
In all of this, you just do not get it,
Men. Probably a myriad of reasons. Men are tired of being told they are inferior to women but expected to be better than women. No woman was going to be commander in chief, especially one they consider to be a DEI hire. Not the view of all men, but enough to get Trump elected.
@Mark,
“Men are tired of being told they are not superior to women. . .”
FIFY
I see your point, but much of what you see today is women are better than men. TV commercials where a man is too stupid to do laundry, or take care of the household finances. But it is his fault “mommy never got a gazebo” with glaring glance at her husband. There are so many subliminal messages in society denigrating men to the point where men feel inferior. So guess what – men are not going to put a woman on the top spot out of spite.
@Mark,
I haven’t watched TV in over 20 years, and I certainly don’t regard TV commercials as an index of the relative status of men and women in American society. On the other hand, the faces in corporate board rooms are overwhelmingly male, and the faculty in university STEM programs are overwhelmingly male. Most of Trump’s appointments have been males.
Much of the message you see today–if you bother to look at reality and not TV fantasy–is that men are “better” than women when money, status and power are involved.
Mark:
There is a lack of ability or desire to converse with women which leaves them wondering and arriving at their own conclusions. It may end up in regretful words; but, but, you still have to converse.
At the keeper of the funds who had to balance input and output, there were many times what I did was not really welcomed.
Your “out of spite” is correct” even though we are wrong for jeopardizing our families and others with our choice.
I think the post vote polling showed he got the majority of white women. That doesn’t seem to have been mentioned.
People who think mainstream news is not worth the trouble.
Mandate B.S. 231,646 votes in WI, MI & PA made the difference; otherwise we would have had a “commander in chief, DEI hire” (as degradingly mentioned above) as POTUS. Instead we have convicted criminal; racist; rapist; and serial crook.
J. P.
The early election I assume you are pointing to?
Not sure what you mean?
Not sure what you mean by “The early election.” I’m talking about the 2024 election held on November 5, 2024. Harris lost WI by 29,417 votes; MI by 80,618; and PA by 121,611. That’s a total of 231,646 votes. Had she won WI, MI & PA she would have had 270 electoral college votes and won the election.
Google: “2024 vote count” if you want to see the numbers & the map.
J.P.
I thought you were discussing 2016 when those states did the similar. I have not consolidated elections yet for 2024.
No, no… this is right now. That’s why the whole discussion of a mandate is so disgusting; and the hand wringing by Democrats somewhat overplayed. Some better messaging (badly needed) and perhaps a little more effort in WI, MI, & PA (the other battlegrounds did not matter) and we would be celebrating a victory. Some 90 million didn’t vote & 10% of the non-registered said, “My vote doesn’t matter.” Lots of work to do there. Others commented above about marketing and selling a product. We need to do a much better job of defining the “product” and smart advertising to “sell it”!
tinyurl.com/5n74trx3
J.P.
Similar happened in 2016 with Hillary. They have shown a real distaste for women as president. They will shoot themselves in the foot to avoid such.