Toni The fact that they voted for Obama, you wrote, suggested that racism wasn’t the primary reason that so many of these voters chose Trump. But there’s a counterargument that Trump made an explicit appeal to racial/ethnic resentment (which John McCain and Mitt Romney did not). And white nationalism has been a rising force in recent years, not just in the United States.
Nate Well, I think I’d make two points. One is that racism might be the animating feature of Trump’s base, but may not be the way that he expanded his appeal to the voters who often support Democrats on economics.
The other thing I’d say is that I think it’s possible for racism to play a role, even for Obama voters: You could imagine, for instance, that these voters may have liked Obama but may have real reservations about demographic changes, or they may have perceived Trump as “on their side” in part because of racial appeals. I think, though, that making racism the core of the reason Trump won the election is probably oversimplifying things. As I said, I think Democrats have to grapple with the importance of the Obama-Trump voter, and I think that applies on race as well.
One other thing: Both Trump and Obama made white working-class voters feel a little better about racial anxiety.
They obviously did it in very different ways.
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