What if Trump voters were not all racists
Trump pandered to racists. His policies and election have been welcome by them. So there is a natural tendency to conclude that all or most of the 58 million Americans who voted for Trump are racists too or at least do not care about racism. But I wonder if that presumption was and still is an error. To be sure, I am in no way excusing racism but I want to make sure that we all understand what the racist branding is and its implications.
Discrimination is bad. Discrimination arises when you infer the motives, ability, character or attitudes on the part of an individual by reference to the group they belong to. Of course, the usual sources of discrimination are on the basis of skin colour, national origin, sexual preference and gender to name but a few. But if you meet a Trump voter and your thought is that they are a racist (or any other label), then I am here to point out that is discrimination; falling within the above definition.
But, you may ask, isn’t the very act of voting for Trump an act of racism? Well, I am not so sure. If you were to ask someone if they were racist or a white supremacist and they were to reject that, it isn’t clear. Once again, if you are a member of the KKK or something similar, that is different because you are identifying yourself explicitly as a member of a racist organisation. I am not sure we can take Trump voting with the same identification.
What is the alternative? Well, we have to start with the usual correlations that cause people to be lumped in with a group. Is there a reason why middle to low income white people have tended to vote for Trump — who appealed to racists (implicitly and explicitly) — independent of that fact? I have a theory but I don’t know if it is true but I regard it as at least plausible.
If you are like me (relatively well off, coming from a stable nation and community), life usually appears to be in your control. To be sure, I have had my set-backs — things I have wanted to do but haven’t been able to —but I have never felt helpless. And I certainly have never felt helpless in a situation where others have not. So I have never been laid off. And where I know people who have been, they have always fallen back on their feet in short order. Few in my circles are in some cycle of decline and if they are I have been able to attribute it to choices they have made. In other words, the overwhelming feeling in my life is one of control.
But hypothesise for a moment, Americans who live outside of major cities. We know that incomes have been stagnant for decades for many people. What is more, rising inequality means that there are many people who have seen luck or something else allow people they see to get ahead in life. However, the greater experience is of regular tragedy. People losing jobs, getting divorces, suffering health shocks, seeing their parents not being taken care of, etc. They have not been able to control or find shelter from the blowing economic winds.
What do people in that situation do? As candidate Obama said “they cling to their guns and their religion.” Why? Because both are symbols and perhaps a small element of control. Some of those people take to the Internet to express frustration and get a reaction by any means possible just to know they can impact on the lives of others. But for the majority, the only time to exercise some control is when they vote.
Economists are puzzled why people vote and most appeal to a sense of civic duty. But imagine that instead many people vote to exercise the one thing they actually control; where their single vote goes to and the message it sends. And then consider the choices they had this election.
On the left, there is the ultimate establishment candidate, representing the status quo. Yes, she is a woman and that is new but what she is saying is no different. She didn’t announce any policies that would clearly change even the lot of women beyond what her predecessor did. And what is more, she represents dynastic rule (whether we want to admit that or not) and the US has been through that already in recent memory leading to the very economic crisis that large number of people could not weather and was out of their control.
On the right, if you look on paper, you seem to have a candidate who is the problem. Rich, arrogant, self-centred, unappealing to children and has never paid tax. It is tempting to look at that candidate and say, well, where is he different? Oh yes, he is racist, sexist etc. So that must be the difference.
But he was never saying that. All he said was that he was different. That everyone in the establishment was against him. That they would try and pull him down. And lo and behold that is exactly what they did. The establishment underestimate the power of those who can support him, he said. And that is exactly what they did. And the establishment are guilty of the same crimes they accuse him of, he said. And how are you supposed to tell for sure. After all, the establishment has had what they wanted for 8 years and minorities still believe and protest that racism is existing. They didn’t even help their own.
Of course, it is all more complicated than that. But it is conceit to think it was obvious to people who were stagnant and who believed the promise of America wasn’t coming to them, that the choice was clear. It wasn’t. Instead, even if they weren’t sure they wanted Trump as President, they were sure that if they were going to go out and vote, they wanted to send a message to the establishment that it was not OK and Trump was the only candidate — in the primaries and the general — who tied that message to their vote.
My point is that you do not necessarily have to support racism or sexism to have decided to send that message to the establishment. It happened in Britain and, if we look back, it happens around the world. People don’t vote their self-interests because their vote does not matter but the message sent by voting can.
I have now offered a theory — independent of racism — that might explain why large numbers of people voted for Trump. I have argued that you should look first to the situation rather than the person when people behave strangely (in this case, associated themselves with a racist). And if you are against discrimination, you owe it to yourself to not lump Trump voters in altogether unless you are confident they really are racist. Why? Because to accuse someone of racism when they really aren’t and why they would complain, protest or simply not like discrimination that arises, is a painful weapon. Moreover, it is one more shot for people who may not feel in control of their lives. Object to racism, yes! Hold our leaders to higher standards, yes! But don’t lump people together if you aren’t sure. It is a path to permanent conflict.
