Nov 10, 2016It's now a common conception that white life in this country is currently in crisis or under siege….Yet people of color are consistently bombarded with demands to empathize with Trump's followers, even as we are demonized and our churches burn.
↩︎ MTV
It's the economy, stupid
Trump voters didn't lose out from globalization. They lost because of management.
An economist repudiates the idea that job losses from globalization drove Trump support: "Those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration, compared with people with unfavorable views of the Republican presidential nominee. The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed."
Jobs didn't leave America's manufacturing sector because they moved to China or Mexico. Manufacturing became more efficient because of technological improvements, and management decided to cut workforces for higher margins.
The current narrative—working-class white support took Trump to the White House—may be specious
The popular notion right now is that Trump rode a wave of working-class white support to victory, with attention shifting in the media from Trump’s perceived weaknesses (racism, sexism, every -ism) to his alleged strength in channeling economic anxiety. Trump voters "are the people who have been the acceptable sacrifices for our trade and wage-deflating immigration policies that do boost our economy overall ... just not for them."
Did poor whites win the election, or did rich whites lose it?
That’s not incorrect, but it is worth complicating. Trump supporters have higher-than-average income. So what trap have we fallen into? As Jamelle Bouie puts it, "Although it’s tempting to treat this as a function of some colorblind anti-elitism, that cannot explain the unity of white voters in this election. Trump didn’t just win working-class whites—he won the college-educated and the affluent."
In other words, Clinton did even worse than Obama did with blue-collar whites, signaling the practical end to Democrats' tenuous hold on the Midwest. She also pinned much of her campaign on the premise that wealthier whites would reject Trump's white supremacist tactics; they didn't.
Nov 10, 2016The Republican nominee put together a coalition of non-college-educated, non-urban voters—and they turned out for him with tremendous enthusiasm.
↩︎ The Atlantic
Who lost the election? Anyone who earns minimum wage
Do the math on Trump's budget and you'll see the inevitable: he and the House Republicans are going to absolutely steamroll benefits for the poor. He says he'll cut $6 trillion in taxes, while House Republicans say they'll keep a balanced budget. But Trump says military spending, Social Security, and Medicare are off-limits. That means good-bye to federal housing, energy, and education transfers.
That's not to mention Obamacare, which also protects poor people without access to insurance through their employers, and is surely toast. That means it's not blue-collar whites with the most at stake: "The workers with the most on the line earn minimum wage, or close to it, and they often rely on government-paid or government-subsidized health plans. They are disproportionately black or Latino."
The Editors' Longreads Picks
- An excellent essay on poverty and writing by Starr Davis. Updated May 31, 2022
- Novelist Héctor Tobar tries to understand the 1992 Los Angeles riots through the experiences of a single high school.
- Steven Johnson with a long assessment of the current state of A.I. and language. (The illusion has gotten very good.)
Welcome to The Morning News Tournament of Books, 2017 edition.
- Our championship match is decided in the Tournament of Books, with news of a Rooster surprise debuting this summer. Updated Mar 31, 2017
- In Thursday's action, Reyhan Harmanci sets up a colossal final.
- The Zombie round opens with Buzzfeed's Isaac Fitzgerald reading The Nix and The Underground Railroad.
Все ваши Белый дом принадлежит нам.
- "Will Putin expose the failings of American democracy or will he inadvertently expose the strength of American democracy?" Updated Mar 3, 2017
- Wilbur Ross just wanted to make some money in ethically gray areas (that should've prevented him from taking office).
- Jeff Sessions's spokeswoman can't help but continue to lie.
The oceans are under assault, and not just from the White House and friends.
- Trump's assault on the environment begins with American headwaters. Updated Mar 1, 2017
- Don't just blame the oil companies for destroying the oceans—blame sushi restaurants.
- Nothing escapes the deepest trenches of the ocean floor. Not light, not nutrients, not pollutants.