President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are motivated by their prejudices, not economic concerns, social scientists contend. Will Democrats stop trying to win their votes?
In January, Smith and his University of Kansas colleague, associate sociology professor Eric A. Hanley, published a 47-page paper deconstructing the Republican president’s appeal. Building on decades of scholarship about the lure of authoritarianism and their own analysis of American voting psychology in 2012 and 2016, the social scientists make an argument that some may find offensive and others unsurprising.
It goes something like this: Trump’s biggest supporters are motivated by bigotry and want him to hurt the people they dislike.
Note: There’s a lot to unpack in this article, and this just seems to be the hook.
Trump made a lot of people who thought it was a societal norm to be kind and hide their biases feel like it was okay, and that felt freeing to them. It’s also why many of them bray about freedom
When these types talk about “freedom” or “liberty”, they usually mean the Southern definition.
“Things have gotten so bad over the last 4 years” is just a dog whistle for “theres too many brown people on my tv and no one says f*** are weird anymore”
So at least theyre still somewhat restrained