cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25218510
THIS IS NOT A TROLL. I’d like a deeper dive into this as a black man.
For context, I’ve voted Democratic my entire life, same with my family & most of my friends, including most of my white friends. We tend to agree on the obvious issues in American politics like lobbyist & foreign affairs. But we continue to vote Democratic because we see it as the best way forward for progress compared to the GOP.
But my question is why are white people specifically so strong for the GOP? It seems like no matter which election you look at post civil rights, the GOP either comfortably wins the white vote, or narrowly wins it. Despite issues like the war on drugs, early 90s recession, war on terror, mortgage crisis, Trump’s abysmal response to COVID, cuts to Social Secuirty, Tax Cuts for the Rich, etc. It seems like the white electorate always backs Republicans in big numbers. No matter what.
You could say the same for black people and the Democratic Party, but we are a far smaller voting base that can’t really decide elections outside of a state like Georgia (I live in Chicago). But also, the Dems aren’t perfect, I don’t expect any political party to be, but their track record and policy positions work much better for the common man to me.
Obviously there’s a large contingent of white voters who greatly represent the progressive movements on the left more than any other group, but they’re vastly outnumbered by their Republican counterparts. And Trump did worse with white women in 2024 more than any Republican has post-civil rights.
TLDR; Why does it seem like no matter what Republicans do, white voters who always give them a large amount of support? If Dems held policy positions and had the rhetoric of the modern day Republican Party, I doubt black people would support them.
America’s particularly strong mythos of ruggard individualism and private enterprise has prevented class consciousness from forming. People (the majority of whom are white) are far more likely to feel a bond with and admiration for the successful (most of whom are white) than anything else. They aren’t living the lifestyle of their pioneer ancestors of course, but emotional mythos is massively important in driving politics.
Which means in a place like America, taxes and government programs are always going to be a tough sell, no matter how justified they are. Services run by faceless bureaucrats in Washington are always going to provoke suspicion. There’s hypocrisy in this of course, but it’s because it’s an emotional thing. White people can feel a swell of emotionalism about the military, that’s easy. Feeling the same swell about food stamps in high crime areas is more complex.
Although racism plays a big role I think it’s more complex than that. I think the aspirational bond trumps ethnicity. So I should think there are many white people who’d respect the success of Michael Jordan, Kanye, Tiger Woods and so on even while they despise the culture of poor black communities to the point of it being indistinguishable from racism. This lets them give themselves a veneer of respect. And accusations of racism bounce off them as being “woke”.
Given there’s an expectation of personal struggle (again, many times illusory, but it’s an emotional argument) many white people simply find things like DEI to be unfair. They are already struggling as hard as they can, “why should a black person jump the queue ahead of me?”
Religion obviously plays a role. Christianity provides a vehicle to channel American emotionalism - even though many of its values are plainly at odds with the American right - emotionalism wins because people have a greater hunger for it than self reflection. It’s far easier to get incensed at the idea that “abortion is murder” than enter the complex nuance of “who’s my neighbour?”.
Finally, and this is something I think has only grown with time, running America is complex. It’s slow and decisions and policies can easily feel unfair or out of touch even if huge thought has gone into them. Sadly over decades that’s created a disillusionment with politics in general and Washington as a whole (scandals aside). In that atmosphere a general malaise and frustration easily channels itself into wrecking balls like Trump. “The system’s stunk for years I don’t care if he wrecks it - it would be an improvement!”.
Trump channels raw American emotionalism. A bully, a “winner” (cheating seen as a form of “power”), and as disinterested in structured political discussion as most other people. Rational self reflection had a time but has gotten worn out over the last decades. Now a surge of pure emotionalism is breaking through and it will supercharge whatever mythos is available (military, Christian, traditional whiteness) whilst stomping on people along society’s familiar fault lines (race, gender, poverty).