Why Liberals Dismiss Donald Trump At Their Peril (And Why They Could Vote For Him)

Consider this meme:

At its core its message is pretty simple.  The reason people vote for Trump is ignorance. We can fix ignorance by proper education, better education no Trump. It also contains a corollary, that you, as a Daily Kos  reader (who presumably is left of center) are not ignorant, and therefore vaccinated against Trump's appeal. You have some kind of special knowledge that separates you from others.  Its comforting, like seeing your friends take up with a dirty houseguest, and knowing you'd  never invite him in. Its also total bullshit. In 42% (9/21) of the contests held so far in which exit polls are available, Trump has won the plurality of college graduates. And while he certainly does do better with the lesser educated, he has never gotten less then 20% of the college graduate votes. (This 20% line even holds for post-graduates). Education is simply no inoculation against Trump. Indeed, the difference between Trump voters and liberals are a matter of degree, not kind. Who are Trump Voters? They tend to be authoritarian, ethnocentric folks, concerned with immigration, brimming with racial resentment who hold an array of revanchist positions. In other words, bigots. But the polls reveal something else, compared to other republicans Trump supporters are also more likely to hold ' liberal' positions on abortion and gay marriage, as well as on taxes, health care, trade unions and the welfare state.  And when it comes comes to free trade they are even more skeptical then Bernie supporters. As a matter of fact two things show up majorly in Trump's support.  First, people are 86 times more likely to vote for Trump when they agree with statement "People like me don't have any say." Second, in a majority of states there is a correlation between white death rates a Trump support at the county level.

Indeed, a 2015 study found that in contrast to other groups,  white death rates have been increasing since 1998.  What's more this effect was confined to white's without a college degree, the backbone of Trump support. This increase was primarily due to "accidental and intent-undetermined poisonings, suicides, and alcohol-related diseases". What could have caused this increase? Job loss is one possible reason, specifically job loss from trade agreements. Unemployment rates and manufacturing job loss is correlated, along with general economic anxiety, with Trump support. NAFTA caused the loss of 700,000 US jobs, trade with China, between 2.0 and 2.4 million, and the TPP will cost us perhaps another 2 million. There's more,  economic insecurity among whites is correlated with an increase in racial resentment :

So why are people voting for Trump. They feel hopeless, they've lost their jobs to foreigners (who they then begin to hate), they are literally dying, its not just 'ignorance'. For Trump voters America really did used to be 'great', and then it wasn't. And they are angry about that fact. And here's the thing liberals, they aren't that different from you. Even among 'liberals',  as economic peril increases so does racial resentment:

 

  "At the highest level of resentment, white liberals and conservatives have the same preferences on welfare. (We find that aid to the poor does not have this relationship, suggesting that welfare is racialized, while aid to the poor is not)."

So, one bad day, one trip to the darkest timeline, and you, yes you, well intentioned liberal, could be planting the Trump flag. We shouldn't laugh or look down on Trump voters, but instead try and understand them, because a few flips of the coin, and they very well could be us.

(Although not cited in the article proper, these articles were helpful in getting in a Trump state of mind.)