On November 9, 2016 many United States citizens woke up to the shocking news that their next president would be Donald Trump, someone that countless people thought was a complete and utter joke of a candidate until he actually did the unthinkable and won. Soon after the election, many of the large polling services that predicted the incorrect outcome were quick to point to the obvious increase in turnout from the rural sections of America, specifically the Rust Belt states Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Ohio. While there certainly was an ethnocentrically driven increase in white voter turnout throughout the working class regions of these key states, the more significant factor contributing to Hillary Clinton’s defeat was the lack
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While the main reason Hillary Clinton lost was in fact her lack of galvanization of the urban vote, the white rural vote did help to carry Trump to significant victories in the Rust Belt states, and ethnocentrism is what drove it. The idea of ethnocentrism is rooted deeply in the inherent belief that the group you are a member of is superior to other. If that sounds a lot like racism to many people, they would not be wrong. In fact, much of the Trump voting pool is rooted in racist ideals. In a recent study, voters who were the most denying of racism in America today were almost twice as likely to vote for Donald Trump, same with sexism, almost twice as likely to vote Republican than those who were the least sexist (Christopher DeSante and Candis Smith, 14/26). The correlation with the ethnocentric viewpoints of this voting population is extremely worrying, but it does make sense when looked at in addition to factors such as low wages, poor rural living conditions, and the general feeling of resentment surrounding many Trump
While the main reason Hillary Clinton lost was in fact her lack of galvanization of the urban vote, the white rural vote did help to carry Trump to significant victories in the Rust Belt states, and ethnocentrism is what drove it. The idea of ethnocentrism is rooted deeply in the inherent belief that the group you are a member of is superior to other. If that sounds a lot like racism to many people, they would not be wrong. In fact, much of the Trump voting pool is rooted in racist ideals. In a recent study, voters who were the most denying of racism in America today were almost twice as likely to vote for Donald Trump, same with sexism, almost twice as likely to vote Republican than those who were the least sexist (Christopher DeSante and Candis Smith, 14/26). The correlation with the ethnocentric viewpoints of this voting population is extremely worrying, but it does make sense when looked at in addition to factors such as low wages, poor rural living conditions, and the general feeling of resentment surrounding many Trump