The inspiration for this post was reading:
“Supporters of Donald Trump may well have been deeply frustrated by the economic consequences of the capitalist system in the United States, but—at this point at least—we see no evidence that they placed any blame upon the system that was the source of those frustrations.” - Azevedo, Jost, & Rothmund (2017)
Which got me thinking: the idea that Trump supporters were largely frustrated victims of capitalism had already been discredited by 2017. As a group, Trump supporters were (and remain) mostly middle-class and above (see, for instance, (Pew Research, 2018). And in a 2021 Pew survey, 84% of respondents from the “Populist Right” (Pew’s political grouping associated with Trump supporters) rated their own financial situation as fair to excellent (Pew Research, 2021). Yet 87% of this same group agreed with the statement, “the economic system in this country unfairly favors powerful interests” and most wanted corporations and the rich to pay higher taxes. Hardly a picture of economic outcasts refusing to blame the System for their troubles. But that doesn’t make them anti-capitalists. The Populist Right may want to stick it to the rich and powerful, but they also say government regulation of business does more harm than good (73% per the 2021 Pew survey).
Which got me thinking about where Trump supporters and other Republicans live. It would appear they dominate rural areas and 23 US states (as of 2023). And although rural America is often portrayed a backward and poor, when you control for cost of living - especially housing - rural households do rather well, on average. For example, their median net worth is higher than that of urban folk in all income categories up to 100,000/year. That’s mostly because housing is cheap in rural areas and the people who live there have a high rate of homeownership (about 80%), much higher than that of urban Americans (about 60%).
Housing is cheap in red states too. Check it out*:
As it turns out, 17 of the 20 states with the lowest Fair Market Rents (FMRs) lean Republican and 18 of the 20 states with the highest rents lean Democrat (this per the World Population Review, Partisan Voting Index, 2023).
Where I’m going with this: to understand another person’s politics, one needs to understand their lived experiences. If Trump supporters and other Republicans aren’t upset about capitalism, perhaps that’s because capitalism hasn’t been so bad for them.
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* I accidentally entered “New Hampshire” twice in the Chart note. My figures are correct though.
Reference:
Azevedo, F., Jost, J. T., & Rothmund, T. (2017). “Making America great again”: System justification in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 3(3), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000122