It’s no secret that Democrats, especially liberal Dems, were devastated when Trump won the election. For them, it signaled the unleashing of the unwashed masses upon their educated sensibilities. Liberals felt like the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones, as they saw countless hordes of White Walkers relentlessly scaling the wall of Castle Black, with only one thought in mind: the end of civilization as they knew it.
Later analysis of voter patterns seemed to prove liberals right. For the first time in history, education level was the factor that most determined what people would do at the ballot box.
According to fivethirtyeight.com, “How do we know that education levels drove changes in support — as opposed to income levels, for example? It’s tricky because there’s a fairly strong correlation between income and education.4 Nonetheless, with the whole country to pick from, we can find some places where education levels are high but incomes are average or below average.”
What they found, bore out the theory: “High income, medium education counties went for Trump.” Higher education, no matter their income, went for Clinton. According to Pew Research, “In the 2016 election, a wide gap in presidential preferences emerged between those with and without a college degree. College graduates backed Clinton by a 9-point margin (52%-43%), while those without a college degree backed Trump 52%-44%.”
But, thinking about educated vs less-educated voting patterns may explain what happened but does nothing to bridge the divide. Instead, it fosters an us vs them mentality, and, as we all know, that’s a pretty slippery (and ultimately dangerous) slope. To say that “college graduates backed Clinton by a 9-point margin (52%-43%),” and stop there is to ignore the fact that 43% of college-educated voters did vote for Trump. And, along with the under-educated and non-college educated population, those folks turned Trump Tower into White House North.
So, who are these people? This is a question that not enough people are asking. Let’s start with this: They are neither stupid nor delusional. Life in the Boomer Lane can hear the screams from readers, but she will move on. This is her blog and she sits on its Iron Throne.
Next, they have as wide an array of concerns as anyone else does. (Again, LBL will ignore the screams.) They don’t all wear stupid tee shirts or red baseball caps. They don’t all have those grating accents (you know who you are). They don’t all own ATVs or sleep under blankets with an American flag motif. And they don’t all think Trump is the greatest thing to come along since the Second Amendment. Some of them actually dislike the man. As somebody wiser than LBL put it, “They are not a monolith.” They are us, meaning they are Americans, part of the fabric of our country. They have always been here. They will always be here. Unless we figure out a way to acknowledge that and work toward the common good, we are doomed.
So, we are still left with the question: Who are these people? For that, LBL directs you to an illuminating book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, by Arlie Russell Hochschild. Hochschild didn’t just theorize about the American right. She lived among them. For five years.
Hochschild is a Sociology professor out of Berkely, perhaps the most unlikely candidate to be welcomed into several entrenched, right wing communities of Louisiana. But there she went. And, just by being herself and treating these people as though she had no agenda other than to find out who they were and to listen to what they had to say, they welcomed her into their lives. The result is eye-opening in any number of ways.
Read the book. Don’t start with any assumptions. Just read. Then go back to your opinions about what this country should be. LBL believes that when we have a real awareness of all of us, rather than simply us, we see that the stakes are even higher than we thought they were. And this great experiment that we call democracy will depend on all of us for a solution.
Life in the Boomer Lane 
anisioluiz2008
November 30, 2016
Republicou isso em O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
Thanks for the reblog!
Gayane Palian
November 30, 2016
I have also been asking myself, who are these people and why didn’t I know more about them. Guilt kicked in: is this my fault? Oh boy, lots to learn.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
Yes, we all have lots to learn. And getting rid of out assumptions of the “others” is the first step.
Elyse
November 30, 2016
You’re right. And just as I steel myself to learn what I know I need to know, Trump does something else — like put Rep. Tom Price in charge of HHS, for example, that will destroy medicare and insurance for the very people who voted for him along with me. And then I get angry again.
Trouble is, I don’t know when Trump will stop doing stupid things for long enough to allow me to learn what I know I need to learn.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
It’s a tough call. One of the frustrations is that we are all in reaction to Trump. Because he, himself, has very few convictions and is easily swayed by whoever he listens to, we are all engaged in his mental ping pong game. So much of his rhetoric is nonsense, yet we still react. I’m trying to stay focued on the actual nominations he has made. That will be more telling than anything. And, yes, some of them are quite disturbing. I go back and forth between trying to decide which is worse, a knowledgeable person in charge who has odious beliefs or a numbskull who will be completely incapable of running a huge governmental organization. But, all that aside, we really do have to take the time to understand the people who put Trump in office, if we are ever going to have an impact on the administration.
Andrew Reynolds
November 30, 2016
Well said. We need to start with understanding and not making assumptions. I’ll check the book out. Another book I’d recommend is “Moral Politics” by George Lakoff. Lakoff does a great job of using cognitive science to explain the divide as well.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
I’ll take a look at that book, as well. I’m an avid reader, but I found that the election created a temporary inability in me to read a book of any substance. I was reduced to detective novels about serial killers. But now I can feel myself coming out of my miasma.
Bonnie J.
November 30, 2016
Here’s one answer from a well educated affluent suburbanite who is Maureen Dowd’s brother (who voted Trump):
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/election-therapy-from-my-basket-of-deplorables.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
Many of us live in a bubble, especially certain zip codes in the NYC and DC metro areas. Many media folks live there too.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
Thanks for sharing. This was outstanding. I was especially rivetted by Dowd’s talk about the losses in both congress and governorships while Obama was in office. We had red flags waving all over the place, and we chose to ignore them for eight years. Fnally, they smacked us in the face and we asked “Where did THAT come from?”
Glee
November 30, 2016
I’m a Berkeley liberal (actually born there!). I read this book earlier this week and it’s an amazing and wonderful portrait of those “others.” Now is the bigger question – what can I do (from Northern California) to start to build bridges.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
First, look around and see if there are any grassroots organizations that are working on this. Join them. Identify which areas of common interest there are and support those. Get out and talk to people (tough but necessary). I did that before the election and it was a real eye opener. Make sure your reps in Congress are making an effort to reach all constiuents. Call your reps (DON’T write). Call over and over if you have to. Make your voice heard. Support millennial participation in the political process. Support women becoming active in the political process. They are each powerhouses of under-represented groups in politics.
Linda
November 30, 2016
I live in the bubble. I was incensed when Cruz derided “New York Values” and scores on non-New-Yorkers agreed with him. Yet everyone I have ever met in person from outside the area has been wonderful. So my opinion: people nationwide are pretty decent but the most vocal of the most ignorant voted in greater numbers than the normal people. They went to the rallies to be entertained and convinced that they are better than anyone else. Another opinion: if people start dressing like those in your picture, I’m buying a tasteful pantsuit. You know, just to be difficult.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
You make a great point. People are, indeed, very decent when we talk to them one-on-one. I lived in indiana for four years and I loved the people there. Trump attracted a small percentage of his followers to the rallies, probably those who felt the most marginalized. And let’s remember the cult of celebrity we have in this country. I am absolutely sure that, at the time there were 17 Republicans all vying for the nomination, the only person everyone would have recognized would have been Trump. He came into their homes each week. That gave him huge credibility with people. I’m sure a certain number of people came to his rallies to see a celebrity, not to hear a political candidate. As for the photo, it’s even scarier in a sartorial sense than it is on a political..
Elisabeth Schuler
November 30, 2016
Another important book to read is Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. Too bad Clinton campaign didn’t read it. Might have made a difference.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
I have that on my Hold list at the library. Looking forward to reading it.
Bonnie J.
November 30, 2016
Full disclosure: I voted Libertarian because I could not stomach the Donald (xenophobia, misogyny) or the Hillary (classified info handling, treatment of WH underlings we knew when we lived in the DC suburbs). I wore pantsuits to work a lot too, but not to be difficult or not.
OK, keep saying all Trumpsters are ignorant, racist, etc. all you want, but it won’t make it better. So here’s some more food for thought if the Dowd article did not state it well enough; I will offer a few more examples.
The small business exchanges for the ACA have STILL, after SIX YEARS, not yet opened up so small businesses (who have been VERY badly affected by the law) cannot offer employees health insurance at lower group rates like their larger corporate counterparts.
They’re sick of emphasis on transgender bathrooms when the economy stinks in their corners of the world.
Their kids can’t find professional jobs after college.
Veterans like me who have handled, transmitted, and stored classified documents know we would have been courts martialed and wearing orange jumpsuits for a while had we pulled the shenanigans evidenced by Hillary and Huma. I managed three communications centers in Europe in the late 70s and we were ALWAYS being briefed about all the horrible things that would befall us if we made even minor mistakes handling classified traffic. Having Huma store the stuff on an unsecured gmail site and having her legal immigrant uncleared maid print it out at her home was not great. Neither was letting the maid have access to the SCIF (Secure Classified Information Facility ) in her home a great idea. Every veteran I know (and I know many) with only one exception thinks the same way I do about this.
One of my Army friends, a lady who was a career officer and retired with many honors at the rank of colonel worked in counter-terrorism and high level intel, often liaising with high levels of HRC’s State Department. She said security wise they were a disaster and arrogant about their lack of care in this regard.
In 1992, I voted for Hillary’s husband. I thought it was cool that he had a smart wife who was so accomplished. I lived in an outer VA suburb full of military, Secret Service, and career civil servants, men and women. Many worked in the WH and were used to demanding VIPs’ personalities; Nancy Reagan was particularly notorious… until HRC, who routinely cursed people out just for looking at her. The HRC stories were consistently nasty. My husband worked with a retired female Secret Service agent who had had a distinguished career protecting many Presidents and their families. She lasted six months on HRC’s detail, which was the record among the agents. This woman said the same thing. BTW, these folks LOVE Michelle Obama. I was raised to treat everyone with respect, no matter what their supposed station in life, so this resonated with me. If HRC had not married and stayed married to Bill, she’d be a judge or law school dean somewhere in the Midwest. Her office holding has all begun on his coattails as a popular President.
And finally, here’s a link to an article in the Huffington Post, hardly a bastion of right wing or pro-Trump propaganda (HRC’s operatives in the hinterlands point out some huge flaws):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-campaign-neglect_us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1302236&
To my Hillary friends, I get it. You’re disappointed, VERY disappointed. But the election is OVER. There are midterms two years from now. There’s the constitution. In ’72, I worked for McGovern and feared for the country when he lost. Less than two years after a landslide, Nixon was forced from office. In ’80, I feared for women. Ms. Magazine said we’d be relegated to the status of our German counterparts— “Kinder, Kuchen, Kirche…” Never happened. The economy improved and the Berlin Wall fell the same year Reagan left office.
If Trump and his people stink, he’ll be gone.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
Thanks for this, Bonnie. We need to hear this over and over. It’s a fact of life that, politically, the pendulum keeps swinging, which is why it is so difficult for a party to stay in power after an eight-year presidency. We are human. We always crave something better than what we have and change becomes the driving force to get that. We now have change. Like you said, if Trump and his people stink, they’ll be gone. And BTW, if I could have a magic wand, I’d put Michelle Obama in the White House. That woman is above reproach: brilliant, wise, charismatic, honest, caring. Unfortunately, as her husband said, she has neither the temperment nor the patience to be in politics.
Linda
December 1, 2016
Thanks, Bonnie, for the “opposing” view, which I put in quotes because at the end of the day, we’re all on the same team. I appreciate your insight.
Bonnie J.
December 1, 2016
You’re welcome Linda. I agree. In the end, we’re Americans before Dems, GOP, and Independents.
Jean
November 30, 2016
Just today, my retiree’s book group decided to read Hochschild’s book next. I am myself a sociologist and a long-time fan of her work.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 1, 2016
Fantastic. I’m going to promote this with everyone I know.
that little voice
December 1, 2016
Not only will I reblog this, I will also send it to my email list. Thanks.
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 2, 2016
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
betsysbeat
December 2, 2016
I’m getting the book
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 2, 2016
Fantastic!
aginggracefullymyass
December 4, 2016
So is there an equal desire on the other side to learn about us? Do you think that some conservative blogger is recommending a reading list to their readers so that they can understand the visceral reaction we are having to the election and why we’re not just being “sore losers”? Do they understand the fears that we have for our democracy, and why we think women’s rights and minority rights and GLBTQ rights and immigrant rights are important? Or is understanding both sides not important? I’m in a quandary over this…
Life in the Boomer Lane
December 6, 2016
My answer to that is that I don’t care. Non-movement on both sides equals non-movement. Someone has to start. The most difficult thing I have to process is that their fears are just as real to them as mine are to me.