Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press.
According to exit polls in the last U.S. election, three out of five white voters gave their vote to Republican Donald Trump so that he could stay four more years at the helm of the country, which meant a slight increase compared to the 2016 election, but what made them make such a decision?
For Arlie Russell Hochschild, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, who over several years has studied those who support the "Tea Party" - a conservative-centered American political movement - to which Trump belongs, the vote for the Republican is more visceral than rationed.
Although Democrat Joe Biden won, the election was very close, with Donald Trump receiving more than 74 million votes, representing 46.91 percent of the total vote.
The also author of several books, including Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, noted that the Trump Effect, which has been to divide society, has worked.
On the one hand, the Republican makes a group of his white voters feel that they are the best, that other communities have tried to appropriate jobs, spaces and opportunities that they don't deserve.
While, on the other hand, he plays the role of a martyr or even the "Savior" who suffers for his people, who understands all the problems and seeks to save them from bad situations.
"Donald Trump has a way of insinuating, of pretending that he is a dominant paradigm of evangelical Christians and makes one think that the Savior is about to come... he makes one think that one is suffering, listen to him when he says - I am suffering for you - for the ears of a Christian that is a - who is suffering for me - Christ".
In that sense, he said that for Democrats, the image of the Trump supporter who could be described by the term "sitting pretty," those who wear a red hat with the acronym MAGA, Make America Great Again, and cheer every word of the Republican, however, he said, that image of "sitting pretty" describes very few.
Another image of the current U.S. president's follower is that of the wealthy guardian, an example of which is the McCloskey family, a couple of lawyers who pointed guns at protesters in an anti-racism march from the front yard of their home in St. Louis, Missouri, the specialist explained during the virtual panel "The 2020 Election Race Gap: Why White Voters, Including Women, Supported Trump," conducted by Ethnic Media Services.
And thirdly, those white, college-educated and Christian voters who feel they are part of a minority group, "I know it's hard to say, but they feel like a kind of minority group themselves, and they think life is against them, their image of reality is what they see not only on Fox News, but also CNN or NBC," he said.
"And what they think is: -ohhh look at all these black people who are news and weather anchors, there are no white people anymore. They see basketball stars and football stars who are colored and billionaires and advertising offers...they're billionaires, God, those blacks are coming out ahead," he added.
And it's not that they took ethnic courses at the university, but simply based on what they see in the media, "that's the impression they have.
Similarly, he explained that not all, but several of these Trump supporters feel relegated, as they consider other ethnic communities to be growing, while theirs is declining.
He recalled that in the case of the African-American community, household incomes have not increased in the last 30 years, while for Latinos, the situation has not been easier as many of them have lost their jobs.
In that sense, he noted that there are many jobs that Latinos do, which do not compete with those done by whites.
In the face of this and this idea of displacement, he pointed out that these people, being depressed, are looking for someone to blame. "They're not angry, they're depressed, in fact, they're terrified, and somehow that depression turns into fear.
Hochschild said that in various parts of the country, the Democratic Party does not have a face, so they believe that no one has extended a hand for them, there is an invisibility.
She added that support for Trump from white, college-educated women is not as strong as that of their male relatives, but the issue of the right to life has been a big factor in making them vote more conservatively.
In the case of the "proud boys," he said, they are white nationalists who often have stories behind them that have to do with alcoholism, drug addiction and sociopathy, and in Trump, they see a figure that really understands them and listens to them, "that's very powerful.
For her part, Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, said that since almost 50 percent of voters don't understand how Donald Trump got so many votes, the blame game is used.
"All of this is based on a fairly poor understanding of the Latino community and other groups ... expectations are always based on unrealistic terms of what to expect about historically unrepresented groups," he said.
He said only 67 percent of eligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 3, while 33 percent, many from non-white communities, did not vote.
In that sense, he said it is incorrect to believe that half the country is with the Republican, when only 31 percent of the voters voted for him.
In the case of California, he explained that 47 percent of white voters chose Trump, very similar to what happened in the 2016 vote.
However, the gaps between the participation of white and minority voters are very wide.
In this election "the voters did not represent the people. Whites are overrepresented in every state, but those who don't vote have other differences and that doesn't even show up in the polls.
