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Yup. I never believed that there was much of a correlation. The whole idea that people vote for right wing populists (not just Trump, but all over the world) due to economic anxiety is basically bull. There just happens to be a correlation between low education and adherence to right wing populist ideas, that is unrelated to actual income levels.
I'd suggest that you rethink that position. Also economics isn't solely about income (very little of it is) and all economics is felt in a cultural way so trying to separate the two in any meaningful way is futile.
But if we're really gonna dismiss that any rise in racial tensions is being fueled by macroeconomic trends (or just stop giving a sh*t about any of it) then I guess we'll just have to accept that American politics will devolve into South Africa style politics where whites increasingly vote more and more for the Republican Party while everyone else votes Democrat. It's an ugly future and there's nothing more tribal than skin color.
Maybe you should consider the context. Trump's prominent primary rivals were hardcore fiscal conservatives, just as Romney 2012 was. Trump offered something different:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/upshot/the-obama-trump-voters-are-real-heres-what-they-think.htmlRomney and the Tea Party crew were much further to the right economically than even Bush 2000.
Bush barely 'won' with his Kasich-style compassionate conservative platform in 2000, what does that say about the chances of republicans to the right of Kasich?
