Opinion Of People Who Say Trump Won Because Of A “Whitelash”

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Ignorant out of touch gullible morons like my dad, hp.

[Battista Minola 1616]

In the sense of White backlash? They have a point although I do not necessarily totally agree.

[Ferguson97]

Meaning racist white people?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

yes to both of the above posters

[ElectionsGuy]

White people who twice voted for Obama put Trump in the White House. To call it a whitelash is very ignorant, (not to mention, Blacks and Hispanics voting for Trump more than Romney). It was a backlash against globalism, the status quo, and a corupt political establishment, all of which Hillary represented.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

White people who twice voted for Obama put Trump in the White House. To call it a whitelash is very ignorant, (not to mention, Blacks and Hispanics voting for Trump more than Romney). It was a backlash against globalism, the status quo, and a corupt political establishment, all of which Hillary represented.

The two most fervent Trump supporters I know both voted for Obama twice. Both regret Obama's actions in hindsight, but both are also unapologetic about the fact that Romney and McCain would be worse Presidents then Obama ever was.

[dead0man]

I've never met a Trump supporter who proudly voted for Obama, but I only know a few out and proud Trumpists.


I think most people I know who are Trump fans don't talk about it when I'm around ('cause they know I'd give them sh**t).  The co-workers I talk politics with hate Trump, I suspect most of the rest of the people I work with are quiet Trumpists.  My immediate family all hate Trump (more than me, some of them WAY more than me).  My parents are racists who love Trump. My father more than my mother, yet they both have black people as friends who I know they love.....racists can be complicated.  They raised me to NOT judge people on things like skin color, what god they prayed to, what flag they flew for political parties, they even suggested it was ok to be friends with Cubs fans though I'm not so sure about that.  But my dad still used racist terms for black people (not the N-word with a hard R at the end, he was a big fan of the term "Porch Monkey"...and it even made sense in my little head when he explained why "they don't have air conditioning, in the summer when it's hot, they hang out on the porch".  It's not the "porch" part that was the problem pops!  But even as a little kid I knew never to say such words to any of my black friends at school.).


<ranted against my kids last week, now I'm doing it at my parents.  I might have a problem.>

[Alben Barkley]

Ignorant out of touch gullible morons

Sounds like you just perfectly described yourself and anyone else who thinks this was NOT a major reason Trump won.

It’s not even an issue for debate. It is an objective fact. Studies have repeatedly shown how heavily tied racial resentment was and is to Trump support. If you think otherwise, you are not just ignorant, you are outright wrong. Period.

So maybe tone down the smug superiority factor a bit until you learn what the f—k you’re talking about.

[Alben Barkley]

White people who twice voted for Obama put Trump in the White House. To call it a whitelash is very ignorant, (not to mention, Blacks and Hispanics voting for Trump more than Romney). It was a backlash against globalism, the status quo, and a corupt political establishment, all of which Hillary represented.

To deny the inherent racism that Trump represents is to be worse than ignorant; it is to be WILLFULLY ignorant. You have to have your head buried deep in the sand. The man launched his political career on racist birtherism, then doubled down on racism (some dogwhistled, some blatant — “globalism” itself is a xenophobic dogwhistle by the way) at every turn. Believe it or not, it is possible to vote for Obama and still be racist or just incredibly ignorant (possibly racist against Hispanics/Muslim immigrants more than just black people too) so the fact that Obama-Trump voters existed doesn‘t mean anything. This “reasoning” is as shallow as “I have a black friend, so I can’t be racist.” Basically the entire Trump platform boils down to: “Vote for me or ‘they’ will take your jobs, rape your women, drug your children, take over the country and outnumber ‘you.’” And that inherently racist rhetoric appealed to angry whites who turned to him in backlash, including outright white nationalists like David Duke and other “very fine people.” They sure as f—k heard what his real message was. Trump won because he fired these people up and the turnout for other groups was depressed due to Obama not being on the ballot and yes, Hillary not being a great candidate. It was still just enough to win, but it nonetheless was enough. And we wouldn’t have seen such swings in predominantly white states if Trump’s white identity message (which again was what his whole message, “globalism” and all, boiled down to) hadn’t resonated so well with them. Again, studies have demonstrated this incontrovertibly.

[TML]

There are some people in this country who voted for Trump specifically because of his racism/sexism/xenophobia etc., and that segment of the population is what I consider "too far gone." On the other hand, there are others who voted for him because he promoted economic populism on the campaign trail, and that segment of the population is certainly persuadable. Democrats should focus more on the latter group and not on the former group, and given how close the 2016 election was, just a minor swing among the latter group could have tipped the election the other way. So people who say that Trump won because of a "Whitelash" are focusing too much on things beyond the Democrats' control and not enough on things within their control.

[Alben Barkley]

There are some people in this country who voted for Trump specifically because of his racism/sexism/xenophobia etc., and that segment of the population is what I consider "too far gone." On the other hand, there are others who voted for him because he promoted economic populism on the campaign trail, and that segment of the population is certainly persuadable. Democrats should focus more on the latter group and not on the former group, and given how close the 2016 election was, just a minor swing among the latter group could have tipped the election the other way. So people who say that Trump won because of a "Whitelash" are focusing too much on things beyond the Democrats' control and not enough on things within their control.

If you’re willing to vote for a candidate running on the most blatantly white supremacist platform since George Wallace (who by the way also had supporters who claimed to vote for him because of “economic populism”), you are “too far gone” almost no matter what if you ask me. At the very least, it shows you’re willing to overlook some truly repugnant s—t just to stick it to the “establishment” and vote for policies that are mostly wrong and stupid anyway. (Also maybe even against your own interests — “killing my healthcare to own the libs.”)

I have zero sympathy for anyone who voted for Trump for any reason. ZERO. You’re either bigoted, extremely ignorant, or both. There are no exceptions to that rule. Oh I’ll take the votes of the ones who regret it now or just voted for him last time because he was an “outsider” or some stupid s—t. But I still have no sympathy for them. And in the long run, the Democratic Party is better off ditching the “economically anxious” anyway so we don’t have to worry about voters flocking to the next far right populist demagogue. The sooner the realignment from the rust belt to the sun belt takes hold, the better.

[TDAS04]

There's truth to it.

[Higgins]

I voted for Obama proudly in 2012, and I missed out on voting for Obama because I was two weeks' shy of turning 18 on Election Day.

I voted Trump in 2016.

Did I vote for Trump because I dislike Black People, or because I dislike Obama, or because Hillary is a woman? No.

I voted for Trump as a middle finger to the Left Wing which to this day tells me that my white skin makes me automatically racist, to the Left Wing which to this day increasingly arrogantly states that I have some original sin of privilege that I can never wash away. That tells me I ought to feel guilty and pay reparations for the sins of dead people who have no biological relation to me. I voted for him because I resented, and resent, the way the modern Left has infected everything I loved and distorted it. I don't care about the Confederacy or the goddamn Confederate flag or statues of Jefferson Davis. I don't feel those things should exist. But I do feel that the modern Left dislikes America, I do feel that the modern Left thinks white people are essentially bad people. The modern Left does want to destroy Western Culture. It's politicians like Cuomo and DeBlasio whose response to this pandemic is destroying the city which I love and reside in.

Trump is an ignorant egomaniac and he is an embarrassment to intellect and sensibility. But he's better than anything the Democrats have to offer. Maybe when the Democrats cease being obsessed with Marxist Race Ideology, and stop being the party of Coates, and stop being the party who says "America was never great", and go back to being the party of working and middle class people of all races, I'll vote Democrat again.

[Ferguson97]

Yes, obviously. Any white person who voted for Trump is a racist. And yes, being willing to tolerate his racism makes you a racist.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Yes, obviously. Any white person who voted for Trump is a racist. And yes, being willing to tolerate his racism makes you a racist.

1. And non-White persons who voted for Trump?

2. What do you think about racists voting for Biden? (because surely there will be some Trump-Biden voters)

[Higgins]

Yes, obviously. Any white person who voted for Trump is a racist. And yes, being willing to tolerate his racism makes you a racist.

Not necessarily, when you consider that most politicians are criminals and that every President in our history has been to greater or lesser degrees a racist.

Clinton locked up Black men by the millions in the 1990s. George W. Bush continued those policies.

FDR locked up Japanese people on the basis of them being Japanese and little else.

Lyndon Johnson, for as much good as he did with Civil Rights, helped shape the War on Drugs. Nixon and Reagan gave it a name and zeroed that War on Blacks, Latinos, and Hippies to suit their political agendas.

Eisenhower pushed Mexican immigrants out of the country.

Jimmy Carter said that neighborhoods should retain their ethnic purity, a very Hitlerian statement.

Reagan evoked States Rights as a code word for "We're better off without Blacks."

Obama injected himself into local racial matters, turning them into national debates, and helped stoke the racial tensions of this country.

They are all relatively bad people, and all have racial wrongs under their belts. It comes down to the choice of who will hurt me least.

[Ferguson97]

Yes, obviously. Any white person who voted for Trump is a racist. And yes, being willing to tolerate his racism makes you a racist.

1. And non-White persons who voted for Trump?

2. What do you think about racists voting for Biden? (because surely there will be some Trump-Biden voters)

1. Idiots. There is literally no good reason to vote for Trump.

2. They’re racist. Not all white racists are Republicans, but all white Republicans are racist

[Higgins]

Yes, obviously. Any white person who voted for Trump is a racist. And yes, being willing to tolerate his racism makes you a racist.

1. And non-White persons who voted for Trump?

2. What do you think about racists voting for Biden? (because surely there will be some Trump-Biden voters)

1. Idiots. There is literally no good reason to vote for Trump.

2. They’re racist. Not all white racists are Republicans, but all white Republicans are racist

So, you would say you know better than a person of color who who they should vote for? Because, you just stated, a non-white who votes for Trump is an idiot, and there's no good reason for voting for him. Which means whatever reasons a non-white might have to vote for Trump is invalid, which deprives that person of his or her agency or independence of choice or action and boils them down to just being ignorant people who don't know better.

Do you not see how your own statement, as such, can be considered pretty deeply racist, while on the surface white knighting on their behalf?

[HillGoose]

the  is a whitelash

[Santander]

If you can be racist and have black friends, you can be racist and vote for a black politician.

[Suburbia]

Partially true.

Whitelash 2.0 will happen again if Democrats don't denounce the violence in these cities and tone down the antipolice rhetoric.

Remember, white people are still a majority of the country. This is not 2045.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

"Whitelash" is a weird term but the book "Identity Crisis" by Tesler and friends dedicates entire chapters to empirically demonstrating that (primary and general) voters in 2016 were much more race conscious and polarized on a racial progressive axis than they were in 2008 and 2012, and that most of the racially conservative voters voted for Donald Trump (twice). My guess is that Ferguson and the emergence of BLM made race issues much more salient in the minds of most voters (also partially explains why 2014 was such a disastrous wipe-out year for Dems).

Anyone who uses the term "whitelash" is probably someone with an agenda built on oversimplification but it's a credible and easy opinion to defend.

[dw93]

Was some people's vote for Trump a form of Whitelash? Yes

Was that true of every Trump voter? No

For my many, many issues with Trump and his more rabid base, if the Democrats that keep peddling the narrative that Trump won solely due to Russia and Whitelash keep peddling that narrative, they're Trump just might win again, or if he loses, someone even worse will win in 4-8 years.

[Sumner 1868]

It’s not even an issue for debate. It is an objective fact. Studies have repeatedly shown how heavily tied racial resentment was and is to Trump support.

Actually, the only real stand-out among Trump voters versus other candidates in 2016 was a deeper than average fear of Islamic terrorism.  The ISIS/ISIL panic of 2015-16 has conveniently gone down the memory hole in The Narrative, because the establishments of both parties were using it to justify hawkish foreign policy and didn't expect it would transfer into anti-immigration politics. It's certainly true the average view of a Muslim terrorist isn't "white" or "American", but these hypocritical "outraged" neocons and centrist Democrats have known that perfectly well for nineteen years and are simply mad their own xenophobic war propaganda it blew up in their faces. No sympathy.

The sooner the realignment from the rust belt to the sun belt takes hold, the better.

The Sun Belt is where the real fascism lies.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

It was partly a "whitelash" if that means whites didn't like the Democrat's approach to race that said "not all lives matter, black lives matter."   But Trump would have done even better if he had eschewed some of his more extreme rhetoric.   Most people are moderate on racial issues but prefer their own kind when forced to choose.