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Monday, September 19, 2016

What’s Going on With America’s White People?

Donald Trump’s appeals to working-class white Americans have no doubt stoked racial tensions. But his popularity among these voters has also put an unexpected spotlight on their grievances—whether they feel left behind by globalization and immigration or resentful of an elite political class that seems to ignore them. Do poor white Americans suddenly feel more disgruntled than ever, or are the rest of us just now paying attention? How much of their pique has to do with economic factors versus matters of race or, simply, health? And what does it all mean for American politics—in 2016 and beyond? To answer those questions and more, Politico editor Susan Glasser and chief political correspondent Glenn Thrush convened four scholars from our Politico 50 list who have studied the history of white people in America and documented their recent troubles; Thrush also interviewed J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, a bestselling memoir about working-class white culture. In a way, they all said, the discontent that propelled Trump to the nomination has been a long time coming.

Susan Glasser: I’d love to just jump right in and ask each of you: What is going on with America’s white people, and how much is that driving the Trump phenomenon in this year’s election?

Anne Case, Princeton University economist: Angus and I touched a nerve last fall when we published a piece in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that documented that, among white non-Hispanics in middle age, mortality, after having fallen for large parts of the last century, actually turned up and started to go the wrong way. And, with the Centers for Disease Control also redocumenting what we had done, the big drivers in that trend are what we call “deaths of despair,” which are suicide, drug overdose and alcohol-related liver disease. Partly the surprise is that it is not just men; it is men and women. And it appears to be happening all over the country. And that resonated in this political season.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

From my personal view! I am doing very well thank you, you idiots. What does bother me a little is being blamed for everything that is going wrong. Seems a little foolish, but I will survive I have no doubt. The blame needs to be focused more on middle aged white and black to late age white and black democrats! That is where all the problems begin and end!!

Anonymous said...

Obama wants a race war i say bring it.

Anonymous said...

Nov 8th is right around the corner! Personally it cannot come fast enough!

Steve said...

As a white Christian, I am against having 99% muslim "refugees" who are young men of fighting age infused into our cities when their religion demands that they kill Christians just because of their beliefs.

I am also against ILLEGAL immigration of anyone else over our borders being gifted with welfare, win, and foodstamps as well as subsidized housing.

I have no problem with legal immigrants from ANY country being admitted after being vetted, and who goes through the proper Citizenship classes and passes the test ant takes the Oath.

I'm sorry for all the folks who can't seem to understand the Laws of our Land, but, hey, if you can't abide, GOODBYE!

Steve said...

What's going on with America's Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and South American Citizens?

Same thing! We all are experiencing the same election and the same risks related to it! We are all in this together, but the "players" are trying to say differently, except for Trump.

He loves us all and is standing up for us.

Anonymous said...

White men are just tired of being censored to the point of insanity..
Bet television, univizion and many others including Muslim broadcast
Black only safe spaces come on America this is ridiculous if there were white only safe places we would be rallied against time to stand up white people its gething to the boiling point white men can't walk down streets in black community's without being assaulted every day and not only that but there are twice as many white people killed by cops annually. Thatz why there's twice as many black mails than whites because we don't make it to court. You don't hear us crying but u will when we have had enough do you know if your an immigrant or Black you get extra points on state jobs and college apps just for being black,that alone gives you an advantage over me and you want me to pay for it to literally..I could go on and on just get real people

Anonymous said...

No, I think it was Obama and the Democrats who stoked racial tensions.

Anonymous said...

In 2016 it's hard being a white man. My skin is my sin. Love everyone.

Anonymous said...

At the very end of this rather long article about the Trumps appeal to somewhat racist white voters, they ask "after Trump is crushed" where will these voters go? Then they take one small paragraph discussing why people have a distrust for Hillary. Also laughable is that early in the article they admit that Trump supporters make on average $72k/yr but at the end they emphasise his popularity is mainly from poor and uneducated whites.They also say Obama is the only bright spot this country has had. They can't even be unbiased when they are trying to be unbiased.