Three 91ĢĘ²®»¢ professors discuss the election
If Donald Trump had been sent packing early in the Republican primary elections ā as most pundits thought would happen ā thereās a good chance that the Republican Party would have been sitting on a nice cushiony lead a month before Election Day, said a 91ĢĘ²®»¢ University election expert.
āA normal Republican ā John Kasich for example ā would probably be ahead comfortably because he would not be a threat on the change front,ā said John Geer, Gertrude Conaway 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. āBut because we have (Donald Trump) and the change heās advocating, itās antithetical to what Republicans have stood for.ā
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has been leading Trump in most polls by a comfortable margin.
Geer recently sat down with two fellow 91ĢĘ²®»¢ University professors to discuss this presidential election. They are EfrĆ©n PĆ©rez, a political science professor who has studied the role of implicit bias in behavior and Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, an African American and Diaspora Studies professor who is a culture/gender/race expert.
The electorate
āItās kind of easy to just put the onus [of supporting Trump] on the white working class,ā said Sharpley-Whiting, holder of a Gertrude Conaway 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Distinguished Chair and director of the universityās Callie House 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Center for the Study of Black Cultures and Politics.
āWe know that Donald Trump will probably get 40 percent of the vote, and Iām not convinced that itās just white working class who find aspects of the Trump agenda compelling.ā
Clintonās intention to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 a year is likely costing her some middle class and elite voters, Sharpley-Whiting said.
āThere are actually people who think $250,000 annually is not necessarily enough (when it comes to tax breaks),ā she said. āThere are voters who are upper class, who are thinking about their portfolios. ā¦ So, Iām not convinced itās just the white working class voter.ā
Clinton’s ‘likeability’ factor
When Trump said Clinton had āhate in her heartā during the second debate, Geer said he was stunned. Hatred for Clinton is the āglue thatās holding [Republicans] together,ā he said.
āTheir dislike and hatred of Clinton is so strong,ā Geer said. āItās partly gender, and itās partially that she epitomizes the establishment.
āThey want change even if itās bad change.ā
Angry, insecure voters
Anger in voters is a āpowerful motivator if you can identify the targets of your ire,ā said PĆ©rez, associate professor of political science.
āSo if you have a politician like Donald Trump telling you how things are going to hell in a handbasket because of immigrants or Muslims, you bring your targets in sharp relief.ā PĆ©rez said. āItās real easy to feel angry when they give you the information thatās laid right out to you ā āTheyāre taking away your jobs. Theyāre living in your neighborhood and you can pinpoint who that is.āā
Some surveys have suggested that whites see themselves as racial victims, Sharpley-Whiting said.
āThere is a certain feeling on the part of whites ā¦that thereās more racism being directed toward whites, that there is āreverse discriminationā that is occurring.ā
But other groups are unhappy and merit consideration, Sharpley-Whiting said.
āBlack people are angry, Sharpley-Whiting said. āIām sure Latinos are quite angry about how theyāre being picked off and characterized in certain ways. I think other angers need to be put on the table. ā
The video
When video of Trump speaking disrespectfully about women was widely viewed and harmed his campaign, it appeared Trump hit a different, more potent nerve.
āWhat is different is that the elites have jumped ship,ā Geer said. āThis gave people like (House Speaker) Paul Ryan the chance to jump ship. [Tennessee Gov.] Haslam could defect because of the tape.ā
The Republicans who are jumping off the Trump bandwagon āare playing on a kind of particular trope of fragile white femininity that needs to be protected,ā Sharpley-Whiting said.
āSo they were going to be chivalrous now. Now [Trump] has said all sorts of horrible things about all sorts of groups. But at this particular moment, they step in and say āenough is enough, you talked about white women.āā