Thread by @EdOverbeek

You know who won on economic anxiety? Hillary Goddamn Clinton.

She won voters making <50k/yr. Including whites. She won voters who said the economy was their top concern.

Trump won whites making >50k/yr, and voters whose biggest concern was immigration or terrorism. Xenophobes.

Trump won* on a different kind of anxiety- the fear of “my kind of people” losing their place in the social hierarchy.

There’s absolutely an economic component to that. A social leg up is an economic leg up. But economics aren’t the driver.

“He won on economic anxiety” is a myth that whitewashes the bigotry of middle and upper class white people. It’s an insidious form of white supremacist propaganda with old roots. There’s no legitimate reason for anyone on the left or the press to repeat that bullshit.

Literally two seconds of googling provides a mountain of research and analysis debunking the myth. It only lasts because white supremacy is an inconvenient truth to white people who don’t want to admit why Hillary lost*.

Trump’s win* was “about dominant groups that felt threatened by change and a candidate who took advantage of that trend.”
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

“At this point, the evidence that Trump’s rise was driven by racism and racial resentment is fairly stacked… To confront Trump, opponents will need to confront racism.”
vox.com/identities/201…