Here's your #nerdfest thread for the weekend. Brought courtesy of the fine work of my @NiskanenCenter colleague (& poli sci hero) @MattGrossmann's amazing poli sci podcast The Science of Politics. No matter who you are, you'd be better informed listening to this pod. The latest
episode was very fortuitous for me, personally, bc it featured BRILLIANT research from @Davin_Phoenix on what he calls The Anger Gap, which refers to the fact that unlike white voters, black voters are less responsive to anger or threat cues than whites. And this research is a
shining example of why we NEED NEED NEED diversity in our PhDs bc only a scholar of color could have seen the gap in this threat theories, bc only a scholar of color would know that black voters, operating under a system of institutionalized racism would be less prone to anger &
more prone to what Phoenix calls "resignation" when threats like Trump emerge. He empirically demonstrates differences between black & white voters in terms of the reaction to Trump & having been exposed to his work, I will be able to theoretically ground my finding in the '18
voter file analysis (coming out in the spring) that although we see BIG surges among Latinos in 2018, there are only modest increases for black voters. AND I believe when I get the data for VA 2019, we'll see the same there & it'll help explain why Ds came up short in certain
contests in the Hampton Roads area (as I predicted, and that is before I found Phoenix's scholarship). And this research has IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS for @TheDemocrats for 2020 because it affirms my belief that Ds can not rely on Trump to motivate black voters to the polls & should
ensure that someone like @staceyabrams is the VP because Phoenix's research also shows a responsiveness to messages of hope among voters of color. Hmmmmmm. Now who does that remind you of? You can listen to this incredible pod here niskanencenter.org/will-trump-ang…
You can buy @Davin_Phoenix's book here amazon.com/Anger-Gap-Shap…
