Must-Read: Matthew Yglesias: “Brian D. McKenzie’s ‘Political Perceptions in the Obama Era
Must-Read: Racial animosity, myths of betrayal, and fear of poverty and economic insecurity all combined together in a cocktail–but at least it’s an ethos!
: “Brian D. McKenzie’s ‘Political Perceptions in the Obama Era: Diverse Opinions of the Great Recession and its Aftermath among Whites, Latinos and Blacks’…
…The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post working with some scholars from Harvard to look at race and the recession… included one question asking whether Obama has done ‘too much’ in terms of ‘ looking out for the economic interests of African Americans’ and another one asking which racial groups had been hardest hit by the recession. The results….
Numerous whites overlook the economic evidence that blacks were substantially harmed on multiple fronts during the recession and instead believe this group was unfairly aided by a sitting black president. These perceptual biases shape whites’ political opinions and are associated with feelings of financial frustration and higher levels of blame toward the government…. Interestingly, while many whites believe that African Americans are the beneficiaries of favorable economic policies from the Obama administration, blacks themselves do not feel they have been uniquely assisted financially (Harris 2012; Harris and Lieberman 2013).
This ties together white nationalist themes, economic anxiety themes, and populist anti-establishment themes nicely–a large bloc of white voters believes they are suffering economically because their elected representatives in Washington betrayed their interests in order to help nonwhites….
Following Mitt Romney’s defeat in 2012, the leadership of the Republican Party decided that they wanted to go in the exact opposite direction… the GOP would present itself as a modern, cosmopolitan, forward-thinking vehicle for right-of-center economic policy. Conservatism would be an ideology for everyone, not just for white people terrified that all their money was going to be spent on Obamaphones and hip-hop barbecues…. This sent… the wrong message to an important element of the GOP base… that their own party’s leaders were planning to betray them….
Resentful white people perceive themselves to be in a zero-sum clash for resources and opportunities with African Americans and Latinos, and want candidates who will champion their interests rather than throw them overboard in pursuit of a broader electoral coalition.