It's not all about the squeeze
by digby
... at least, not all about the economic squeeze. There are a lot of reasons why people are obsessed with the idea that Trump is speaking to the economic concerns of the white people who've been left behind in a changing economy. And there's obviously some truth to it. But it isn't true in a literal sense that his voters are unusually strapped financially. This is from Nate Silver:
Class in America is a complicated concept, and it may be that Trump supporters see themselves as having been left behind in other respects. Since almost all of Trump’s voters so far in the primaries have been non-Hispanic whites, we can ask whether they make lower incomes than other white Americans, for instance. The answer is “no.” The median household income for non-Hispanic whites is about $62,000,4 still a fair bit lower than the $72,000 median for Trump voters.
Likewise, although about 44 percent of Trump supporters have college degrees, according to exit polls — lower than the 50 percent for Cruz supporters or 64 percent for Kasich supporters — that’s still higher than the 33 percent of non-Hispanic white adults, or the 29 percent of American adults overall, who have at least a bachelor’s degree.
This is not to say that Trump voters are happy about the condition of the economy. Substantial majorities of Republicans in every state so far have said they’re “very worried” about the condition of the U.S. economy, according to exit polls, and these voters have been more likely to vote for Trump. But that anxiety doesn’t necessarily reflect their personal economic circumstances, which for many Trump voters, at least in a relative sense, are reasonably good.
Silver is just crunching numbers in this piece and only makes a passing reference to the fact that they are really motivated by the idea that they are being "left behind" in other ways. I think those "other ways" are just as significant as economics.
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