The enduring loyalty of many U.S. white working-class voters to President Trump has puzzled some political pundits. A Quinnipiac University poll suggests that as of October 11, 55% of white people without college degrees approved of Trump’s handling of his job, compared with 38% in the total population. His approval rate from the white working class has held steady throughout his first year in office (it was 52% the week after his inauguration). At the same time, his overall disapproval rating among all voters has risen from 44% to 56%. Even Tuesday’s Democratic electoral victories in Virginia and elsewhere may do little to move those most swayed by Trump’s core messages.
What Trump’s Campaign Speeches Show About His Lasting Appeal to the White Working Class
The enduring loyalty of many U.S. white working-class voters to President Trump has puzzled some political pundits. A Quinnipiac University poll suggests that as of October 11, 55% of white people without college degrees approved of Trump’s handling of his job, compared with 38% of the total population. Why has there been such lasting loyalty from this particular group — low-status white-collar workers and blue-collar workers? New research explores this question by looking back to Trump’s rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign, when this group coalesced as the core of his political base. The researchers focused on his electoral speeches, as these are particularly telling of his vision of society and of his intended friends and foes. Friends and foes are central to his communication strategy, and also a central part of what sociologists call symbolic boundaries (or boundary work) — that is, to the distinctions we draw to categorize and evaluate various types of people.