The Royal Academy defines “populism” as “politics which seeks to appeal to the working classes”, while warning that the term is “used in a pejorative sense”. Well, Donald Trump won the elections because he was able to attract the working classes, listening to the concerns of its constituents. A base which does not seem to have cared at all about that of its rival, Kamala Harris will call him a “fascist”.
A study on motivation of the vote conducted by the Associated Press agency among a base of more than 115,000 voters across the country clearly defined the reasons for the two electorates. THE half of Trump voters said cost of living was the deciding factor of your vote. A third highlighted the immigration as your main motivation. These are the two main axes of the winner’s campaign.
Another study, carried out by Ipsos for Reuters, goes in the same direction, indicating that The economy and jobs are the most pressing problems in the United States. Frustrated by the escalating cost of living, they blame the Biden administration and, for the most part, trust Trump more than Harris to solve the problem.
The Spanish
Among the Harris voters, two-thirds said the future of democracy was the decisive concern. Then, and in descending order, they cited the economics, abortion and climate change.
It is the same dialectic which explains the social movement of yellow vests origin, in the fall of 2018, of the increase in diesel prices which represented the biggest social protest in France since May 68: those who worry about the end of the month versus those who worry about the end of the world , whether it’s climate change or the future of democracy.
Trump found his electorate among those suffering the most inflation that has caused rents to skyrocketwhich obviously does not concern those who live in apartments which they own. Harris had against her the universal tendency to blame inflation on the government of the day.
According to AP Vote Cast, more than half of voters with a college degree supported the Democratic candidate. On the other hand, voters without higher education leaned predominantly Republican. Harris fares better in big cities and their affluent suburbs. Trump, on the other hand, won in small towns and rural areas.
These two dichotomies coincide with the analysis of the vote during the last presidential elections in France, in May 2022, which gave victory to Emmanuel Macron, re-elected, facing the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen. In the only European country which, like the United States, elects its president by universal suffrage, the liberal candidate won in all cities with the exception of three southern cities: Perpignan, Véziers and Toulon. Likewise, the vote of French university graduates went to Macron, and that of non-graduates went to Le Pen.
Two scientific political analysts, Matt Grossman and David Hopkins, point out in their book Polarized by their diplomas as the political division of society has shifted from social class to educational level. Over the past dozen years, college graduates have gravitated toward Democrats while those with only a basic education identify with Republicans. Thus, the trends of the last decades of the 20th century, where Republicans predominated among college graduates and Democrats among the least qualified due to their education, have been reversed.
On the maps, the states of the East Coast, where the best universities are located, those of the Ivy League, voted for Harris, even Virginia, which marks the limit with the South, totally red, it is pro-Trump . The West Coast, with California leading the way, the most populous state, the heart of the entertainment and film industries, is also blue, meaning Democratic. If Hollywood and The New York Times They supported Harris, the tabloids supported Trump The New York Post and the owner of X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk.
AP discovered other subtle changes in its extensive study. So among the voters under 30 support Harris by half and 40% to Trump. In 2020, six in ten people voted for Joe Biden and less than a third for Trump.
ANDI the black vote and the Latino vote continued to be favorable to the Democratic candidate but, here too, Trump improved compared to four years ago: Biden won 9 out of 10 black voters; Harris, 8 out of 10. 50% of the Hispanic vote went to Harris. But 6 in 10 Hispanics voted for Biden.
Populist Trump? Certainly. But not only in the pejorative nuance in which the term is used. Also in the definition of attracting the working classes to their politics.
-U84225706217tvU-1024x512@diario_abc.jpg?w=238&resize=238,178&ssl=1 "technology in Cordoba companies is seen in “On the industry”")
