Trump’s popularity with his base isn’t the result of economic anxiety, as many claimed in 2016. It’s about race and demographics.

TO UNDERSTAND THE rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir.

You just need to know these basic facts:

In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.

In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority.

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
    2·
    3 months ago

    It’s why I don’t think humanity will ever get along unless an external, immediate threat unites us. Aliens or something.

    What like a foreign dictatorship meddling in your democratic process? Or maybe that’s not existential enough - what about an urgent planetary climate crisis caused by a greedy minority trying to steal or planet’s limited resources to turn into useless stock?

    • Eiri@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      The tragic thing about that is that it’s kind of not concrete enough for our little brains to comprehend on an emotional level.

      Or rather, it’s so large and long-term and complex that we can’t deal with it.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
        1·
        3 months ago

        I honestly think you’d still have collaborators with an obviously malevolent external force. Like say portals to hell opened up

        • Eiri@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 months ago

          Hmm, probably, but I feel like humanity would largely come together, or split into two camps.

          I would envision either “everyone against the demons”, and the few who are with them are a small, covert minority, kind of like criminals, or humanity splitting into two camps, which would still be division, but arguably less divided than how we currently are.

          • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
            2·
            3 months ago

            To this point, how could we increase the number of people who take the side of humanity?

            My thinking is that reducing anomie and inequality, increasing the bonds between people, all help move that number in a positive direction, as more of us realise that we need eachother.

            This is my sneaky way of saying that we could be doing this now. That sure, maybe there will always be those who are just in it for themselves or a tiny in-group, but that’s no excuse for fatalism/doomerism.

            IE we don’t have to wait for baleful aliens or demons spewing forth from hellgates. If we’re not waiting for the perfect unifying scenario, we can start moving the needle in a positive direction now. :)

            • Eiri@lemmy.world
              2·
              3 months ago

              Oh yeah I certainly hope we can. It’s just hard when there are big systemic and evolutionary obstacles in the way.

              • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
                2·
                3 months ago

                Aye it’s hard road… hundreds of years of progress can be erased with the swipe of a sword.

                Not much else to do about it except try. That’s how I see it anyway.