Who’s Not in the “Basket of Deplorables”?

Source: "green apples with rotten parts/Fanny's Pix/Flickr

Hillary Clinton famously said that “you could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the 'Basket of Deplorables.'” In fact, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that among Trump supporters, 46% viewed Blacks as more “criminal” than Whites and 49% viewed Blacks as more “violent” than Whites. Hate crimes increased after the November 8 election of Donald Trump. But not all Trump supporters commit hate crimes. And even Hillary Clinton agrees that the other half of Trump’s supporters are not deplorable. So, why would someone who is not misogynist, racist, or homophobic vote for Trump?

Some research I did on people’s attitudes toward cultural diversity may answer this question. My colleagues and I asked people in our university about their attitudes toward increasing cultural diversity. Some people resisted greater cultural diversity. Others embraced it. A third group was in the middle. People in this group didn’t resist or embrace cultural diversity, and could be persuaded to support diversity if they saw how it helped them. We called the first group dissenters, the second active supporters, and the third passive supporters. In a survey on college students’ attitudes to cultural diversity, passive supporters were the largest group (63%), and dissenters (18%) and active supporters (19%) were small groups. In terms of the 2016 presidential election, strong Trump supporters are like dissenters, strong Hillary Clinton supporters are like active supporters, and swing voters are like the middle group - passive supporters.

Many swing voters are people who voted twice for Barack Obama but voted for Trump this year. These are not racists, misogynists, or homophobes but people who felt that the political pendulum had swung too far away from their own interests. Trump communicated to many swing voters that he cared about them more than Secretary Clinton did. They may view Trump’s racist, misogynist, and homophobic behavior as collateral damage in exchange for the higher goal of restoring their own rights. Bullies can bring power to those they are associated with, who put up with bullying in exchange for this power.

The silver lining in this for Democrats is that swing voters can be persuaded. In our work, we persuaded passive supporters (the swing voters of the university) to become active supporters by showing them how cultural diversity helps them. For example, a culturally diverse atmosphere fosters complex thinking more than one that isn’t culturally diverse. Secretary Clinton’s Stronger Together campaign included cultural diversity but those who voted for Trump probably did not feel it included them. Maybe it was because Secretary Clinton had called them deplorables. Maybe understanding that not all Trump voters are deplorable is a first step for Democrats to win them back.