“In six polls conducted this month, Mr. Trump leads among white registered voters without a degree by a margin of 58 percent to 30 percent.” Upshot NYT 26 July 2016. This explains better than anything else I know Trump’s strategy.
He can win by sweeping these voters into his camp.
He doesn’t need, and knows he will never get, many African-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, feminists, Ph.D.s ... to vote for him. He does not need them. In fact, by deliberately alienating them he can mobilize the one co0nstituency he does need, whites, especially males, who have never gone to college. All he has to do is to use their fears to erode their hopes.
Do not underestimate this man. He can win by using this strategy.
But let’s step back and ask what this discrepancy in voting patterns says about the effects of a college education? Is it possible that college actually do something, after all? Or is the discrepancy just genetic: the smart kids go to college and the dumb kids stay home to work in a coal mine? Would that access to college was so perfect that all the bright kids applied, got admitted to college and got the financial aid they needed to attend.
Or is the explanation socio-economic. Lacking a college education the Trump voters have been left behind in a globalizing, knowledge-based economy? Careful: remember that in some primaries the median income of Trump voters was $72,000, way above the national median. These voters may be mad, mistaken, hoodwinked, but they have not all been “left behind”.
Or –a third possibility – is the explanation educational: something happens in college after all? Could it be that students learn, even if they major in Business. Communications, or Basket Weaving, to recognize a fraudulent appeal when they hear one?
It would be revealing to crunch some numbers to determine the relative weight of these factors. In the meantime, Chilon of Sparta might help. When asked , “What is the difference between the educated and the uneducated?” he answered, “Good hopes” (Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 1.69). Think about it.
He can win by sweeping these voters into his camp.
He doesn’t need, and knows he will never get, many African-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, feminists, Ph.D.s ... to vote for him. He does not need them. In fact, by deliberately alienating them he can mobilize the one co0nstituency he does need, whites, especially males, who have never gone to college. All he has to do is to use their fears to erode their hopes.
Do not underestimate this man. He can win by using this strategy.
But let’s step back and ask what this discrepancy in voting patterns says about the effects of a college education? Is it possible that college actually do something, after all? Or is the discrepancy just genetic: the smart kids go to college and the dumb kids stay home to work in a coal mine? Would that access to college was so perfect that all the bright kids applied, got admitted to college and got the financial aid they needed to attend.
Or is the explanation socio-economic. Lacking a college education the Trump voters have been left behind in a globalizing, knowledge-based economy? Careful: remember that in some primaries the median income of Trump voters was $72,000, way above the national median. These voters may be mad, mistaken, hoodwinked, but they have not all been “left behind”.
Or –a third possibility – is the explanation educational: something happens in college after all? Could it be that students learn, even if they major in Business. Communications, or Basket Weaving, to recognize a fraudulent appeal when they hear one?
It would be revealing to crunch some numbers to determine the relative weight of these factors. In the meantime, Chilon of Sparta might help. When asked , “What is the difference between the educated and the uneducated?” he answered, “Good hopes” (Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 1.69). Think about it.
RSS Feed
