Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post has an absolutely excellent piece about the expanding body of research by psychologists, economists and political scientists focusing on the issue of racism within the base of the Republican Party.
The same argument has been applied to almost every recent presidential election: President Ronald Reagan was criticized for invoking the image of the welfare queen to imply that African Americans were lazy crooks who bilked the government. President George H.W. Bush’s infamous Willie Horton spot told the story of a black man who committed violent crimes while on furlough from prison, a move that critics say won Bush supporters by exploiting white Americans’ fear of black crime.
An expanding body of research by psychologists, economists and political scientists suggests that voters’ racial biases help the GOP win elections, and critics say the party is capitalizing on that fact. Though researchers haven’t settled how successful dog-whistle politics are at tapping into those prejudices, some believe that race will become more, not less important in the party’s future campaigns.
“There’s a good deal of evidence that white resentment of minorities is linked to support for Republican candidates, their policies and conservative ideology in America,” said Robb Willer, a political psychologist at Stanford University.
The piece goes on to note that while the country and the Democratic Party have become more diverse in recent years, the composition of the Republican Party hasn’t gotten much more diverse.
As the country has become more diverse, the Democratic Party has, too. But the demographics of the Republican Party have not changed much in recent years, according to Gallup. As of 2012, 89 percent Republicans were non-Hispanic whites, compared to 60 percent of Democrats. Nearly three quarters of Hispanic and Asian voters and fully 93 percent of black voters cast ballots in favor of President Obama in 2012, according to Washington Post exit polls.
Research has shown that voters who favor Republicans are more likely to hold racial biases against people of color. For instance, nearly one in five Republicans opposes interracial dating, compared to just one in 20 Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center.
A poll conducted by the Associated Press before the 2012 election found that 79 percent of Republicans agreed with negative statements about racial minorities, such as “If blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” Among Democrats, the figure was just 32 percent.
Given the kinds of racist behavior of supporters of Donald Trump – not to mention Trump’s own inflammatory rhetoric – the idea that the Republican Party is rife with racism shouldn’t really surprise anyone.
After all, Trump’s just the first candidate to overtly say what many supporters of the Republican Party have likely been thinking for many years.
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