The Voters Who Elected Trump Want Something Only the Democrats Can Give Them

We could spend an eternity debating why Hillary Clinton lost the election—didn't Dante designate a circle of hell for just that?—but that doesn't mean it's the most fruitful use of our time. More important than rehashing the 2016 election results is digging into the voters in the Midwest and Pennsylvania who unexpectedly became the most important swing voters in the country. Donald Trump won thanks to just 80,000 total ballots in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and Democrats will have to get those states back if they ever want to win a national election again.

A new report out this month from Democracy Corps and the Roosevelt Institute, a pair of left-leaning think tanks, takes a stab at trying to understand the motivations of these voters. The document is a result of extensive focus groups conducted with 35 white voters in Macomb County, Michigan, who didn't have college degrees, had voted for Obama at least once, and identified as "independents, Democratic-leaning independents, or Democrats." Despite that affiliation, all of them went for Trump, making them part of a counterintuitive "Obama-Trump voter" phenomenon the media and others have been puzzling over for months. (Macomb went for Obama twice but flipped to Trump in 2016.)

Despite casting their ballot for the more conservative candidate, these voters said they mistrust congressional Republicans. Though Trump has mostly espoused Republican policies—from tax cuts to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act—these voters trusted him and his promises to quash government corruption, bring back jobs, put "America first," and lower healthcare costs.

This is very good news for the left, because as demonstrated by the universally loathed GOP healthcare plan, the right has no intention of doing many of these things.

If you've ever wondered why a "Bernie bro" or "Obama dude" would turn into a Trump supporter, this new report provides a compelling explanation. The report argues that these voters didn't become more conservative. In fact, almost all of them continued to have a great deal of affection for Obama. Researchers found that a majority of the voters they studied were open to supporting left-wing politicians "who oppose trade deals, want to protect consumers from Wall Street, oppose corporate tax breaks, and will bar secret campaign money so government works for the middle class."

None of that is traditionally part of the Republican platform. But Trump broke from his party at least in terms of rhetoric—like in January when he promised "insurance for everyone." He doesn't seem to be making good on that one and many of his other guarantees, like better economic security for the working class. These voters also wanted better social services and fewer tax breaks for the rich, policies Democrats and independents like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been championing for years.

"I think Bernie would have won," one participant said. "Everything he stood… for I feel would great for the country."

The internet doesn't need more opinions about whether Trump won over traditionally Democratic white working-class voters because of xenophobia and racism or "economic anxiety." And the study doesn't come down one way or another on that likely unanswerable question—instead, it draws attention to how economic injustice can exacerbate racism.

One woman explained, "I went and finally signed up for Medicaid, and I'm standing in the damn welfare office, and I'm looking around at all of these people that can't even say hello to me in English. But they're all there with appointments for their workers, which means they have the healthcare, they have the food stamps… If you can come from somewhere else, why can't we all get it?"

There was a chorus of hostility from Trump supporters toward immigrants who don't assimilate, specifically by not speaking English. A number of them complained about being denied food stamps when they were in need, while also rejecting the notion that they benefited from white privilege.

"It was funny, the backlash that we got over [allowing cash withdrawals on] EBT cards," said a Trump supporter named William. "Here I'm struggling to get my kid hotdogs and you're buying a porterhouse, and I'm being told that I'm wrong or I'm racist or I'm not the—I'm privileged, and that's what's wrong."

"It's almost like you wonder how are they working the system that you're not," Chris, another study participant, responded. A third, Matt, responded by suggesting perhaps "we're checking the wrong box when we're filling out paperwork," meaning they'd be provided with social services they desperately need if they weren't white.

As evidenced by the exchanged the above, many of the study's participants liked Trump because he was willing to tell white people that they were getting the short end of the stick. But what's also clear is that these people really want better access to food stamps and other social services. Of course, Republicans don't generally want to improve social services—reportedly, the GOP is going to introduce legislation that makes severe cuts to the food stamp program, and the House healthcare bill will leave millions more uninsured.

The message these voters are sending is clear—they want candidates who will focus on policies that help them, and they didn't see Clinton as being that candidate. A study on the 2016 election conducted by Wesleyan University earlier this month found that "Clinton's message was devoid of policy discussions in a way not seen in the previous four presidential contests." The lesson here isn't that the left has to abandon identity politics or stop calling out racism, but perhaps it might benefit Democrats to acknowledge how badly the working class suffers in this country and appeal directly to them in a way that seems authentic, as Sanders did.

Democrats can assume that Trump will not meet the demands of these voters over the next four years. It's up to them to show that they are the true party of economic populism—and not the centrist, pro-globalization party of the Bill Clinton era.

Here's an idea for how to start: As the healthcare disaster continues to get more disastrous, don't champion Obamacare—which study participants notably did not want to repeal but instead wanted to make more affordable. Start telling voters what the plan is to actually fix it.

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