The sad part of this is that if this election was about economics and not about racism and bigotry, then a lot of people voted rather nonsensically. The Democrats aren't exactly a social/left party (at least by global standards), but they're the party that brought better healthcare while the Republicans are the party of Ayn Randism.
So if lower class people voted Republican for economic reasons, they're only hurting themselves. Of course they'll blame immigrants or whoever, so that it can all end up in a vicious cycle of stupidity.
But I think that's the difference in this election. Lower class people weren't voting Republican, they were voting for Trump. Trump was an outsider.
It's hard to say lower class people are voting against their own interests when the entire economic (Wall Street) and political establishments that they see as their opponents were completely behind Clinton. Who knows what Trump will end up doing, but they all knew what Clinton was going to do... more of the same.
I agree that this is probably what happened at an emotional level, but a vote for Trump is still a vote that is enabling a Republican congress. That matters much more for the economic outcomes of people in the US than what Trump himself will be up to.
So voting for Trump is still fundamentally irrational from an economic perspective if you're poor or lower middle class: it's possible that Trump will block part of the Republican agenda (e.g. on healthcare) -- who the hell knows what the guy is really thinking apart from his selfishness and thin-skinned narcissism -- but with Clinton it would have been guaranteed. And surely more of the same is better than change in the wrong direction?
And yes, it's also possible that Republicans in congress will suddenly change their tune on healthcare, come up with budgets where the spoils aren't overwhelmingly going to the rich, and so on. But really, how rational is it for voters to bet on that given those politicians' past behaviour?
indeed, but throughout the history of the mankind, irrational behavior is much more prevalent compared to strictly rational one. we are not that much sane brain-driven beings we imagine ourselves to be
I agree, but it always rubs me the wrong way when rationality is assumed to be seated in the brain and ALWAYS correct/sane as opposed to emotion which is still viewed as some external force which crops up within ourselves and can't be trusted. Emotions occur in the brain just like logic, it's just in a different subconscious part. In fact evolution seemed to put a higher premium on emotions than rationality for most of our species history... and probably for good reason. Emotions aren't always wrong.
And it's not like the middle and lower classes have been treated that much worse under Republicans than Democracts when you get down to it. Certainly Republicans have been the party of Wall Street and Big Business for awhile, but there's plenty of people who still think getting rid of welfare and cutting taxes to the rich is what's best for everyone. I don't agree, but we can't reverse time and see what would have happened had Mondale won instead of Reagan. Maybe his policies would have pushed us farther into recession and actually made those lower classes less well off. And obviously we've seen the flip side of centralized communism completely fail, and rationally speaking a lot of intellectuals from 19th century Europe thought that was the inevitable logical and fair system of the future.
> In fact evolution seemed to put a higher premium on emotions than rationality for most of our species history... and probably for good reason.
Sure. Most of our species' history also happened in an environment that is extremely different from the world we live in today. I don't think the history of civilization in general and large states with high levels of economic specialization in particular has been long enough to really affect the tuning of our brains sufficiently.
So if lower class people voted Republican for economic reasons, they're only hurting themselves. Of course they'll blame immigrants or whoever, so that it can all end up in a vicious cycle of stupidity.