Trump’s popularity with his base isn’t the result of economic anxiety, as many claimed in 2016. It’s about race and demographics.

TO UNDERSTAND THE rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir.

You just need to know these basic facts:

In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.

In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority.

  • jmp242
    61·
    29 days ago

    Do you also buy the Vance line that people who don’t have kids should not vote because they don’t have skin in the game? At what age are you too old (or need to have kids by) to be concerned about the future? And regardless of “the future” at least some policy’s are about right now. Like the abortion bans or getting rid of Medicare or social security, or raising taxes or regulation of sources of heat or stoves etc… These matter to people till they die ffs.

    • credo@lemmy.world
      16·
      29 days ago

      Nope. But I think people who don’t have kids should deeply consider why they are sitting on a school board, voting to ban books, etc.

      • jmp242
        41·
        29 days ago

        To clarify here - do you think that people should be forced to leave school boards as soon as their kids graduate? Do they end up eligible again if their kids have grandkids? Is this limited to people with kids going to that specific school? Also, does paying school taxes not make you have some skin in the game?

        And what about just input on the society you live in? It seems to me the solution in your example would be to have younger people run for / contest the school board.

        • Nougat@fedia.io
          21·
          29 days ago

          I want to go on the record on the side of “Yes, people without kids are absolutely capable of caring about education.”

          But I also wanted to offer a correction:

          Is this limited to people with kids going to that specific school?

          School boards are for the school district, which is obviously composed of many elementary schools, junior highs, high schools. Without speaking for every school district in the country, I would expect that school board members would need to be residents of the district.

          • jmp242
            2·
            26 days ago

            Heh. I grew up rural, the school was the district. Thanks for the info.

        • credo@lemmy.world
          11·
          29 days ago

          Did I say people should be forced to leave?

          Here try this: Do you think people from Russia should vote in our elections? If you put any thought at all into your argument, you’ll see in advance that you lose this little debate.

          • jmp242
            1·
            26 days ago

            If you made an argument, I could perhaps put some thought into it. My argument is simply that Russia isn’t paying our taxes, and is a different country, so there’s no comparison I can think of.

            People living in an area paying taxes for that school have every right to be on the school board - it’s a direct application of “no taxation without representation” in which kind of implied in the US is the right to run for the office and be elected to the office. We fought a revolution over taxes and representation. So, not - I put some thought into this and think I just won the debate right there.