November 6, 2024 - 11:30am
Against a backdrop of mass dissatisfaction over the direction of the United States, Donald Trump’s multiracial populism has contributed to his securing a second term in the White House.
A rarity for a Republican candidate in recent times, Trump is on course to achieve the impressive feat of winning both the Electoral College and popular vote. Even more crucially, he has spearheaded the racial depolarisation of voting behaviour in America.
The first man to win non-consecutive presidential elections since Grover Cleveland, Trump won 55% of white voters according to the CNN exit poll, including the majority of white women at 52%. But one of the strongest predictors of voting for Trump in this election was being Native American — with nearly two in three voters in this group opting for him (64%). Back in September, Trump pledged to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina — a battleground state where he has emerged victorious — that it would be granted federal recognition if he was returned to the White House, which in turn could open access to federal funding for education, healthcare, and economic development. He also accused the Democrats, under the presidencies of both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, of neglecting Native American matters.
Trump also appears to have performed exceptionally well among Hispanics as a Republican candidate — winning 45% of voters in this category, and the majority of Latino men at 54%. In the swing state of Michigan, Trump won more than three in five Latino voters at 62%. While Hispanics are admittedly diverse in terms of country of origin and migratory background, their Christian values — in most cases, specifically their Roman Catholic beliefs — are central to the identity of many.
Extraordinarily, Trump won in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico border, which has a 97-98% Hispanic population. When he beat Hillary Clinton, Trump lost to her by 60 percentage points in the same county. The growing disconnect between the radical cultural liberalism which prevails in the Democratic Party and the beliefs of traditional Hispanic voters — on issues ranging from border security to sanctity of life — has been laid bare.
Looking beyond the white, black, Latino, Asian, and Native American groups, the CNN exit poll suggests that Trump defeated Harris by five percentage points (50% to 45%) among those who fell into the “other racial/ethnic group” category. This would include a significant proportion of Arab Muslim voters — a critical voter constituency in Michigan, which includes the cities of Dearborn (the home of the Islamic Center of America) and Hamtramck (the only Muslim-majority city in the US) in Wayne County. Along with issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and trans rights, there has been growing Arab-Muslim disillusionment with the Democrats’ perceived passivity on Israel-Gaza — with Trump exploiting this by offering a “peace plan” of his own.
The theory of “demographic destiny” — that as the US becomes less white, the Democratic Party will naturally become the dominant political force in American politics — has been well and truly shattered. The supposedly progressive and cosmopolitan Democrats may have put up a mixed-race candidate, but it is they who have been left behind by modern-day America’s traditionalists, who are as diverse as they are patriotic.
London’s Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, once labelled Trump as “one of the most egregious examples” of the global far-Right threat. The truth is that Trump’s multiracial populism — which has attracted its fair share of Khan’s co-religionists — is a powerful antidote to it.
Dr Rakib Ehsan is a researcher specialising in British ethnic minority socio-political attitudes, with a particular focus on the effects of social integration and intergroup relations.
rakibehsan
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SubscribeVery informative article, it’s great people are beginning to look at this.
Trump was always a middle finger to the establishment in the same spirit as Nixon. But it looks like he got more sophisticated in doing that now after his 4 year break, and assembled a formidable team around him unlike his first term. But as importantly as explored in this article, new people joined his coalition such as parts of big money, conservative minorities including Jews changing the tone of his campaign.
Democrats fell for the bait of depicting him as a caricature of his first term which clearly is not accurate given the above. Recent Democrat ad campaigns such as dudes supporting Harris etc, shows to me they’re sincerely out of touch with reality not just lying about things. Number one rule of propaganda is that you don’t believe in your own lies – perhaps the new generation of true believers took over on the blue team causing this collapse.
On a side note, this was in a way the election of Indian women. One was on the ballot, another very significant one was standing next to JD Vance on Trump’s stage – who may become not much later from this day the first lady.
Kamala is hardly considered ” Indian” other than by Woke MSM in India. She played up her connects to her mother’s home country though she mostly portrayed herself as a Black American.
The writer fails to point out how strategically Trump referred to the pogroms against Hindus in Bangladesh. He has been the only Western leader to do so compared to the chilling silence of the Democrats.
Many older generation Hindu Americans voted for Trump.
She underplayed her Indian ancestry once she benefited from being black much like Obama underplayed his Irish ancestry.
I agree that he “matured” somewhat from his last campaign. This time he ran a much tighter and better organized campaign. His campaign manager, Susie Wiles (who ran DeSantis’s two gubernatorial camapaigns) kept the team focused on the goal and as a result, ran a much better campaign.
I see Khan is mouthing off again, as well as Ed Davy. Frankly, Khan is an irrelevance – an irritating one, but of no consequence in the larger scheme.
So too, to a lesser degree is Davy. However he is the leader of a UK political party and certainly should know better than to revert to the language of the play ground – in essence he has just called more than half of the US electorate morons for electing a “dangerous destructive demagogue”. What an idiot. Perhaps he should find a new career falling off paddle boards and zooming down slide-and-splashes – he’s clearly better qualified to be a clown than a serious politician.
Frankly, Khan is an irrelevance
I wish! Unfortunately he’s making it his mission in life to turn London into a dystopic hellhole.
You’re right of course, he is a disaster for London. I was thinking of a broader canvas, but confess that I’m finding it hard to write constructively today due to being rather inebriated from a waterfall of left-wing tears . . .
Me too. It’s hard not to gloat, isn’t it?
It has been an exhilarating ride for the past few months!
Are any of you Americans?
I’m not trying very hard.
Hispanics are not “a racial category” despite the incapability of some people to talk outside racial terms when considering American politics. Trump ran a very effective campaign this year aimed at various segments of the overall “Hispanic” demographic, but a lot of his messaging that works with Hispanics is just the same messaging he finds effective with other groups too.
This is completely unsurprising to me, my YouTube feed having in recent months been inundated with intelligent and highly articulate black conservatives.
Devory Dawkins, the Carter Family, the Black Conservative – I watch all these guys. They have huge folllowings. Anyone remotely tuned into alternative media should have known the race card is dead.
At long last Black Americans are beginning to understand that white liberals are not their friends.
Live by identity politics, die by identity politics. The difference is that Dems see minorities as victims while Trump sees them as Americans.
Dems believe that merely by the color of their skin or presence of a uterus, people will vote for them because they mouth platitudes about racism and sexism. The Dems are the racists/sexists for assuming these groups are so simple they respond to these calls. They do little to help these groups in any substantial way other than last minute panders like legal weed with special franchises for the brothers. Even abortion has been blunted as an issue with the devolution of responsibility to the states due to Dobbs.
What a Dub for the Trump Train!
Hey Champagne Socialist, where are you?
His cope runneth over.
His cup runneth over with tears!
Sweet, intoxicating, delicious woke tears.
The same Champagne Socialist who predicted a landslide for Biden a few months ago. Wrong on both counts.
US “democrats” demonstrated an indecent disconnect and/or interest on all sacrosant pillars of democratic governance related to peace; medical consent; family sovereignty; freedom of media and individuals; avoiding propaganda; border policies; fair judicial system; monetary freedom; open dialogue.
Ms. Harris, unqualified for most jobs she held; acting as a mean spirited ignoramus brat and über entitled opportunist; and displaying early signs of intellectual decline – good riddens.