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https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/19/e4330.full.pdf

Across a wide range of issues, scholars have found that
citizens seldom form policy or candidate preferences on the basis
of their family’s personal economic self-interest. This is not to
suggest that citizens never do so, but the conditions under which
this occurs are very rare (12, 13). Even membership in groups
with economic interests that have been helped or hurt seldom
changes political preferences (14).

A second reason for skepticism regarding the left behind thesis
involves timing. Trump’s victory took place in the context of an
economic recovery. Throughout the year preceding the election,
unemployment was falling, and economic indicators were on the
upswing. Likewise, the dramatic drop in US manufacturing jobs
took place during the first decade of the 21st century; since 2010,
manufacturing employment in the United States has actually
increased somewhat (15). Research on economic voting suggests that recent economic events are most influential for voting
(16, 17). Given all of the positive economic indicators, why
would 2016 be ripe for an economic backlash?

The 2016 election was a result of anxiety about dominant groups’ future status rather than a result of being overlooked in the past. In many ways, a sense of group threat is a much tougher opponent than an economic downturn, because it is a psychological mindset rather than an actual event or misfortune. Given current demographic trends within the United States, minority influence will only increase with time, thus heightening this source of perceived status threat. Although whites will likely still be the best-educated and most well-off racial group, by 2040, they are unlikely to dominate in numbers. Likewise, despite US status as an extremely wealthy country relative to those countries perceived to threaten it economically, many Americans find that small comfort.
...
Negative attitudes toward racial and ethnic diversity are also correlated with low levels of education. In this election, education represented group status threat rather than being left behind economically. Those who felt that the hierarchy was being upended—with whites discriminated against more than blacks, Christians discriminated against more than Muslims, and men discriminated against more than women—were most likely to support Trump.
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