Thomas Brown
1 min readMar 15, 2021

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I mean it's possible, but I believe the causal link between white working class alienation/anxiety/frustration and the support for right-wing parties is pretty well established. To establish a causal link you need to show that 1) a comes before b - so in this case, people are white and working class before they are able to vote Republican, 2) that the connection isn't spurious - studies have shown being white and working class is a predictor for right-wing support when controlling for other variables - and 3) that there is a credible causal mechanism - which this article presents.

That's an interesting comparison between working class whites and indigenous populations, although from what I can tell overall American Indian and Alaska Natives have lower turnouts than other ethnic groups: https://www.ncai.org/initiatives/campaigns/NCAI_NativeVoteInfographic.pdf

Of course that isn't to say your point isn't true in some areas; it may for well be. But overall I stand by the link between WWC alienation/frustration and right-wing support, even if you think the same process has different outcomes for other groups.

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Thomas Brown
Thomas Brown

Written by Thomas Brown

Student of politics and history. Enjoying the circus before the tent burns down. Founder of Practicing Politics — https://medium.com/practicing-politics

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