SOC433H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Syrian Civil War, Class Conflict, Social Inequality
1
Lamont et al. Trump’s Electoral Speeches and His Appeal to the American White Working Class.”
2017
Abstract
• Drawing on the computer-assisted qualitative analysis of 73 formal speeches made by Donald
Trump during the 2016 electoral campaign, we argue that his political rhetoric, which led to his
presidential victory, addressed the white working class’s concern with their declining position in
the national pecking order.
• addressed this group’s concern by raising their moral status, that is, by
o emphatically describing them as hard-working Ameri- cans who are victims of
globalization
o voicing their concerns about ‘people above’ (professionals, the rich, and politicians)
o drawing strong moral boundaries toward undocumented immigrants, refugees, and
Muslims
o presenting African Americans and (legal) Hispanic Americans as workers who also
deserve jobs
o stressing the role of working-class men as protectors of women and LGBTQ people.
Introduction
• focus on the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States as a case study of
the role of boundary work in political rhetoric.
• social scientists have variously interpreted Trump’s presidential victory as resulting from a mix of
political, social, and economic dynamics such as:
o an ongoing class struggle in the context of increasing economic and social inequality
o racism and race resentment in a post-Obama era
o a backlash against international global competition, with undocumented Mexican
immigrants as scapegoats
o fear of Muslims in an international context where terrorism has become more prominent
o a reassertion of traditional gender roles
• Many of these workers think of themselves as society’s invisible and under-recognized
‘backbone’, who keep the American economy going, yet experience a recognition gap
• They believe they ‘deserve better’ and ache to see the country recognize their value and
contributions.
• During the election, many of these workers protested to follow a man who promised them what
they believed was their due after too many years of enduring abuse in silence
• The white working class helped tip the vote in Trump’s favour
o Even though a majority of his supporter where middle class voters
• We argue that Trump capitalized on established boundaries in his appeal to workers, but also
drew stronger boundaries toward undocumented immigrants, refugees, and Muslims, groups that
gained salience in the last decades due to historical circumstances such as 9/11 and the Syrian
civil war.
• Our analysis posits that by targeting specific groups, Trump’s rhetoric capitalized on white
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2
workers’ desire to assert what they believe is their rightful place in the national pecking order in
relation to these groups
• Trump also exploited the tensions that have grown since the post-2008 recession for workers in
general, as a result of their downward mobility symbolized by the loss of homes and jobs,
growing concentration of wealth, increased competition, class segregation, globalization
• These problems added to the workers sense of vulnerability and fed a desire to reassert what they
view as their rightful place
Methods
• We argue that Trump’s speeches activated boundary work present in the earlier decades, but also
singled out new scapegoats that have become salient in recent years (undocumented immigrants,
Syrian refugees, and Muslims in particular).
• while undocumented immigrants, refugees, and Muslims were not a concern for workers 20 years
ago, they were the most frequently mentioned group in Trump’s electoral speeches.
• how Trump described various groups in his speeches:
o he explained the weakened position of workers as caused by globalization, thus removing
blame from them for their fate
o raised the relative status of working- class men by reasserting traditional standards of
working-class masculinity when describing women, and to some extent LGBTQ people,
as groups in need of protection
o he mobilized evaluation criteria that advantage workers in their own eyes (e.g., their
respect for the law) and reinforced their position in the national pecking order by
describing immigrants in negative terms.
• while immigrants (both undocumented immigrants and Muslim refugees) are described
negatively far more often, other groups are described more positively
• immigrants are most associated with jobs, safety, and Islamic terrorism, while African Americans
are most associated with jobs and poverty, and women and LGBTQ people with Islamic
terrorism.
A boundary approach to social change
• Many of his electoral speeches offer a far more positive picture of the groups he aimed to appeal
to than do his informal comments and post- election statements.
• A micro boundary-work approach that focuses on how individuals and groups make judgments
about their position in relation to other groups is an essential complement to more meso-level
institutional studies of how social and symbolic boundaries can drive social change
• Boundaries of various types permeate the social world, whether spatial, ethno-racial, religious,
national or based on sex and gender differences
• Boundary work feeds hierarchies of worth and status as individuals create categorizations and
distinctions between people
• Symbolic boundaries, in turn, are an important condition for the creation of social boundaries
• cultural processes such as racialization and stigmatization affect the unequal distribution of
resources.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Trump"s electoral speeches and his appeal to the american white working class. Abstract: drawing on the computer-assisted qualitative analysis of 73 formal speeches made by donald. Muslims: presenting african americans and (legal) hispanic americans as workers who also deserve jobs stressing the role of working-class men as protectors of women and lgbtq people. Methods: we argue that trump"s speeches activated boundary work present in the earlier decades, but also singled out new scapegoats that have become salient in recent years (undocumented immigrants, 2: these speech acts by trump allowed workers to reaffirm and uphold their superior status in the symbolic realm, and these beliefs can in turn influence their claim on resources and how they distribute the resources they control. The cultural world of white working me in the early 1990s: working-class americans define their worth in moral terms.
