Tuesday, January 3, 2017

My Hometown Paper Leaning Into Fake News TerritoryABJ front page story today argues that Trump supporters in Ohio ‘heard topic and tolerated tone’ as the headline put it. The article elaborates with illustrations from individual stories. A black Republican found Trump’s ‘rhetoric unacceptable even for American politics,’ and the article then asserts that despite this ‘for many…that discomfort didn’t matter.’

The core the argument centers on how voters respond to more or less intensive rhetoric, one study showing that voters experiencing tough economic situations are more likely to see a candidate using more intense rhetoric as more trustworthy and presidential.

Thus, it is the candidate’s tone that resonates with them, not what the candidate actually says (or does). Then the article adds on that the candidates experience matters (though there is evidence provided on this second factor).

There are the obligatory quotes from Trump supporter detailing how tough their lives have been and their deep concern for their kids.

Then the article concludes with a description of how Ohio voters were okay when the candidates discussed economic issues and some other issues (like terrorists and gun control), but “when it came to talk of women and Muslims, more Ohioans across the board were dissatisfied.”

So, if we stop here we might conclude that Trump supporters in Ohio were dissatisfied with his anti-Muslim and misogynist rhetoric…and we might even conclude that Trump supporters in Ohio are only concerned about the economy and their children.

We might conclude this were it not for a stray fact include in a table accompanying the article that shows more than 80% of Clinton supporters in Ohio dissatisfied with the candidate’s focus on immigrants, Muslims, women and minorities while less than 40% of Trump supporters were dissatisfied.

When the article follows the comment about the black Republican with 'that discomfort did not matter' they suggest it did not matter to Ohio Trump supporters, while the data shows the opposite.

The article uses statewide data including Clinton supporters to misleadingly suggest that state Trump supporters were attracted to him because of this business background and because his ‘intense’ rhetoric captured a ‘tone’ consistent with how they feel about their own economic insecurity.

But the data tell a different story.

Tone may matter, and economic insecurity certainly matters, but the data also shows that large majorities of Ohio Trump supporters were okay with his vile, angry, and ignorant attacks on women, immigrants, Muslims and minorities.

We do need to unpack the data, because a subset of Ohio Trump supporters likely do fall into the space created by this article: non-bigots supporting Trump. We want to try to work with these folks.

But we must just as determinedly reject efforts (like this article) to mislead us into thinking that all Trump supporters are just good Christians suffering economic hard times who hold no ill-will toward women, or minorities, or immigrants, or Muslims…because that is simply untrue.

We do need to deconstruct the Trump coalition so we an work with the non-bigots on addressing the conflicts we face.

We also need to face up to the painful and disturbing fact that a large subgroup of his coalition...including those in our beautiful state of Ohio...revealed themselves as selfish bigots willing to support a candidate who promised to punish others to help our children regain their rightful privilege.

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