I'm saying that maybe left-wing outlets didn't mess up, maybe understanding a Trump voter really is just that difficult. I still can't, and I don't think better coverage would have changed that.
> maybe understanding a Trump voter really is just that difficult
Well, over 40% of voters last time around certainly understood. I've read thoughtful and/or insightful things as well, so there's media out there. It's just a matter of people with appropriate credibility consuming, curating, and re-explaining these things to their audiences. I could repost things I've found compelling, but until the Terry Gross's and John Oliver's of the world start taking white blue collar concerns at face value (not just people not smart enough to be cosmopolitan socialists yet), I'm not sure it will help much.
Losing their position in society. Becoming marginalized socially and economically. Being made economically irrelevant by automation, immigrants, or outsourcing. Seeing their beliefs and value systems being ignored, circumvented, eroded of traditional legal support (e.g. gay marriage, Roe v. Wade) and replaced by secularism.
Middle-aged white people in the US are seeing increase in mortality while other groups in the US and outside see drops [1]. This is the result of chronic long-term stressors.
Many groups that were against the gay marriage ruling, have changed their opinions in the last decade, and are now for it. I believe blue collar workers were among the group that swung the furthest. You specify white blue collar, but white people generally are slightly more pro than black people.
The surprising speed of the change has been explained by some as being due to individuals not actually being against it, but believing that everyone else was against it, and so going with the flow. When it became an issue, it became clear that it was actually only a minority that was against it, so it became socially acceptable to be for it.
There are still some fascinating demographic gaps though, as shown by these nice graphs of pew poll results:
But the thing is - these things aren't only happening to white people.
Everyone is being made economically irrelevant by automation, immigrants or outsourcing. Non-white Conservatives and Christians also feel their value systems are being ignored, circumvented, etc. It's not just white people who wear the blue collars, or work in the mines and steel mills, or who hold those "traditional" American values/
Why then is the explanation of Trump's rise often presented as a reaction to the cultural oppression and disenfranchisement of white people exclusively, when so many of the complaints mentioned as valid reasons for Trump support have nothing to do with race? It seems like an attempt at alt-right retroactive continuity.
> Why then is the explanation of Trump's rise often presented as a reaction to the cultural oppression and disenfranchisement of white people exclusively,
Two reasons: because the liberal left has made simply 'being white' and 'being male' as something to apologize for (check your privilege?), and because working-class white folks have been disproportionately negatively affected by the economic shocks of the last three decades -- this while blacks have been making wide gains in income [2].
The liberal left has been pushing identity politics based on race for a long time. It should surprise no one when poor white people accurately see that they are fast becoming a minority and they should use that type of politics for their own ends.
Just take what people say at face value. For example, if someone says they're frustrated with the political status quo, and and voted for Trump because they perceived him as not being the status quo, despite it being a very tunnel visioned viewpoint, it has a very low cognitive overhead. Understandability is extremely different from rationality, and rationality plays a minimal role in a popular vote.
