Racially resentful white liberals number about ten million and may be decisive voters.

Evidence

For now, we note that while white liberals high in racial resentment are a relatively small group, there is reason to suspect that they are also politically impactful. Based on analysis of 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) data, this group constitutes about 3.1 percent of the population, or about 10 million people, large enough to be a consequential voting bloc. For comparison, this number is roughly equivalent to the number of Americans who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (Gallup 2015). Furthermore, many political commentators have suggested that Donald Trump’s presidential victory in 2016 turned in part on traditionally Democratic white voters with whom Trump’s racial rhetoric resonated (e.g., Roberts 2016). The current research lends credibility to this idea, suggesting that racially resentful liberals would be the group most responsive to the implicit—and sometimes explicit—racial appeals of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (Manza and Crowley 2018). — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 187

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s question about whether professed egalitarian/liberal conviction diverges from measured resentment — these are liberals who score high on the racial resentment scale, so professed liberalism does not predict low resentment. — connects to: Racial resentment predicts switching to Trump mainly among white liberals. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 188; Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 172; Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 11
• QUESTION: The 3.1% figure suggests the ‘manufactured enemy’ thesis may hinge on a small pivotal bloc within one party, not broad national sentiment.

Related

• Racial resentment predicts switching to Trump mainly among white liberals. (similarity 0.91)
• White liberals high in racial resentment switched to Trump at probabilities above fifty percent. (similarity 0.90)
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives (similarity 0.88)
• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. (similarity 0.87)
• Implicit racial appeals mobilize resentment among liberals as well as conservatives (similarity 0.81)
• Subtly racialized appeals mobilize high-resentment liberals but leave moderates and conservatives unmoved. (similarity 0.81)
• Racial appeals intensify racial-attitude influence on gun attitudes among liberals, not conservatives. (similarity 0.80)
• Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer — Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle? Experimental Evidence That Racial Resentment and Political Ideology Condition Responses to Racially Encoded Messages (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Racial resentment predicts switching to Trump mainly among white liberals. #expands (0.85) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 188
• Liberal whites’ racial resentment is harnessed by racial appeals across ideologically opposed policy domains. #expands (0.80) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 172
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives #corroborates (0.80) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 11