{"id":5916,"date":"2017-01-04T09:32:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T14:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=5916"},"modified":"2017-01-02T11:12:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T16:12:02","slug":"crossing-an-empathy-bridge-to-understand-trump-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2017\/01\/04\/crossing-an-empathy-bridge-to-understand-trump-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2016: Crossing an “Empathy Bridge” to Understand Trump Supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally published Sept. 28, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

Arlie Russell Hochschild<\/span><\/a>, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, spent five years in Louisiana to explore why many Americans with lower incomes, in states receiving more government funding than most, embrace politicians pledging to cut that funding. It\u2019s called \u201cthe red-state paradox,\u201d and Louisiana is a prime example. It\u2019s one of the poorest states, receives 44% of its funding from the government, and it supported Donald Trump in the primary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hochschild recently talked with Wisconsin Public Radio<\/a>, detailing her findings that, for many Louisiana conservatives, policies bringing the disadvantaged forward often make them feel like they are being pushed back. Hochschild uses a metaphor of waiting in a long line winding up a steep hill, saying,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have worked your butt off. And you’re waiting in line for this American dream, and you notice suddenly that somebody is butting in front.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those who are suspicious of government policies like affirmative action see minorities, women, immigrants, and refugees as being permitted to cut in line by President Obama himself. <\/span>For someone in an impoverished state, sending their children to some of the worst schools in the nation, and facing an incredibly low life expectancy, this doesn\u2019t look like progress. The government is not seen as their ally, nor are the folks calling them \u201cuneducated ignorant southerners\u201d when they protest. Listening to their real stories, rather than leaning on such stereotypes, is how Hochschild crosses an “empathy bridge” in order to understand those supporting the controversial candidate<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published Sept. 28, 2016 Arlie Russell Hochschild, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, spent five years in Louisiana to explore why many Americans with lower incomes, in states receiving more government funding than most, embrace politicians pledging to cut that funding. It\u2019s called \u201cthe red-state paradox,\u201d and Louisiana is a prime example. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,85],"tags":[39112,39110,820,39115,40351,40352],"class_list":["post-5916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-inequality","category-politics","tag-culture","tag-inequality","tag-louisiana","tag-politics","tag-red-state-paradox","tag-trump-supporters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5916"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6061,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5916\/revisions\/6061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}