Of Cultural Backlash and Economic Insecurity in the 2016 American Presidential Election

Abstract

Given the strong support of evangelical Christian voters to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, many have wondered how, exactly, the pro-religious Trump campaign managed to prevail in an increasingly secular society. This article considers two conceptual models, offered by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, to bring some understanding to the Trump phenomena: the economic insecurity perspective and the cultural backlash thesis. Each will be considered in terms of three related and interlocking sets of issue clusters: the overall secular direction of the American population, the rural-urban cleavage, and empathy for the forgotten man and woman.