Politics as Unusual? Exploring Issues and the 2016 Presidential Vote*

Abstract

Objective In this article, we examine the correlation between voters' opinions on relevant issues and vote choice, as well as where they located Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the competitive issue space. We are particularly interested in the extent to which anti‐politics attitudes, nativist attitudes, and social issue attitudes structured the way voters perceived the candidates. Methods Using principal components analysis of feeling thermometer ratings of presidential candidates in the 2016 general election, we are able to identify two major dimensions structuring voters’ perceptions of political figures. Results Data from national surveys suggest that anti‐politics attitudes were prevalent in 2016, but that the major party candidates were only marginally effective at tapping into this sentiment. Conclusion Relative to other Republican presidential candidates, Trump was more effective in tapping into anti‐political feelings prior to the Republican Convention. By the general election, issue perceptions of Trump were similar to those we see for most Republican presidential candidates. Feelings toward third‐party candidates, however, were more strongly structured by an anti‐politics dimension.

The Critical Masses: The Rise of Contemporary Populism and Its Relation to Solidarity, Systems, and Lifeworlds

“…Analyses of Trumpism and the Brexit campaign, two notable recent populist movements, have yielded multiple, contradictory accounts regarding whether these movements are primarily motivated by race/immigration (Bhambra 2017 ; Goetz et al 2019 ; Shaw 2022 ) or broader economic trends (Farley 2019 ; Rosenberg and Boyle 2019 ). The Trump coalition seems to lack a consistent political ideology (Smith 2019 ; Gibson and Shaw 2019 ). Historically, the American Populist Party included those who wanted to preserve small-community-like ways of life (McMath Jr. 1993 ) and progressives who embraced centralized organization (Postel 2007 ).…”