Profile of a Trump Voter’s Decision

In early 2016, I launched this column with a series of articles on the lack of political conservatives in social psychology. To review these, see “The Ideology of Social Psychology,” “My Conservative Values” and “Embracing the Right.” In doing so, I put my academic career at considerable risk by identifying myself as a conservative social psychologist. This is unfortunate, as a field of study dedicated to human diversity should embrace all perspectives. This article is a follow-up to my participation in a panel discussion at the Heterodox Academy (“Academics Discuss American Democracy and the Election: Part 1 and Part 2.”) where I served as a conservative faculty member on the panel. I voted for Donald Trump in the National Election for the President of the United States in November of 2016, and here I give some insight into why I chose to vote for Trump.

Without diving into discussion of each issue, here are the issues that were the most important to me:

1) Securing the National Borders

2) Supporting Law Enforcement

3) Encouraging Free trade (Domestic and Foreign)

4) Supreme Court Appointments

5) Revising the Affordable Healthcare Act

6) Stimulating the Economy by Decreasing Small Business Regulations and Tax Burden

Since conservatives make decisions based on all of Haidt’s Moral Foundations (harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity), these issues overshadowed my dislike for Donald Trump. Donald Trump was not my first choice for a Presidential candidate to represent the Republican Party and was not the candidate that I voted for in the Republican Primary. I was concerned about his long record as a Democrat, his general vulgarity, and the extremity of a minority faction of his supporters. However, intolerant racists are always going to support a candidate, and it is important not to fall into the trap of being persuaded by dissociative outgroups (White & Dahl, 2006), a strategy that backfired in Hillary Clinton’s labeling of Trump supporters as deplorable. I don’t feel racist, sexist, generally xenophobic, or deplorable. The people I know who voted for Trump (many of whom are ethnic minorities) are not any of these unpleasant things either.

You can see my thoughts on candidate Trump (“On Accepting Refugees and Comparing Nazis to ISIS,” “Why is Donald Trump so Insulting in the Debates?,” “The Authoritarian Voter: The Psychology and Values of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Support,” and “Psychologists Analyzing Donald Trump From Afar”) and an explanation of how I made my decision (“Vote for Your Own Character”) in previous articles. I am not predicting that all will go smoothly with President Trump’s term. No candidate is perfect, but these are the issues that led me to vote for Donald Trump.

I do not condone racism, sexism, xenophobia, or Islamophobia. My academic career is built on researching ways to reduce these. Along with many other voters, I fear Islamic Terrorists but I do not fear Islam as a religion or Muslims. I am tired of being talked down to by liberals as if conservatives lack intelligence and empathy because we have what we believe to be a practical vision, rooted in more than two of Haidt’s Moral Foundations (according to Haidt, liberals primarily use harm/care and fairness/reciprocity). Labeling us and talking down to us was a tactical error by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party that alienated many conservatives who went from “NeverTrump” to voting for Trump.

An example of the lack of respect for our nation’s institutions (which Haidt’s research shows that conservatives tend to value) is the recent discussion of the Electoral College versus the popular vote. The Electoral College is the closest thing there is to affirmative action and differential tax rates, as one of the first of the progressive institutions in our nation, much later followed by Social Security and Welfare. It is surprising that so many progressives are suddenly against the institutions of the Electoral College that they worked so hard to win without voicing opposition prior to the election. Trump did not attempt to win the popular vote. If the rules were different, logic says that the “populism” of Trump that is so feared by Democrats would have won the popular vote.

Here is to hope for 2017. I hope that all Americans support our elected officials and hope for our nation’s success. I hope that our next President listens to all reasonable voices in making informed, responsible decisions. I hope that I did not wreck my career by overestimating the open minded nature of my colleagues in the academy. Academics shouldn’t have to apologize for voting for a mainstream political candidate in a Presidential election. That would be absurd, right?