A team of political scientists, writing in the Washington Post, concluded that “Trump supporters who are struggling economically perceive U.S. economic performance overall to be much worse than it actually is.”
Those voters believed that the unemployment rate is three times higher than the official number, and these new figures aren’t likely to change that.
“It is noteworthy,” the researchers added, “that the impact of additional factual information about the national rate did not move their perceptions much.”
They may not know the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but they know their own economic reality and those of their peers and their communities. So do the African-Americans, women, manufacturing workers, and other workers who confront economic injustice on a daily basis.
These diverse groups of working people could become a new coalition for change. Where are the reports that speak to, and for, them?