There is a reason why Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign is working so hard to evoke nostalgia: people who find themselves nostalgic – that’s, individuals who long for America’s “good old days” – were more more likely to vote for Republican candidates within the 2022 midterm elections, in response to research I conducted with staff Kirby Goedel And Paul Kellstedt.
The first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention began with a nostalgic message from Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin He implored voters to support Trump and “make America a land of opportunity again.”
And basically, the RNC topics 2024 For probably the most part, take pleasure in nostalgia with “Make America Once Again” on Monday, “Make America Safe Once Again” on Tuesday, “Make America Strong Once Again” on Wednesday, and “Make America Great Once Again” on Thursday.
The American public tends to be nostalgic. Through the 2022 Cooperative Election Study For our survey, conducted jointly by many researchers and research groups, we surveyed 1,000 American adults and located that about 54% of respondents agreed with the statement that “the world used to be a better place.” Other questions we asked included, “How often do you long for the good old days in this country?” and “Do you think American culture and way of life have changed for the worse or for the better since the 1950s?”
From their responses, we created a scale that indicates how much nostalgia an individual feels for the American past. We used this scale to look at the influence of nostalgia on people's voting decisions within the 2022 midterm elections.
Our results show that the influence of nostalgia is most pronounced amongst independent voters.
In 2022, partisans, or individuals who should not independent, were loyal supporters of their respective parties no matter how much nostalgia they feel. But independents, or individuals with no party affiliation, who feel relatively low levels of nostalgia, have a 57% probability of voting Democrat and a 40% probability of voting Republican. Meanwhile, independents with relatively high levels of nostalgia have a 25% probability of voting Democrat and a 74% probability of voting Republican.
Looking ahead to the 2024 general election, our results suggest that nostalgic appeals could attract these more independent-minded swing voters to the Republican Party.
Trump's nostalgic appeal
As a Record number of Americans reject incumbent President Joe Biden, in response to a New York Times/Siena College poll: Nostalgia for the late 2010s sets in.
Trump’s role within the January 6, 2021, riot and his handling of the pandemic appear to be blips in comparison with the three years sustainable economic growth during his presidency from 2016 to 2019. Only 9% of voters say the rebellion or COVID-19 is what they remember most concerning the Trump presidency – 24% remember the economy. It's no surprise that Trump's presidential campaign is once more marked by nostalgia.
Trump uses the identical slogan as officially in his 2016 campaign and unofficially in his 2020 re-election campaign – “Make America Great Again.” In 2016 and 2020, the slogan referred to a vague and distant American past when things were higher and simpler.
The former president's appeal is now something very special. “Make America Great Again” – summarized within the acronym “MAGA” – is a promise to bring things back to “the good old days” in addition to to the best way they were during Trump's presidency. Trump's campaign explicitly addresses this connection. For example, the Campaign website points to Trump's achievements in his first term and lists a few of his top priorities for one more term as “rebuilding the strongest economy in history,” “ending crime and restoring safety,” and “renewing America's strength and leadership.”
Are you higher off than you were 4 years ago?
Presidential candidates often use nostalgia of their campaigns. “Make America great again” was nothing latest in 2016: It was adopted from Ronald Reagan's “Let’s make America great again” call in 1980.
Reagan was masterful in his use of nostalgic appeals. In 1980 he ran against a extremely unpopular incumbent President Jimmy Carter. After 4 years of Carter's presidency, the American economy was in a much worse state than in 1976. inflation rate was 13.5%, and the economy was in a recession.
During the controversy with Carter, Reagan asked the audience: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The answer When Reagan asked, he answered clearly “no.”
Comparing current conditions with the recent past is an important component democratic accountability. The act of voting is inherently a retrospective assessment of past performance. Voters must give you the chance to carry incumbent presidents accountable.
But Trump's nostalgia is greater than just hindsight. Trump's appeal just isn’t just based on a greater economic past or a more stable society. Rather, it’s a memory of a time in America when women and minorities had less power.
Nostalgia as a dog whistle
In a recent article published within the journal Research & Politics Kirby Goedel, Bradley Madsen and I feel that Feelings of nostalgia are strongly linked to sexism and racism.
Analyses show that individuals with more nostalgia are 23% more more likely to agree with the next racist statement than individuals with less nostalgia: “Irish, Italians, Jews and many other minorities have overcome prejudice and worked their way up. Black people should do the same, without receiving special privileges.”
Likewise, nostalgic respondents are significantly more more likely to imagine that girls are “too easily offended” and “try to gain power by controlling men.”
The connection between nostalgia and racial hatred and hostile sexism is why Trump's nostalgic appeal is so powerful and polarizing: Nostalgia just isn’t just concerning the past 4 years and even the Nineteen Eighties of the Reagan era; it recalls a time before the civil rights movement and before the feminist movement gained momentum.
image credit : theconversation.com