It was a stark reminder of where the GOP and Democratic campaigns are headed. In an early morning tweet, Donald Trump posted this racist, sexist, misogynistic rant.
On the one hand you have the Democrats, who’ve just announced a history-making ticket versus a Republican president who is trying to protect his very white base and return America to 1960. The GOP has also re-upped a campaign tactic they’ve used for decades; fear.
But here is a reality that should worry even the most optimistic Trump supporters. Suburban women really don’t like Donald Trump. In late July, NPR wrote:
In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 66% of suburban women disapproved of the job President Trump is doing overall, and 58% said they “strongly” disapprove.
That is stunning, considering suburban women have been a particular focus of Republicans in the last 20 years, dubbed everything from “soccer moms” to “security moms” to “Walmart moms.” Whatever you call them, they’re not in Trump’s corner — and the consequences have been massive for Republicans.
As for “housewives,” the Washington Post reported earlier this year that for only the second time, women outnumber men in the workforce.
“Indeed, women’s share of the workforce has been growing steadily for the past few years. Zooming out, looking at all workers, including farmworkers and those self-employed, men still outnumber women. But women have been joining the workforce at a faster pace than men since 2018. Economists say this narrowing in the gender gap comes as women have been getting college degrees in larger numbers than men, which has radiated out to the job market as they reach higher ranks in the office.”
Also, the New York Times found that the number of all-white suburban neighborhoods is falling. In 1980 about 25% of so-called census tracts were all white. By 2017 that number was less than 5%.
So fewer women are at home in neighborhoods that are much less white than they were 40 years ago. Who is Trump appealing to? An America that no longer exists.
This post contains analysis and opinion.