The New Soccer Moms: Angry Voters

Forget soccer moms, NASCAR dads, Wal-Mart moms and other voting groups of elections past. The dominant bloc in this election is shaping up to be angry voters — and they may upend American politics before it’s over.

From the Reagan Democrats in 1980 to the soccer moms in 1996, various voter groups have taken turns at the center of American politics. What make the angry voters of 2016 different is that they are potentially more numerous and already eager to vote.

“With a soccer mom, you have to identify and you have to persuade them, and you have to motivate them to vote,” said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University in Boston. “With angry people, you have to persuade them, but you don’t have to motivate them.”

There is no question which candidates the rise of the angry voter has benefited soar this election season — Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Trump has won the angry voter demographic in 13 of 15 Republican contests in which it has been measured, often by large margins.

“He’s made the case — in an unusual way, granted — that America is in a bad place,” Paleologos said.

In primary after primary, exit polls indicate an extraordinary number of angry voters. In 15 states in which the question has been asked of Republican voters, the share of people describing themselves as “angry” at the federal government has ranged from almost a third to 59 percent. It was 40 percent or more in 10 of those states.

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljXqvE97cg”]

What’s more, a similarly large percentage of voters profess dissatisfaction with the government, meaning that only about one in 10 GOP voters in most states express any level of satisfaction with the government.

“There are far more angry voters in this cycle than we’ve seen in recent, previous cycles,” said Costas Panagopoulos, director of the Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy at Fordham University.

Paleologos said it is not uncommon to find angry voters in any election. But he rejected suggestions by some that his year’s anger level is more or less the same as in past years.

“I don’t buy into that,” he said. “You don’t see these record-breaking turnouts, particularly on the Republican side, and shrug it off.”

[lz_table title=”Key Voting Blocs”]• 1980: Reagan Democrats. Blue-collar Democrats who crossed party lines by the millions to support Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter.
|• 1996: Soccer Moms. Shorthand for suburban mothers with school-age children targeted by then-President Bill Clinton during his re-election bid.
|• 2004: NASCAR Dads. White middle-aged working-class men who were the targets of Democratic efforts to woo Southern voters.
|• 2008-2010: Wal-Mart Moms. Lower- to middle-income women who backed Barack Obama in 2008 and then swung toward Republicans during the 2010 midterm elections.
|• 2016: Angry Voters. Thirty-two to 59 percent of GOP primary voters and 12 to 20 percent of Democratic primary voters who describe themselves as angry at the federal government.
[/lz_table]

Panagopoulos said the anger is a rational response to the government’s failure to address big problems, stagnant wages and other anxieties. He noted that many Democrats also are frustrated.

“The circumstances for the average voter have not necessarily changed as much as people would like them to improve,” he said. “Part of it is the dysfunction in Washington that isn’t tackling important problems. And part of it is an economy that is improving, but not improving at the same rate for everyone.”

Democratic primary voters are registering lower levels of anger at the government, but there is a surprisingly high amount of dissatisfaction considering their party has been in the White House for more than seven years. In the nine states where voters have been polled during primaries and caucuses, the proportion of voters describing themselves as angry or dissatisfied has run from 52 percent to 68 percent.

Panagopoulos noted that the Republicans control Congress — a source of frustration for Democratic voters. Beyond that, he said, many Democrats also do not believe their lives have improved.

[lz_table title=”GOP voters who said they were angry” source=”Entrance/exit polls”]
|
Iowa,,,42%
New Hampshire,,,39%
South Carolina,,,40%
Nevada,,,35%
Alabama,,,42%
Arkansas,,,46%
Georgia,,,46%
Mississippi,,,38%
Oklahoma,,,43%
Tennessee,,,47%
Texas,,,48%
Vermont,,,36%
Virginia,,,35%
Michigan,,,32%
Mississippi,,,40%
[/lz_table]

William Gheen, founder of the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, said it is not surprising that anger is not confined to Republicans. People are angry at the Establishments of both parties, he said, even if it is more intense on the right.

“There’s a lot of voters across the political spectrum who realize we’ve been completely sold out,” he said.

The only states where Trump failed to win the angry bloc were Iowa and Texas, where Sen. Ted Cruz was the first choice. Paleologos said angry voters have “inoculated” Trump from the political damage that over-the-top statements and policy flip-flops ordinarily inflict.

“Voters are saying, ‘I don’t care. He’s angry. I’m angry,’” he said.

Panagopoulos that while Trump has revealed the deep-seated anger of the electorate, he did not create it.

“Under the present conditions, it would be likely had it not been Donald Trump, some other candidate would have emerged to carry that mantle for that segment of the Republican Party,” he said.