“It doesn’t make sense,” Johnson continued. “And everybody wants to know all over the country, why would they do that? Because they want to turn these people into voters. That’s the only thing, the only rational explanation for what they did.”
This is rhetoric that falls short of “grand replacement theory,” an argument that has infiltrated the racist fringes of the conversation into the mainstream. The unsubstantiated theory holds that there is a secret conspiracy to reshape American society by intentionally encouraging immigrants to enter the country.
Johnson’s argument reflects his adoption of legislation aimed at restricting already illegal and rare instances of voting by non-citizens, an issue that allows his party to talk about both immigration and election security – two of Donald Trump’s favorite issues. But it also means that the speaker is endorsing a historically aberrant view of immigration, a view that is a notable distance from the once-common idea that immigration is beneficial and a mark of U.S. exceptionalism.
But then, this kind of hostility to social and cultural change is a hallmark of his party right now – particularly the vast majority of his party who, like Johnson, are aligned with Trump.
On Thursday, the Pew Research Center released an extensive report analyzing Americans’ views on racial, gender and cultural issues. It included questions that help outline the unique ways Trump supporters view these issues and the extent to which insecurity about the status of white men, in particular, is central to the movement.
Ask whether the diversity of America’s population makes the country stronger. Overall, Americans were more likely to say diversity strengthened society than weakened society by a 54-point margin. Among Biden supporters, the difference was 78 points. Among Trump supporters? Just 30. Less than half of Trump supporters said America’s diversity has strengthened society.
That was just a question. The survey included several similar questions designed to elucidate how comfortable Americans feel with different aspects of this diversity.
We isolated six of them, two related to each of the three themes: race, immigration and gender. The results are below, broken down by total population, Biden supporters and Trump supporters. (The label “general” applies to all members of these groups, that is, all Biden supporters, for example.) Some thoughts follow the chart.
Race: First, notice the divide between younger and older responses on racial issues. Younger Americans, as we have noted in the past, are more likely to be non-white, which likely plays a role here. Also note that the opinions of Black respondents are stronger than those of the overall group, even within the subset representing Biden supporters. (There were not enough Black Trump supporters to publicize their responses.)
Note also the surprisingly low numbers among White Trump supporters, almost none of whom believe that slavery has ongoing effects and almost none of whom believe that Whites have systemic advantages in society. Instead, many Trump supporters and white Republicans in general opinion Whites as targets of injustice and discrimination – a sentiment that has been a driving force behind support for Trump.
Immigration: The divide between younger and older respondents is also seen here, but most dramatically among Trump supporters on the issue of openness to immigration. Younger Americans are also more likely to have immigrant family members or to be immigrants themselves.
Gender: Just as Trump supporters are less likely to believe that systemic obstacles exist for Black Americans, they are also more likely to believe that systemic obstacles for women have been overcome. For these questions, Pew broke down responses by gender and age, showing that male Trump supporters, especially those under 50, believe systemic sexism is a thing of the past.
They are also more likely to view the gains made by women in American society in zero-sum terms, with 4 in 10 men under 50 who support Trump thinking these gains have come at the expense of men. Men under 50 who support Biden are also more likely than women who support Biden to hold this view, but at less than half the rate of Trump supporters in that group.
Perhaps Pew’s most pointed question on this topic centered on the increase in racial diversity in the United States over time, largely a function of increased immigration since the end of the baby boom. Most Americans, including most Biden and Trump supporters, see the decline in the percentage of whites in the population as neither good nor bad. But Trump supporters are 35 points more likely to say “bad” than “good,” compared to an overall difference of 14 points.
Nearly 1 in 5 Trump supporters consider increasing diversity in the United States to be very bad for society.
There is research that shows that white Republicans are most encouraged by reports of declining white population density in America and that the idea of racial identity hardliners is overly simplistic. The Pew survey makes it obvious how the first concern manifests itself on the right.
So does Johnson’s rhetoric, of course. He knows he will reap more political utility by claiming that Democrats are involved in a conspiracy to subvert white political dominance – which, of course, was the subtext of his comments – and that is what he presents.
He’s giving Trump’s base what they want.
