'Grievance and animus': CEO explains how 'status anxiety' motivates Trump’s base

30 January

After Democratic nominee Kamala Harris narrowly lost the United States' 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump, many pundits argued that Trump did a better job appealing to Americans' "economic anxiety." The U.S. enjoyed record-low unemployment rates under former President Joe Biden, but Trump hammered Biden and Harris relentlessly on inflation — and it worked.

On Election Night 2024, Trump won the popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent (according to the Cook Political Report).

However, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on January 30, Alan Elrod (CEO of the think tank the Pulaski Institution) emphasizes that Trump's victories in 2016 and 2024 go beyond appealing to voters' "economic anxiety." Trump, according to Elrod, resonates with his "base" because of his ability to exploit "status anxiety."

Elrod explains, "Every Trump-supporting boat parade and each positive jobs report or new Dow record set during the hated Biden Administration served as a reminder that the 'economic anxiety' thesis leaves too much out of its analytic viewfinder — namely, the real motive roots of Trump's appeal, especially to those who actually live quite high on the hog…. More useful for understanding what motivates Trump's base would be a relative measure — one that could conceivably affect people in a variety of economic circumstances. The best starting point, as some observers have been arguing for years, is status anxiety."

The Pulaski Institution CEO continues, "That's because while 'status' comprises a number of signs of economic success — homes, jobs, bank accounts — it goes beyond them to include important intangibles. As Alain de Botton put it in a 2008 book on the subject, status also has to do with 'a sense of being cared for and thought valuable.' And that kind of judgment is one we can only arrive at through comparison with others."

The "status anxiety" that Elrod describes is applicable to Americans who feel underappreciated — even if they are doing well.

"This is the perfect pathology for citizens of a democracy: If merit, not rank, determines social value and achievement, as is meant to be the case in our country, then your average person will be confronted every day with the question of why they haven't experienced greater success — a toxic recipe for self-righteousness, shame, anxiety, and self-consciousness," Elrod observes. "Especially when, thanks to our deranged media environment, the apparent success of others — including those we consider undeserving — is constantly in view…. Trump is the master of grievance and animus precisely because he himself is an exposed nerve of status anxiety."

Elrod continues, "No one articulates this sense of injury quite like him because perhaps no one is as covetous, spiteful, and achingly needy as he is. His unprecedented political debut and continuing success has not freed him from his decades-old grievances. If anything, his elevation has made him into the ultimate sore winner."

Alan Elrod's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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