China’s state-run Global Times examined the incredibly close U.S. presidential election on Wednesday and concluded American media analysts were clearly wrong about the nature of the electorate, particularly supporters of the Republican Party and President Donald Trump.
As one Chinese academic put it, “Trump’s base is bigger and more solid than many people’s expectations.”
The Global Times thought one big reason pre-election polls were so far wrong in predicting an easy victory for challenger Joe Biden was that many voters put a higher priority on economic recovery than the coronavirus pandemic.
“Chinese analysts said many Americans are individualists and they have railed against pandemic restrictions as well as refusing to buy what scientists say, so the failed handling of COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus], a key weakness of Trump, has not affected the decision of many voters,” the article postulated, recalling how strong Trump’s approval rating on the economy was before the pandemic struck.
Those Chinese analysts also thought U.S. media underestimated voter blowback against the summer’s riots. One observer proposed that Trump’s vote share among women, young people, and minorities increased to such a surprising degree because so many of them were harmed by the riots, or angry at the presumption they approved of violence and looting.
Others chided the American polling industry for bungling its pre-election forecasts and said media and political elites are living in an “information cocoon” so they believe their ideology is much more popular with voters than it really is. They expected Trump’s policy outlook to remain more popular than the elite outlook, even if Trump himself ultimately loses the 2020 election.
The Global Times and its correspondents thought the greatest mistake made by the U.S. political and media class was misunderstanding the nature of Trump’s supporters
The Global Times may believe those Trump voters are misunderstood, but it wasn’t exactly gushing with praise for them either. It essentially portrayed them as selfish, short-sighted, and stubborn, but smarter than the American Left wants to admit:
Tracy Liu, a journalist based in Austin, Texas, a traditional “red state,” told the Global Times that the Trump’s base does not just include “Rednecks” or racists that hate immigrants and oppose gun control in some southern states, but also includes many normal middle class voters.
These people just want to pay less taxes and support the idea of small government. They do not approve of Democrats’ ideas of high welfare and high taxes.
“It’s unfair to judge them because they’re only able to take care of their families with their limited income,” Liu said.
These silent Trump supporters’ mindset is just the same as the “America First” idea promoted by Trump — “as long as they can take care of their families, the homeless African Americans on the street are not a part of their concerns,” Liu added.
The Global Times followed up this reappraisal of Trump voters with criticism of him for increasing social division during his first term.
“The soil that can grow a presidential candidate like Trump still exists in the US, and four years later, Republicans can have another Trump-like candidate — even the Democrats could have their own ‘Trump,’” predicted Xin Qiang of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
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