The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161496   Message #3839007
Posted By: Bee-dubya-ell
14-Feb-17 - 07:54 PM
Thread Name: BS: Barthes: explanation of Trump's appeal
Subject: RE: BS: Barthes: explanation of Trump's appeal
They vote with their bellies, not by the influence of highbrow psychology.

The aim of psychology is not to influence, but to analyze. Psychologists who study voting behavior aren't trying to get people to vote in a certain way (unless they're working for a political campaign). They're trying to determine why people vote the way they do.

And claiming that people "vote with their bellies" is simplistic. Yes, there are some for whom economic disenfranchisement is a bitter reality. They do vote with their bellies. But they're not most people. Trump received the votes of about 63 million people. If there were that many people in the US "voting with their bellies" we'd be in a depression that would make the 1930s look like a boom decade.

People are complex. They behave the way they do for a multiplicity of reasons, some good, some bad. And voting is as complex as any human behavior.