Discussing a focus group of Trump supporters convened by Frank Luntz that aired on Sunday’s Face the Nation, CBS News political analyst Jamelle Bouie promptly trashed them as representing the belief among social scientists (i.e. fellow liberals) that there’s been “a distinct rise in racial resentment and anti-black attitudes” in America resulting as a fact of the Obama presidency.
Pointing to the state of race in America since the 2010 midterm elections, Bouie lamented that this anti-Obama racism is prevalent “among all groups, all groups of white Democrats, white Independents, white Republicans, but especially white Republicans.”
Bouie continued expanding upon his reasoning for why those that disagree with the President are doing so merely because of his race (and not his disastrous policies):
[T]here’s been increase in the racial resent which is sort of a measure social scientists use to determine a person's attitudes about African-Americans in particular, but other groups. Trump’s supporters show all the hallmarks of people with high levels of racial resentment. They are — you know, they seem — a good number believe that President Obama is un-American or even a Muslim in connected to terrorist.
Bouie identified that such excuses they provide in how they describe the President “as arrogant and elitist.” Such phrases led Bouie to conclude that they view Obama as “upity” which he highlighted “as old insult towards African Americans who have achieved some sort of stature and mainstream society and so, all these things, I see in that focus group and connect back to real hard data we have about the change in racial attitudes.”
Nodding in agreement was USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page, who opined that these supposedly intolerant white Americans are also probably “not happy with the rise of Hispanics as an important new part of the American electorate” and “[e]ven the climate change treaty” since “we know from polling that Trump supporters not believe in climate change.”
While one can make what they will of Trump and his policies, dismissing his supporters and the broader conservative movement as racist is perhaps the most tired and obnoxious piece of the liberal media’s playbook in trying to smear and discredit those who do not go along with their agenda.
The relevant portion of the transcript from CBS’s Face the Nation on December 13 can be found below.
CBS’s Face the Nation
December 13, 2015
11:01 p.m. EasternJOHN DICKERSON: That line about, he doesn't really mean all of this it will be different when he's in office what liberals used to say about John McCain. The liberals who like John McCain — oh, this stuff he’s saying in the presidential campaign? He doesn't mean all of that. Jamelle, let me ask you one of the criticism of the media, of other Republican has been they don't press Trump on his facts. You know, if only people knew that he wasn't telling the truth in some is in stances he wouldn't have all this support. That doesn't seem to be true having watched that focus group.
JAMELLE BOUIE: It’s not true at all having watched the focus group and I actually don’t think whether it's ever been true ever. I mean, people’s partisan attachments are pretty much immune to truth in fact and so on and so forth. Very few people look at collecting information and then make decision. They’ve made the decision based on, you know, reasons of travel belief, reasons of all sorts of beliefs then look for the information to justify it and one real quick thing about the panel or the focus group, is that my inner social scientist, saw, basically, a living representation of something that many sociologists have been noting over the course of the Obama presidency, which is a distinct rise in racial resentment and anti-black attitudes in the wake of both 2010 and 2012. So, among all groups, all groups of white Democrats, white Independents, white Republicans, but especially white Republicans, there’s been increase in the racial resent which is sort of a measure social scientists use to determine a person's attitudes about African-Americans in particular, but other groups. Trump’s supporters show all the hallmarks of people with high levels of racial resentment. They are — you know, they seem — a good number believe that President Obama is un-American or even a Muslim in connected to terrorist. A good number referred to him as arrogant and elitists which, for myself, leads very much like upity as old insult towards African Americans who have achieved some sort of stature and mainstream society and so, all these things, I see in that focus group and connect back to real hard data we have about the change in racial attitudes.
USA TODAY’s SUSAN PAGE: You know, we had Frank Luntz say if there hadn't a President Barack Obama there wouldn't be candidate Donald Trump and I think you did hear people who are maybe uncomfortable with African-American president. I bet they are not happy with the rise of Hispanics as an important new part of the American electorate. Even the climate change treaty, we know from polling that Trump supporters not believe in climate change. So, here is President and a time that has — and a nation that has moved in direction that made many Trump voters generally uncomfortable fueled his support.
