President Donald Trump’s electoral upset, in the popular understanding, was due in part to his support among the white working class.
And white people, particularly men and those without college degrees, have supported him in polls at higher rates than people of other races, ethnicities, gender and educational attainment.
But since taking office, Trump has seen his popularity — overall and among subgroups — decline over the course of March, according to Gallup polling.
At a notable level, this includes men and white people with college degrees, and, to a lesser extent, it includes a small drop among white people without college degrees, a rough snapshot of the white working class.
Trump has promised this group, along with virtually everyone else, better health care and better paying jobs.
A new study from the Brookings Institution by Princeton professors Anne Case and Sir Angus Deaton offers a bleak portrayal of white people without college degrees.
The study suggests government policy and society writ large are failing this group and putting it at a “cumulative disadvantage” on a range of social, personal and economic fronts.
And the study demonstrates this “cumulative disadvantage” could be behind the increase in middle-age deaths among white people with high school degrees or less, while black and Hispanic people as a whole have seen improvements in this area despite their documented marginalization.
Some have criticized the study for the way it compares white people without college degrees to minority groups as a whole.
