In the 2024 presidential election, some 60 percent of white men voted for Donald Trump, making this group his strongest block. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro garnered about the same amount of support from white men, in 2018. In Argentina, 64 percent of Argentinian men voted for Javier Milei. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary is mostly supported by men, even if precise data iis hard to come by. Other far-right parties in European countries, including German AfD, the Austrian FPÖ, the Italian Fdl and the French National Rally (formerly the National Front), are all made possible by aggrieved and latently angry white men.
For many white men in Western societies, demographic and cultural shifts challenge a social hierarchy in which they once held sway. Isabel Wilkerson argues that this “loss” is not material but psychological — a fear of diminished power over groups they once dominated. Ashley Jardina explains that some aggrieved white mean fear being replaced, leading them to form a new, white men, group identity. Arlie Hochschild found that many of them experience a sense of “Stolen Pride.”
History has shown that when aggrieved white men form a collective identity and start to see themselves as a group, they are prone to react violently and can pose serious threats to democracy and peace.
After the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, white men in the American South reacted violently to Black enfranchisement, instituting Jim Crow laws and lynching more than 3,000 Black Americans over the ensuing decades to enforce racial hierarchy. In South Africa, white Afrikaners, feeling humiliated after their final defeat in the Boer War in 1902, imposed apartheid to retain dominance over Black South Africans.
Weak men driving hard politics
As Klaus Theweleit’s classic study of the Freikorps reveals, it was primarily men who felt threatened by women who became the earliest supporters of the Nazi movement. Theweleit links this fear to deep-seated sexual anxieties and an underlying insecurity about their own identities and sexuality. To counteract the perceived threat to their masculinity posed by women and feminine principles, these men turned to fascism and violence as a means of defense and assertion.
The profile of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, strongly overlaps with those of the German Freikorps members. They too used violence, staged uprisings and murdered innocents whom they framed as their enemies. In a sad coincidence resonating sadly with the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were also murdered on a January day in 1919.
The “deplorables”
In her 2016 campaign for the presidency, Hillary Clinton referred to those supporting Trump as “deplorables.” I have lived in Lubbock, Texas, since 2020, among those labeled such, and can witness firsthand some of their life choices and plights. The typical Lubbockite is white, without a college degree and overweight. They do not measure up to the beauty ideals promoted by the media. To many in Lubbock, terms like “sophisticated” and “cosmopolitan” are insults, emblematic of values that threaten their lifestyle and beliefs.
As the latest fashion trend, fed by Ozempic, again favors the super skinny, “the deplorables” are getting fatter. The latest data suggests that 45 percent of those Americans without a complete college education are obese, compared to some 27 percent of college-educated Americans. Distrustful or willfully ignorant of nutrition science while in many cases unable to afford organic food (or even to find it), many literally eat themselves to death. The life expectancy of college-educated Americans, on average, is 8.5 years longer than that of Americans without a bachelor’s degree. This trend is further exacerbated by increased rates of drug-related deaths that disproportionately affect non-college-educated white people.
The appeal of religion makes sense for those who know that they are being judged and deemed “losers.” God, after all, loves all his children and does not judge, at least not until you die. Even then, he doesn’t care about fashionable slimness or a college diploma. In the Christian church so dominant in places like Lubbock, the “deplorables” can feel loved, valued and appreciated. Evangelical Christian religion, beyond representing the “good old days” also allows for the possibility of recuperating, or at least mitigating, lost status.
Many in Lubbock see themselves as “ordinary Americans,” distinct from the “cosmopolitan elite” on the coasts. They do not read the New York Times, rarely travel abroad and are detached from trends in fashion or global politics. Their views align closely with the conservative perspectives promoted by media outlets like Fox News, ubiquitous in any local store. For these residents, “cosmopolitanism” is a threat to their way of life; “sophistication” and “modernity” are not aspirations but forces seen as corrosive to a good Christian lifestyle. It should not come as a surprise that in the U.S., white Christians embrace more anti-Black racism than any other group.
This way of life, steeped in a nostalgic vision of America, embodies resistance to a more diverse, environmentally conscious and inclusive future. Many Lubbockites view issues like climate change as conspiracies and racism as a resolved issue. Queerness remains a largely unseen and unspoken subject.
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Lubbock represents a population that feels not only left behind but increasingly alienated by cultural shifts. Lubbockites know that their preferences, values and lifestyles are often mocked by “coastal elites.” This sense of ridicule is internalized, with many people wearing T-shirts declaring, “I am a Deplorable,” reflecting their awareness of how they are perceived by more liberal, educated groups. The 2024 presidential election underscored how many Americans share this worldview.
The potential danger they pose to democracy cannot be overstated. When aggrieved white men construct their identities around a shared sense of loss, they are prone to violence in defense of that identity.
Safeguarding democracy and promoting peace requires addressing the underlying grievances of these white men. Without a constructive response, their alienation and resentment will continue to grow, fueling further polarization and violence. The lessons of history are clear: democracy, justice and peace are threatened whenever groups in power feel that their honor and pride are under siege. Recognizing the depth of their grievances — and addressing them — is essential if we are to prevent history from repeating itself.
