POLL: 35 PERCENT OF WASHINGTONIANS HAVE PROTESTED TRUMP
Based on a poll it conducted, the Washington Post reports that more than 1 in 3 residents of Washington, D.C. has marched in protest of President Trump. I’m not sure I believe the number is quite that high.
The Post also reports that high-income white residents are the most likely to have participated in the protests. I definitely believe that.
The Post found that 53 percent of white D.C. residents participated in a march or demonstration in opposition to Trump or his policies since the start of the year. Only 16 percent of African-American residents and 36 percent of Hispanic ones have done so.
21 percent of anti-Trump protesters from the District were black, while 63 percent were white. The city’s adult population is 45 percent black and 39 percent white.
Applying the silly reasoning of the plaintiffs’ civil rights bar, one might be tempted to infer that the “Resistance” discriminates by race. And, indeed, some black activists complained that the original organizers of the biggest anti-Trump march in D.C. were all white.
However, there is a non-discriminatory explanation for the racial disparity in anti-Trump protest activity — Washington’s African-Americans have more sense than their hysterical white counterparts. Consider this statement by a white health-care researcher:
Given the ups and downs of the first five months, I’m surprised that we’re not dead yet.
Now consider this comment by a black hospital technician:
I’m kind of waiting to see — he hasn’t made an impact yet. I’m able to go to my job; my benefits are fine. He’s not doing anything to affect me, so I’m not going to support any protests.
It’s true that Trump hasn’t made much of an impact yet. Yet the hysteria is palpable, at least among whites.
There was also this from a black assistant pastry chef who supported Hillary Clinton:
I’m used to stuff not going my way. There’s always some kind of obstacle I have to overcome just because I’m a young African American female. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who are upset about Trump.
To engage in politics is to become used to “stuff not going [one’s] way.” But many of the white leftists who populate Washington, D.C. have a sense of entitlement that makes them unable to tolerate not having their way. They believe they are entitled to govern.
For them, there is no “waiting and seeing.” They didn’t get what they wanted from the election, so they protested. The protests had nothing to do with alleged “the ups and downs of the first five months.” The entitled white leftists took to the streets en masse the day after President Trump was sworn in.
Not surprisingly, income level is another great predictor of anti-Trump protest participation. The Post found that about half of the District’s residents from households with incomes exceeding $100,000 demonstrated against Trump. By contrast, only 16 percent of those earning under $50,000 attended a march to protest the president.
We are not witnessing a revolt of the masses here. It’s more like a revolt of the mid-level bureaucrats.
The rest of the country is more tranquil, if you exclude outposts like Portland, Oregon. A Fox News poll conducted in mid-February found that 14 percent of registered voters nationwide had participated in a march or demonstration since the election in November. Because a large portion of the marches and demonstrations occurred soon after the inauguration, it’s unlikely that the national protest participation number through June comes anywhere close to Washington D.C.’s 35 percent figure.
Again, this result is not surprising. Washington’s population is disproportionately liberal, disproportionately affluent, disproportionately activist, and disproportionately mid-level bureaucrat.
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