What Really Motivates Trump’s Base and Why It Matters for the Post-Trump Era

What are the policy implications due to a fundamental distrust and dislike of “outsiders”? On today’s episode, Dan Hill talks to political scientist John R. Hibbing about his new book The Securitarian Personality: What Really Motivates Trump’s Base and Why It Matters for the Post-Trump Era (Oxford UP, 2020)

Topics covered in this episode include:

• What are the biggest misconceptions, among the media and others, about Trump’s staunchest supporters?

• In what ways are Trump’s fans different from the Republican party’s traditional base?

• In a battle over the soul of whether America might be a democracy or an oligarchy in the future, where do securitarians land and what are the implications for the country?

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John R. Hibbing, Foundation Regents Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln John R. Hibbing is the Foundation Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His previous works include Stealth Democracy and Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. He has received nine National Science Foundation grants, been named a NATO Fellow in Science and a Guggenheim Fellow, and appeared on Star Talk, NPR’s Hidden Brain, and The Daily Show.

Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of eight books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc.