Only 21% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree. Broken down by race, that’s 23.7% of White Americans and 14% of Black Americans. That means they finished college.
This means that the majority of Americans don’t have a college degree. If you are in a room with a random group of Americans and you have a college degree, you are surrounded on all sides with people who don’t.
Much has been made by the political pundits of the fact that a majority whites without a college degree voted for Trump. Of course, the liberals among us don’t understand that result.
Uneducated?
The media often refer to those without a bachelor’s degree as uneducated. The more careful writers will specify that they mean people without college degrees, but they also sometimes say “without a college education”.
Referring to 79% of America as uneducated is incredibly condescending. It implies most Americans are stupid, like they are a gibbering mass of illiterates.
In fact, only 20% of Americans never finish high school. Most people have a basic education. Only about 1 in 1000 can’t read above a 3rd grade level. People without a college degree are not stupid and are not uneducated.
This means that most Trump supporters are not stupid or uneducated. Many of them have college degrees.
Politics
The issue here is that they are basing their decision on a completely different set of values than those who oppose Trump. To write off these people because they are too stupid to tie their shoes is a bad political tactic. It ignores what is really driving them to vote for Trump and it treats them as inferior.
Trust me when I say that people who are condescended to understand they are being looked down upon and they resent it. This was clear in people’s reactions to Hilary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment and Obama’s “clinging to guns and religion” comment.
That resentment is one factor that drove people to vote for Trump in 2016. I think Biden is smart enough to see it. He empathizes with people and is really reaching out to middle America, those without a college education.
