by commander ogg

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 (DailyKos.com)

The LBJ quote in the title image was alledgedly said to his press secretary Bill Moyers in a hotel room in Tennessee while on a campaigning in 1960. I have no reason to doubt Mr. Moyers veracity.

Flash forward 60+ years later. In an article on the website Alternet, a research study posted in Sage Journals shows the following:

Research reveals that white people appear to support social safety net programs unless they perceive those programs as also helping nonwhites…“This effect only appears when people compare their political standing directly to that of racial minorities…

While it is nice to have scientific verification of something I believed since I first read that LBJ quote, it is still somewhat disheartening. Again the article:

…in many developed nations, high levels of income inequality usually lead to increased public demand for these programs…the U.S. is different in this regard…University of Delaware scientists Sumeyye Mine Iltekin Gocer and Joanne M. Miller learned…that hostility to safety net programs appears to be…primarily with White people — even those in poverty — because they fear the programs give nonwhites a boost.

Or to use the less technical version, we can not have nice things (h/t Digby). 1/3rd of our fellow Americans would rather be poor and homeless because they would be force to share with Persons of Color. As Chris Hayes argued on his program All In, T*ump’s base, approximately 37% of the voting population, is effectively “holding the rest of the country hostage”.

It is insane, but it is also reality. All this talk about the price of groceries and gasoline, important as they are, do not even come close to the hatred that White Nationalist feel toward minorities. Whether it is the soft version by gerrymandering black voters or the direct action of shooting up an Islamic Mosque, the results are the same: fear of the other. And that fear permeates a large portion of the voting public, even as they swear on a stack of (insert religlious or secular book) that they are not prejudice.

As we approach the mid-terms, we should never lose sight of this. The election of President Obama has shown that if economic conditions are bad enough and the Candidate has the ability to talk to people, White resentment can be temporarily overcome.

But it will not be eliminated in my lifetime.

• Google AI Overview

University of Delaware political scientists Sumeyye Mine Iltekin Gocer and Joanne M. Miller published a study exploring how White Americans’ feelings of political loss shape their economic and racial policy preferences. The research found that when White Americans perceive themselves as losing out to racial minorities in the political arena, they become significantly more likely to oppose wealth redistribution and public welfare programs. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key details of the research include:

• The Framing Effect: White respondents who felt their group was losing in politics were less supportive of general welfare, but only when the survey explicitly compared their economic standing to non-White demographic groups.
• Spiteful Policy Views: When these cross-racial comparisons were made, these “loser” perceptions drove White respondents to oppose both general economic redistribution (programs to reduce the gap between rich and poor) and targeted policies (programs specifically aimed at reducing disparities between White people and minorities).
• Independence of Bias: The researchers found that this behavioral pattern held true regardless of the respondent’s income, employment status, political ideology, or underlying racial attitudes.
• Implications: The authors link their findings to the rise of right-wing populist movements and white protectionism, suggesting that political messaging often weaponizes feelings of relative deprivation to sway public policy. [1, 2, 3]

The full study, “White Americans’ ‘loser’ perceptions and redistributive policy preferences in the United States,” is available on the SAGE Journals platform. [1, 3]

• “White Americans’ ‘loser’ perceptions and redistributive policy …Mar 5, 2026 — Specifically, we find that whites who perceive themselves to be on the losing side of politics are more likely to oppose governmen…Sage Journals
• White Americans oppose federal programs to spite other races: studyMay 20, 2026 — Both groups were then asked to rate their support for two specific types of economic proposals, reports PsyPost. “The first was an…PressReader
• “White Americans’ ‘loser’ perceptions and redistributive policy …Mar 6, 2026 — “White Americans’ ‘loser’ perceptions and redistributive policy preferences” – Sumeyye Mine Iltekin Gocer, Joanne M. Miller, 2026.Sage Journals

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