Biden and Trumpism

Last week, Jamelle Bouie had a column in which he said that Joe Biden might defeat Trump, but wouldn't defeat "Trumpism"--"the white resentment and racial chauvinism that drive his movement."  He said that Biden had appealed to those sentiments himself by opposed busing in the 1970s.  Bouie did say that "most white voters in Delaware opposed busing," but didn't seem to recognize how widespread the opposition was.  Between 1972 and 1996, the General Social Survey had a question "In general, do you favor or oppose the busing of (negro/black/African-American) and white school children from one school district to another?"  Among whites, 21% of those with an opinion said they were in favor.  That was the average over the whole period--in the 1970s, it was only 14%. 

The GSS also had a question which asked whites for their reaction to the statement "(Negroes/ blacks/African-Americans) shouldn't push themselves where they're not wanted."  Even among those who said that they disagreed strongly, only 37% favored busing.   Another question gave people a hypothetical choice:  "Suppose there is a community-wide vote on the general housing issue. There are two possible laws to vote on: a. One law says that a homeowner can decide for himself whom to sell his house to, even if he prefers not to sell to (negroes/blacks/African-Americans). b. The second law says that a homeowner cannot refuse to sell to someone because of their race or color. Which law would you vote for?"   Among those who said they would vote for the second law (about half during the period that the questions both were included), only 35% said they favored busing.

You could argue that this just shows the pervasiveness of prejudice among whites--even those who said they were for integration in principle didn't want it in practice.  But even among blacks, there was significant opposition to busing--57% favored it and 43% opposed.  So the opposition wasn't just racial chauvinism and resentment.  What else could it have been?  Most people have positive views about their local schools, so I think it was the idea of neighborhood kids being sent long distances to schools people weren't familiar with and didn't have any connection to.

As far as Biden, it seems unreasonable to criticize him for opposing a policy that was not just unpopular, but extremely unpopular (and one of the major cases of busing was in Wilmington, Delaware, so he couldn't just avoid the issue).   The larger problem is that a lot of progressives automatically offer "white resentment" as a complete explanation of anything they disapprove of, without even thinking about other possibilities.  That was true before Trump, but seems to have accelerated since he took office. 
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