On the Trail: Trump presents a vision of the suburbs outdated for decades

President TrumpDonald John Trump The Memo: Democrats introduce Biden as return-to-normal candidate Obama congratulates Biden on official appointment Jill Biden gives personal portrait of husband Joe MORE highlights a vision of the suburbs as part of its re-election message that describes them as a relic of the 1950s instead of the rapidly diversifying areas that they really are in 2020.

If the suburbs were once the white bastions of lilies of homogeneous fences, nuclear families and “suburban housewives,” in Trump terminology, they are now as diverse as the nation as a whole.

“Suburbs have diversified rapidly over the past three decades and most suburban ‘housewives’ work full time,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

Less than two-thirds of suburban residents enumerated in the 2010 census were white, up from 81% in 1990, according to Brookings Institution demographer William Frey.

The 2010 census showed for the first time that more black Americans live in the suburbs surrounding the country’s 100 largest cities than in the cities themselves. The majority of Hispanics and Asian Americans have lived in the suburbs for several decades.

“It’s an imaginary suburb that Trump is talking about,” Frey said. “Today, the suburbs are like the rest of America. They are rich and poor, black and white and Hispanic.

As his poll numbers have plummeted and the coronavirus pandemic has gripped the country, Trump has sought a new approach for suburban voters and suburban women that is a 21st century version of the keep-alive campaign. Order of Richard Nixon in 1968.

He has warned in recent weeks of an invasion of the suburbs, if the former vice president Joe bidenJoe Biden The Memo: Democrats present Biden as back-to-normal candidate Obama congratulates Biden on official appointment Jill Biden gives personal portrait of husband Joe MORE adopts Sen. Cory bookerCory Anthony BookerTrump offers forgiveness to Susan B. Anthony Vulnerable Senate Democrat calls for unity: ‘Not which side of the aisle we’re on’ Sunday shows preview: Mail-in vote, funding for USPS dominates political debate ahead of PLUS conventionsHousing plan of (DN.J.).

“The ‘suburban housewife’ will vote for me. They want safety and are delighted that I ended the longstanding program of social housing invading their neighborhood. Biden would relocate him, in a larger form, with Corey [sic] Booker in charge! ” Asset wrote on Twitter last week.

“I am happy to let anyone who is living their dream of a suburban lifestyle out of this world that you will no longer be disturbed or hurt financially by the construction of low-cost housing in your neighborhood,” Trump wrote in July. “The prices of your housing will increase according to the market and crime will decrease.”

Earlier he accused Biden of planning to “abolish the suburbs”.

The convention to which Trump is renowned is expected to highlight the crime-fighting theme he has embraced since the 1980s, through his first convention when he warned of “American carnage,” and in more recent protests after the death of George Floyd. in Minneapolis.

It’s a continuation of a pattern for Trump, who has consistently played at his grassroots level while rarely making overtures to outside groups.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who threatened Black Lives Matters protesters with guns outside their St. Louis home, were invited to speak.

But polls show suburban voters decidedly not on the McCloskeys’ side, suggesting Trump’s approach is doomed to fail.

Two-thirds of suburban voters told Washington Post and ABC News pollsters last month that they believe black people and other minorities do not enjoy equal treatment in the criminal justice system. Fifty-seven percent said they support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Trump is right to be concerned about his performance in the suburbs, where a majority of American voters live.

Since 2004, no Republican has won the White House without winning the suburban vote of at least four percentage points – the share Trump got in 2016, when he won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. . Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt Romney lost his challenge to the president Barack obamaBarack Hussein ObamaObama congratulates Biden on formal Democrats vs Republicans nomination in race for white “ streamers ” liberalism, Kamala Harris and symbols of race and status PLUS in 2012, despite a two-point increase in suburban voters.

Today, Trump is losing the suburbs to Biden. A Washington Post-ABC poll released on the eve of the Democratic convention showed Biden to lead suburban voters by a 51% -43% margin, a gap almost unprecedented in modern political history.

Trump’s appeals to suburban voters are crucial to his chances of winning a second term. But his message is not likely to resonate in the American suburb he envisions, because it no longer exists.