Trump鈥檚 followers also admire the 1950s. In 2016, Pew highlighted key attitudes that separate Trump and Clinton supporters, none more stark than this: When asked whether 鈥渓ife for people like you today is worse than it was 50 years ago,鈥 19 percent of Clinton supporters said yes, compared to 81 percent of Trump supporters. Per my own analysis of the 2022 Cooperative Election Study, a very large national survey conducted around elections (data courtesy of Spencer Goidel), white survey respondents who said that the American way of life was much better in the 1950s were much likelier to have been Trump voters than to have been either Biden voters or nonvoters. That particular lament distinguished Trump folks from other Americans much more sharply than did age, sex, and education鈥攁mong Republicans and non-Republicans alike. More recently, in 2023, the American Enterprise Institute compiled dozens of survey questions conducted over 80-plus years asking Americans whether things were, at the time of the interview, better or worse than they had been in the past. Americans generally said that the past was better, certainly better in the nation鈥檚 values, morals, and 鈥渨ays of life.鈥 And it was the 1950s above all eras that respondents viewed as the best of times. But Republicans, the other studies show, love the 鈥50s the most.