What happened in the 2024 election, and what can we expect from Donald Trump during these next four years? In our follow-up conversation, Kyle Morrison describes why Kamala Harris and Democrats lost favor among many US Americans and how US voters shifted during the 2024 election. Even though we talked in January, 2025 in the weeks before Trump was sworn into office, his predictions of what to watch out for during a Trump second term still remain salient.
He also describes what Democrats can do to win back power. Voters tend to vote based on how they feel, and he discusses how to resonate with voters in political campaigns in the current age of social media.
Kyle is an anthropologist specializing in US moderate conservative movements, particularly conservatives who do not support Donald Trump or the contemporary Republican party (sometimes also called “Never Trumpers”). He also has years of experience conducting grassroots organizing and developing consensus across competing political perspectives to promote equitable labor practices.
What is it like to feel kicked out of one’s party? What role does social media play in dividing people politically in the United States and Canada, and what can we do to bridge these gaps? And finally, what are the implications of all of these on presidential elections?
I interviewed Kyle Morrison to talk about these questions. He’s an anthropologist who has studied conservatives or those leaning conservative who have felt disgruntled with Donald Trump and the contemporary Republican party (sometimes also called Never Trumpers). Here, he talks about what he learned from talking with them about how they navigate the current divisive political world in the United States and what that may mean for the upcoming 2024 election.
In this first part, we discuss the experiences such conservatives have and the implications for this presidential election and the last several presidential elections.
He also describes how through his research with this group, he learned to listen to and engage with people he does not agree with politically and ways to do that in the current political landscape. He is not a conservative but wanted to use this research to seek to understand those on the “other side.” We in the United States live in one of the most politically divided eras of our history, making such initiatives all the more important to foster empathy and understanding with those one disagrees with.
This is the first interview in a new podcast interview series where I talk with others from around the world to learn how different people navigate life. This first interview focuses on a political anthropology expert in US politics, but my interviews will be of people from different cultures around the world – some experts, some not – to learn more about humanity and the different ways people navigate our complex contemporary world.
Note: We recorded the interview a few days before Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party candidate for the election, so you will hear us talk about Biden as the Democratic candidate.
