![\"\"](\"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rage-300x200.jpg\")
VOA \u2014 Rage is a powerful motivator in American politics, capable of boosting voter motivation and filling campaign coffers, according to political science and public policy professors who have studied the matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nVOA \u2014 Rage is a powerful motivator in American politics, capable of boosting voter motivation and filling campaign coffers, according to political science and public policy professors who have studied the matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They say that\u00a0stoking voter anger helped elevate Donald Trump to the White House in 2016, and helped Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPoliticians themselves are deliberately seeking to make Americans angry and they do this because when people are angry, they tend to vote loyally for their own party’s slate of candidates up and down the ballot,\u201d says Steven Webster, assistant professor of political science at Indiana University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, put simply, an angry voter is a loyal voter and because politicians are concerned with getting reelected, they make us angry to further that goal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The strategic use of anger is not new, according to Webster,\u00a0who says it\u2019s been\u00a0marshalled\u00a0in politics since the country\u2019s founding. Webster explored the phenomenon in his book, \u201cAmerican Rage: How Anger Shapes Our Politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump is certainly a very blatant, for lack of a better word, example of politicians\u2019 use of anger,\u201d he says. \u201cDemocratic politicians use anger just as much as Republicans do.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0In fact, Democrats are quite angry right now. It’s kind of ironic, Joe Biden has this whole thing of saying he wants to restore the soul of America, but Joe Biden and his allies are still eliciting anger at Donald Trump, because anger is an action-oriented motivation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A recent poll <\/a>finds that 61% of Biden supporters say they would be angry if Trump wins, while 37% of Trump supporters say they\u00a0would\u00a0be angry if Biden wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can get people to feel angry, that’s a very useful political tool if the balance is thrown to the side of going with this guttural feeling rather than your rational thoughts,\u201d says\u00a0Bonnie Stabile, professor of public policy at George Mason University.\u00a0<\/p>\n While stirring up and harnessing anger might be good for political campaigns,\u00a0the academics say\u00a0it can ultimately erode Americans\u2019 trust in the federal government and, more broadly, faith in the democratic system.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A Pew Research poll <\/a>finds that only 1 in 5 U.S. adults, just 20%, trust the federal government to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d just about always or most of the time.<\/p>\n \u201cTrusting government tends to facilitate a culture in which we can have bipartisan cooperation,\u201d Webster says. \u201cTrusting government perpetuates support for the social welfare programs that seek to make society better off, things like Medicare and Medicaid and\u00a0Social\u00a0Security. And so, without this trust in government, it’s really hard to sustain things that we\u2019ve really come to take for granted as Americans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Public trust<\/a> in the national government has\u00a0been in decline\u00a0for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/im-media.voltron.voanews.com\/Drupal\/01live-166\/styles\/sourced_737px_wide\/s3\/2020-09\/AP_18073069020394.jpg?itok=MEyxaYnD\")
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/im-media.voltron.voanews.com\/Drupal\/01live-166\/styles\/sourced_737px_wide\/s3\/2020-09\/AP_20261540415718%281%29.jpg?itok=b4kje9CR\")
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>