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Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Democrats Should Write Off "The White Vote"

For whatever reason I am already hearing the pundit choir ringing changes on the inevitable Concern Chorus over Democrats losing the highly desirable wonderful White Vote blah blah blah. Such arguments tend to disregard the fact that working class white women, educated working class white folks, urban working class whites are all already part of the Obama coalition, and there is no reason to allow neo-confederate science-denying gun-nutty forced-pregnancy zealots to represent "The White Vote" in the first place, thank you very much. Obama already won nearly half of this shrinking demographic, what's to worry about? That aside, I do think Democrats are wrong to pander to aging undereducated straight white working class males. Not to put too fine a point on it Democrats should be focused entirely on getting working class women and people of color to the polls who historically don't participate in mid-terms in the same numbers they do in Presidential elections. I think pandering to the knuckledraggers turns off more likely voters than it gains (and usually such "pandering" just translates to advocating more stupid evil crap to nobody's benefit in the longer term), while making a targeted case to working class women and people of color will reach reachable working class white males anyway. Raise the minimum wage against Republican opposition and then get back to me about "The White Vote." And in a rather surprising and fortunate turn of events I happen to think plenty of smart Democratic politicians and strategists agree with me, which is why Democrats are fielding so many women candidates for Senate, and raising money on exposes of GOP voter disenfranchisement efforts and weird patriarchal christianism. It is quite true that I hold out little hope for votes from hicks with dicks and am uninterested in the nasal twang of their siren song. As I said, over-educated urban working class white guys like me are already in the Democrat's big tent, of course -- but the richer we white assholes get the less reliable we turn out to be, white-racist patriarchal corporate-militarism being what it is. Indeed, I would go so far as to predict that one of the few demographics the GOP in its current ulcerous incarnation has growth potential for will be white gay guys with money the second they feel they've got their bourgeois marriage rights and public accommodations secure, at which point all too many will forget everything about who brung em and rediscover how much they hate paying taxes to contribute a fair share to a world worth living in.

3 comments:

jimf said...

> For whatever reason I am already hearing the pundit choir
> ringing changes on the inevitable Concern Chorus over
> Democrats losing the highly desirable wonderful White Vote. . .

As in yesterday's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/us/politics/democrats-try-wooing-ones-who-got-away-white-men.html

> It is quite true that I hold out little hope for votes from
> hicks with dicks and am uninterested in the nasal twang of
> their siren song.

And what a song it is! It plays endlessly from TV sets in public
places in the NY/NJ metro area:
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/27/i_lost_my_dad_to_fox_news_how_a_generation_was_captured_by_thrashing_hysteria/

Here's an interesting analysis I stumbled across the other
day:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary-faq/
-------------------
Let’s examine exactly how opinions have changed on a
host of important political issues. These are taken from
the National Election Survey, Pew Research, and Gallup.
I’ve tried to avoid cherry-picking – I took every issue
I could find, starting from the first year data was
available. In cases where I could find two different
polls, I kept the one with a longer data series:
====

Written by a LessWronger, no less, who goes by the name "Yvain"
there, but on this (new?) blog calls himself "Scott S. Alexander".

http://slatestarcodex.com/sample-page/

jimf said...

> Written by a LessWronger, no less, who goes by the name "Yvain"
> there, but on this (new?) blog calls himself "Scott S. Alexander".

And who also used to have a LiveJournal blog, which he closed,
I gather, after getting a medical degree -- I gather he's a
psychiatrist, at least according to http://archive.is/njFcW --
and wanting to obfuscate his identity on the Web.

FWIW, the LiveJournal posts (in the form of page captures) are archived
at:
http://archive.is/offset=480/squid314.livejournal.com

There's some interesting stuff there to browse through.

And also on the new blog; e.g.:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/04/book-review-the-perfect-health-diet/
Book Review: The Perfect Health Diet
Posted on March 4, 2014 by Scott Alexander

(His real name, despite the attempt at obfuscation, isn't hard
to find if you really try, but since he has asked that people not
mention it, I won't. But he **is** on the staff of MetaMed. ;-> )

jimf said...

Ah, the irony. All in one issue of the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/us/politics/obama-factor-adds-to-fears-of-democrats.html
---------------------
Obama Factor Adds to Fears of Democrats
By JONATHAN MARTIN and ASHLEY PARKER
MARCH 15, 2014

. . .

Democrats are becoming increasingly alarmed about their midterm
election fortunes amid President Obama’s sinking approval ratings,
a loss in a special House election in Florida last week, and
millions of dollars spent by Republican-aligned groups attacking
the new health law. . .

[T]wo races create unanticipated opportunities improving
Republicans’ chances to take control of the Senate.
No prominent Democrats predict their party will win back
the House. . .

One Democratic lawmaker, who asked not to be identified,
said Mr. Obama was becoming “poisonous” to the party’s
candidates. . .

The [campaign spending] gap is yawning. Outside Republican
groups have spent about $40 million in this election cycle,
compared with just $17 million by Democrats. . .

In addition to problems with the health law, the White House
is losing the support of Democrats on key appointments such
as Mr. Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil
Rights Division and his choice to be surgeon general. . .

Republicans also seem to be benefiting from the argument —-
reinforced by advertising and by their media surrogates —-
that Mr. Obama has presided over an activist government that
has overreached and proved incompetent. . .

Most Democrats up for re-election are trying to put some distance
between themselves and the president. . .

Other Democrats are openly critical of the health care law in
their advertisements. In one ad. . . the narrator says she
“blew the whistle on the disastrous health care website,
calling it ‘stunning ineptitude. . .’ . . .
====

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/business/income-gap-meet-the-longevity-gap.html
---------------------
Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap
By ANNIE LOWREY
MARCH 15, 2014

Fairfax County, Va., and McDowell County, W.Va., are separated by
350 miles, about a half-day’s drive. . . Perhaps the greatest distance
between the two counties is this: Fairfax is a place of the haves,
and McDowell of the have-nots. . .

One of the starkest consequences of that divide is seen in the
life expectancies of the people there. Residents of Fairfax County
are among the longest-lived in the country: Men have an average
life expectancy of 82 years and women, 85, about the same as
in Sweden. In McDowell, the averages are 64 and 73, about
the same as in Iraq. . .
====

But they don't need no socialist health care!