Anybody see this article about white voters yesterday?

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

(Actually, I guess it was today.)

I know that particularly with my previous comments in other threads about Georgia and southern demographics that I'm in danger of seeming obsessed with race, and I'm not really. It's just the Obama's candidacy is apparently allowing people to talk about voting trends and race in a way I don't remember them doing it before (or maybe we generally weren't that interested because we didn't assume it would play as big a role in the outcome as people are afraid it will for Obama). The article linked below suggests that a majority of White voters had not voted for the Democratic candidate since 1964, and that blew my mind.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200...politico/13790

I would have assumed that the years that Clinton won that the majority of Whites had voted for him.

So, it seems like it's going to be very hard to accurately explain an Obama loss, assuming that it's possible for Obama to lose, as being attributable especially to racism [eta: against Obama in particular anyway] , unless the percentage of whites voting Democratic drops quite a bit.

The issue of race is so complex to begin with that even if Obama lost (and seriously, it's still anyone's race) there'd be no way to prove it was due to racism/prejudice among Democrats or not.

I don't think most voters are are thoughtful about their vote as the people of GC generally are. Do I generally think of white people as racist republicans? Not really, but I do view most republicans as at least a little bit racist.

Sorry.

[DaemonSeid]

I didn't know it was Obama's candidacy fault that race came up....gosh.


I always kinda thought that if ANYONE running for president who was not a caucasian male was gonna attract attention .....say like Hillary and in a lesser sense Sarah....

I guess it's wrong to discuss race?

hmmm who woulda thunk?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

I didn't know it was Obama's candidacy fault that race came up....gosh.


I always kinda thought that if ANYONE running for president who was not a caucasian male was gonna attract attention .....say like Hillary and in a lesser sense Sarah....

I guess it's wrong to discuss race?

hmmm who woulda thunk?

Sometimes you can so willfully misunderstand.

No one was blaming Obama for anything.

Honestly, can you remember race articles with this much data coming out in previous elections? What's the main variable that's changed on the issue of race?

Sarah Palin or Hillary as VP weren't really as historic seeing as we had Geradine Ferraro back in the day. And I bet there were a lot of article about women voters then too.

And who suggested it was wrong to talk about race?

Why do you try to pull this crap?

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Sometimes you can so willfully misunderstand.

No one was blaming Obama for anything.

You would be surprised...but if you look at the greater detail....when has race and sex and voting habits have ever been this 'important'?

We can gloss over this as much as we want but face facts...a black man has NEVER been this close...not to mention has one been THIS POPULAR that all of a sudden has our vote been a factor.

Of COURSE you can't ever rememebr it being a factor because none has EVER gotten this far.

I will tell you this much, America has and will show it's true colors before this thing is over and socialogists will have a field day with this election for years to come regardless...

Consider this too, look at who McCain picked for VEEP...an underqualified woman IMO done to take some of the shine off of Obama's campaign and not just to get women votes...it's a stunt to show 'Hey, we Repubs can be diverse too!"

I think I said that before....

Anywho....there are still a lot of people who are terrified at the thought of a man like Obama as president...SOME of West Virginia is an example of a state that showed it in spades....

Been watching the news lately?



heh....

[pinksirfidel]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Consider this too, look at who McCain picked for VEEP...an underqualified woman IMO done to take some of the shine off of Obama's campaign and not just to get women votes...it's a stunt to show 'Hey, we Repubs can be diverse too!"

Diverse?! Ha! Have you seen the Republican Convention? Old, white guys with money! No exactly representative of the diverse makeup of this country.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

The issue of race is so complex to begin with that even if Obama lost (and seriously, it's still anyone's race) there'd be no way to prove it was due to racism/prejudice among Democrats or not.

I don't think most voters are are thoughtful about their vote as the people of GC generally are. Do I generally think of white people as racist republicans? Not really, but I do view most republicans as at least a little bit racist.

Sorry.

I suppose it may seem like it makes sense to since Republicans often seem to want to limit the ways that many people think racism can be addressed or redressed. But I think it may have a lot less to actually do with race, in their minds anyway, than it has to do with their perception of appropriate role of government.

And I will further speculate that many Republican strongholds are places where the historic impact of racism is less visible to the people living there today. If you grew up in a relatively affluent suburb after the schools were legally desegregated and what you experienced directly was students of all races having essentially equal opportunity (at least from your perspective), families of various races and ethnicities prospering equally, etc, it may be more difficult to understand why racism still regarded as such a central issue. It may be more of a blindness than an actually hostility.

But even if you see it, you may not think that it can be effectively addressed with government action. And you might be kind of disgusted by what some efforts to help have meant in terms of political reality. (Atlanta City government under Bill Campbell may have used minority contracting in a corrupt way, for example. Sure, white people have also been guilty of corruption in big city government, but that doesn't make bad government any more satisfying for people who aren't corrupt.)

I wasn't thinking of the racism of Democrats particularly. I was just astonished to discover that the white vote wasn't split more frequently in favor of the Democrats. I don't think it really has much to do with racial policy from the white perspective. While Affirmative Action can still fire people up, I don't know that race generally is a single issue that drives many people to the polls on behalf of particular Republican candidates.

[jwright25]

“A typical male voter in that category will likely be between 30 and 59 years old, live in a suburb or small town in the South or Midwest, and be married with no children living at home. He’s likely to be a Republican or independent, moderate or conservative, not a member of a labor union, pro-life, and in favor smaller government. Finally, he’s most likely to be Protestant but not a weekly churchgoer.”

Damn. Put some golf clubs in this man's hands and you are looking at my husband.

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I do view most republicans as at least a little bit racist.

May I ask you to elaborate? And do you mean most "Registered Republicans" who vote that party or "Elected Republicans" who actually write public policy? (Or is this another GC Race War?? ha!)

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by jwright25

May I ask you to elaborate? And do you mean most "Registered Republicans" who vote that party or "Elected Republicans" who actually write public policy? (Or is this another GC Race War?? ha!)

Just republicans in general. It's a little too early in the morning for me to elaborate, but I'll try to remember to come back to this thread later.