The Salon.com article below could be described as somewhat raw. Calling southern white male voters "Bubba" won't help the Democratic cause. But the fact is, demographics are changing the electorate. Maybe all the anti-immmigration hysteria is really about tryiing to keep potential (Democratic) voters out of the U.S.
Well...as long as people like Senator Jeff Sessions and Gov. Mitt Romney keep insulting immigrants and other U.S. Latinos, the Republicans don't stand a chance. This time, Bubba won't save anyone. And Latinos voters will remember those insults when they go to the polls.
_____
So long, white boy
Could 2008 be the year that Democrats finally admit an old sweetheart is never coming back, and stop pandering to the white male voter?
By Thomas F. Schaller
Salon.com
Sept. 17, 2007
| Those who have been closely following the politics of the Democratic primaries may have noticed that someone is missing -- and I'm not referring to Bob Shrum, the Rev. Al Sharpton or an as-yet-undiscovered "Gravel Girl."
I'm talking about the white male voter, or at least a certain long-coveted variety thereof. He is variously known as "NASCAR dad" -- that shirt-sleeved, straight-talkin', these-colors-don't-run fella who votes his cultural values above all else -- or "Bubba," as Steve Jarding and Dave "Mudcat" Saunders affectionately call him in their book, "Foxes in the Henhouse." Start looking on milk cartons for Bubba because he has vanished, and not a moment too soon: The Democratic obsession with the down-home, blue-collar, white male voter, that heartbreaker who crossed the aisle to the Republicans many decades ago, may finally be coming to a merciful end.
...[T]he underlying reason may be demographics. In 1952, according to calculations performed by Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz for Salon, white males were nearly half the American electorate. Thanks to the recent growth in the Latino population, however, the white male share is now dropping about a percentage point a year, accelerating a decline that began with the increased enfranchisement of African-Americans in the civil rights era. In next year's election, white males may account for fewer than one out of three voters. Bubba is no longer a kingmaker.
...In 2004, according to New York Times exit polls, Democrat Kerry won 38 percent of the total white male vote, confirming a familiar pattern. Kerry's share was basically the same that every Democratic presidential candidate has received since Michael Dukakis. In the four elections between 1988 and 2000, in fact, using New York Times exit poll results, the Democratic nominee won 36 percent, 37 percent, 38 percent and 36 percent, respectively, of votes cast by white men. Because white men cast between 33 and 36 percent of all votes in 2004, that means a mere 12 to 13 percentage points of Kerry's 48 percent nationally came from white men -- about one vote in four. Nevertheless, and despite running against an incumbent in the first post-Sept. 11 presidential election, Kerry still came within one state of winning the Electoral College. Four years earlier, Al Gore also came within one state of reaching the magical 270 electors, and actually won the popular vote nationally -- while, like Kerry, receiving only about one-fourth of his support from white men.
For complete article click title of this post
cartoon: http://www.caglecartoons.com/images/preview/%7BC7187282-E073-415D-82FA-D24F0AE6E11D%7D.gif
No comments:
Post a Comment