It’s not white working-class voters who won’t vote for Obama
It’s non-black working-class voters.
Big difference.
Obama has not had any difficulty pulling white voters, per se. Where he can’t crack the nut is with the working class, whether they’re white, Latino/Latina, or something else — anything but African-American. The reason AAs are the exception is obvious: Obama has tremendous support from the entire African-American community, understandably so. AAs from every economic stratum support his candidacy. But if Obama weren’t black, working-class AAs wouldn’t vote for him either.
And no wonder. Working people need health care and Social Security, not a goddamn Unity Pony and a speech.
I’m moved to remark on this because the meme is circulating that Obama’s problem is that white working-class voters are all a bunch of Archie Bunkers who are too racist to vote for him. This meme is being pushed aggressively by the Obama campaign, especially after the huge Pennsylvania loss. Straight from Axelrod’s mouth to the pages of the New York Times, where it’s dressed up as thoughtful analysis.
The purpose of the racist meme is fivefold:
1. To distract from Obama’s real weakness — that he has nothing to offer working people and can’t get them to vote for him to save his damn life;
2. To excuse his failure by instead blaming the voters;
3. To imply that the only reason people vote for Hillary is because they’re racists, which just goes to show how nasty and icky Hillary is;
4. To subliminally remind people that the Clintons themselves are racists, at least according to the Obama campaign;
5. To once again mine the seemingly inexhaustible vein of white guilt that sends shivers up the legs of the liberal elites.
The constant repetition of the phrase “white working class” (or variations thereon) is crucial to propagating the meme. And it’s false, because it erases Latino/Latinas along with every other non-AA ethnic group, and shifts the focus away from “working class” (which is where it belongs).
So please, stop saying white working class. Don’t play into Axelrod’s game.
P.S. Similar thing with older voters.
9 Responses to “It’s not white working-class voters who won’t vote for Obama”
-
Lost Clown says:
Thank you. I had a friend who pitched a fit on my lj b/c of my posting on all this misogyny and he kept crying that we’d disenfranchise AAs. My rebuttal was that we’d disenfranchise women and the working class and shouldn’t we be worried about that? Apparently it only matters if their race is AA and not latino, etc. Which just pisses me off. I don’t want to disenfranchise anyone, but seriously how can you judge which race matters more then the other. If you look at it the way politicos do, latinos are soon going to be a larger group then AAs in our country.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:27 pm EST -
No Blood for Hubris says:
And women are, of course, 50% of the electorate, are they not?
-
Lost Clown says:
But *we’re* making this all about gender. Nevermind that Olbermann’s making comments about beating/killing Hillary. It’s *all our fault.*
-
slythwolf says:
And women are, of course, 50% of the electorate, are they not?
51%, actually. Or possibly more–I don’t know how the distribution breaks down when you cut the under-18s out of the bargain, considering we live longer than men.
-
donna darko says:
54% of the electorate in the last several elections.
-
CognitiveDissonance says:
Yes, women are definitely one of the largest voting blocks, particularly in the democratic party. I’ve also read recently that working class is approximately 58% of voters. Those 2 groups alone should be a winning block for a general election. To throw both under the bus is just suicidal. Or what I’m beginning to suspect - that they want the nomination at all costs, even if they can’t win the general.
-
Carmonn says:
But you know, they’re not guaranteed a party in perpetuity. I guess that people like Kerry and Dean are motivated by a combination of misogyny and Clinton hatred, but if Obama is the nominee, not only are the Democrats going to lose what should have been a slam dunk election, they’re probaly going to face losses in the House and Senate as well, even if they try to pretend otherwise. The Democrats can’t go on as a national party in this weak pathetic form, unable to win elections, unable to accomplish anything when they do. They better wake up to the fact that their stupidity is going to destroy this party completely.
-
SKM says:
latinos are soon going to be a larger group then AAs in our country.–Lost Clown
In fact, I believe they already are: 14.8% latino compared with 12.8% AA according to the US Census Bureau. small nitpick, but likely relevant to this election and those to come.
-
Lost Clown says:
Thanks SKM.
