http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/11619-why-do-poor-white-
voters-reject-the-democrats
Why Do Poor White Voters Reject the Democrats?
By Gary Younge, Guardian UK
27 May 12
The white working class is said to 'vote against its own interests'.
This only exposes the patronising assumptions of their accusers.
o white people who are struggling financially are going to vote
Republican. And not by a narrow margin. Asked in a recent Washington Post
poll which candidate would do more to advance their families' economic
interests, middle-class white voters who said they were struggling to
maintain their financial positions chose Mitt Romney. And not by a small
margin. In this category he beats Barack Obama by 58% to 32%.
Such news is generally greeted on the left by a mixture of despair and
ridicule. Here is a group of people, it seems, who simply do not
understand what's good for them. Whites without college degrees, as
reasonable if flawed an indicator of "class" in this country as exists,
backed John McCain by 58 to 40 in 2008 and George W Bush in 2004 and 2000
by similar amounts. Failing to sense the liberation the Democrats have in
store for them, they have been seized by a collective bout of false
consciousness and are once again set to vote against their own interests.
Having thus infantilised them as ostensible adults in need of protection
against themselves, progressives will then wonder why this particular
group of people do not flock to them at the polls.
There are several problems with this response - not least the
condescension towards a group that too many liberals feel too comfortable
disparaging - but for now let's just concentrate on two.
First, it interprets interests too narrowly. As a well-paid journalist, I
vote against my economic interests when I support parties that favour
wealth redistribution. That's because my own economic interests are not
the only things that interest me when I vote. I have a vision of a
society that I'd like to live in that goes beyond my own bank account.
It's patronising in the extreme to assume that poorer white people don't
understand that. I may disagree with their decisions to vote on issues
like abortion and gay marriage, but it's a different thing entirely to
suggest that when they prioritise those things it's because they don't
know what's best for them. Paradoxically, given that this argument comes
from liberals, it is underpinned by an insistence not that they be less
selfish, but more.
Secondly, if they were voting on economic issues alone, that might be a
reason not to vote Republican but it's not necessarily a reason to vote
Democrat. With unemployment still about 8%, many of the benefits of
healthcare reform still to kick in and bankers still running amok, it's
not like Democrats are offering much that would support the economic
interests of the poor, regardless of their race. It was Bill Clinton who
cut welfare, introduced the North American Free Trade Agreement and
repealed the Glass-Steagall Act - which helped make the recent crisis
possible. If you were going to trade your religious beliefs for economic
gain, you could be forgiven for demanding a better deal than that.
Indeed, the people most likely to have voted Democrat four years ago -
the young, the black and Latinos - are among the groups that have fared
worse under Obama. And all the polls suggest they're about to do it
again, albeit in lesser numbers. One could just as easily argue that they
are the dupes. Democrats have no god-given right to the votes of the poor
of any race and for the past 30 years can hardly claim to have earned
them.
In a country where class politics and class organisations are weak, it's
too easy to dump on the white working class as a bunch of know-nothings
when the problem is a political class that is a bunch of do-nothings.
That doesn't mean there isn't a problem here. When asked which candidate
is most likely to advance the economic interests of you or your family,
white people backed Romney 50 to 37 while non-whites backed Obama 71 to
22. That kind of discrepancy cannot just be put down to white people
being better off.
Since the mid-60s Republicans have seen an electoral opportunity in
appealing to the basest, racist sentiments of a section of the white
electorate. What became known as the "Nixon strategy" aimed to use the
dog whistle of racial symbolism - like "Welfare Queens" and "Willie
Horton" - to draw white southerners into the Republican fold and peel off
disaffected whites in the north too. It worked. Since the second world
war, Democrats have won the presidency with the white vote alone only
once - in 1964. One of the appeals for some whites of voting Republican
is a desire to maintain whatever limited racial privileges they have
acquired over the years combined with a fear that what little they have
will be taken away by feckless non-whites and undocumented migrants.
While in Nevada in 2010 I asked a white Republican without health
insurance why she wouldn't support a candidate who might give it to her.
"I never really got into that Obamacare insurance stuff," she said. "My
mind is focusing 250% on this illegal immigration."
None of this means all Republican supporters are racist. But it does
suggest they make their appeal on racial grounds and, as the poll shows,
it is effective. But it won't be for ever. Whites will be a minority in
the US in about 30 years. Republicans' appeal to Latinos is already
pitifully low and has made several western states, including Nevada, New
Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, extremely competitive.
Nonetheless, time and again during the Republican primaries Republicans
evoked racial themes in the whitest places. "I don't want to make black
people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money," said Rick
Santorum in Sioux City. "I want to give them the opportunity to go out
and earn the money."
"Right," said one audience member, as another woman nodded.
"And provide for themselves and their families," Santorum added.
The black population of Sioux City is 2.9%. In Woodbury County, in which
Sioux City sits, 13% of the people are on food stamps, an increase of 26%
since 2007, with nine times as many whites as blacks using them.
Just a few days later, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich said: "I
will go to the NAACP convention and explain to the African-American
community why they should demand paychecks [instead of] food stamps."
African-Americans make up 0.8% of Plymouth's population. Food stamp use
in Grafton County is 6% - a 48% increase since 2007.
Those who are struggling and believe Romney will improve their economic
lot are wrong, regardless of their race. Eight years of George W Bush
proved that. But it does not follow automatically from that that their
home should be supporting Democrats under whom things have gotten less
bad less quickly. True, those are the only two choices on offer. But if
you're poor they are not great choices. What they need is a party that
represents their interests. In a country where corporate money chooses
the candidates and therefore shapes the debate that will demand a change
in politics, not just politicians.
--
Subscribe:
zepps_essay...@yahoogroups.com
zepps_news...@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:
zepps_essays...@yahoogroups.com
zepps_news-...@yahoogroups.com
Not dead, in jail or a slave? Thank a liberal!