The Democrats' White Flight

[Joanne98]

By any standard, white voters' rejection of Democrats in November's elections was daunting and even historic.

Fully 60 percent of whites nationwide backed Republican candidates for the House of Representatives; only 37 percent supported Democrats, according to the National Election Poll exit poll conducted by Edison Research. Not even in Republicans' 1994 congressional landslide did they win that high a percentage of the white vote.

Moreover, those results may understate the extent of the white flight from the Democratic Party, according to a National Journal analysis of previously unpublished exit-poll data provided by Edison Research.

The new data show that white voters not only strongly preferred Republican House and Senate candidates but also registered deep disappointment with President Obama's performance, hostility toward the cornerstones of the current Democratic agenda, and widespread skepticism about the expansive role for Washington embedded in the party's priorities. On each of those questions, minority voters expressed almost exactly the opposite view from whites.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/the-democrats-white-flight/69047/

People over 65 are the largest white demographic. DUH!

We won't have that problem in 2012 when the kids come out to vote again.

[Agent William]

1. I approve of your optimism in the last two lines.

And also whites are an ever decreasing percentage of the voting electorate, which is encouraging given this study. We just have to make sure that the democrats don't either alienate the minority vote or allow the GOP to move in on those voters. I can't image to GOP taking an significant share of the minority vote, but ya never know what tricks the republicans have lined up.

And yes the kids will be out to vote in 2012, I know I'll be back in the states to vote myself.

:hi:

[classof56]

2. Well, I'm white, over 65 and I voted Democratic.

For whatever that's worth. Wish someone would give me the chance to answer all those questions, but for some reason I'm never polled. Doesn't matter--I'd never vote for another repub again no matter what. Don't understand those that do, especially in my age group, but have a sneaking suspicion it has little to do with the president's performance. Just a thought...

[CTyankee]

4. Ditto. Hubby and I are over 65. Life long Democrats.

[jwirr]

7. Me to, that poll actually makes me ashamed. Definitely we did not

solve the problem in the 60-70s. Our hope will have to rest in our children and grandchildren.

[pinto]

3. What's missing in this breakdown - more registered Republicans turned out

than registered Democrats across the board. One breakdown of total turnout I've read -
R - 54%, D - 46%.

And, more registered Republicans are white vis-a-vis Democrats. I suspect this is a tempest in a tea pot, so to speak...

[littlewolf]

5. yes more white R's showed up vice white D's ... but

what hurt the D's the most was the indies ... they went overwhelmingly to the R's ...

[jtuck004]

10. +1 (but they keep trying) n/t

[Still Sensible]

6. In non-presidential years, people who

are angry and want to vote against something will turn out in higher percentages. The Gop-teabaggers- and their Faux , Beck, Limpballs allies turned up the anger and turned out the vote. Coupled with lukewarm support from democrats, that is all that happened here. It wasn't a mandate from the populous to undo everything Obama, as some try to profess. Unfortunately, while it wasn't such a mandate (the President's numbers now are about what they were before), this phenomena did result in losing House control.

The folks that follow Faux, Beck, Limpballs, et al, are quite tilted toward older and white... the fuckers riled 'em up and they went to the polls. End of story.

[notesdev]

8. There's more going on than that

According to the image accompanying the article, we also had the worst performance with nonwhite voters in 2 decades.

http://media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=4066


The bottom line is the same as it was in 2006 and 2008. People are very unhappy with the status quo and whoever is running the status quo gets destroyed at the polls. I'd wager people are also particularly pissed at how "hope and change" turned into "more of the same". This country sincerely wants hope and change - unfortunately it turned out to be just a campaign slogan.

"Hope and Change" is Obama's "Read my lips!", turning a brand new generation of idealist hopefuls into bitter cynics.

[Dan]

9. laughter, they are playing with the numbers

A number of people did not vote - probably a lot more Dems than GOP. So, by default and definition when you have a lower turnout of Dems and a high turnout of traditional GOP voters - the vote will be skewed... laughter, anything they can use to make a story....

[HeroTwins]

11. The old racists will eventually die off. In ten years, we won't even be talking about this.

[marlakay]

12. A lot of peole didn't vote this time

Especially the young and I understand why.

The democrats are almost the same these days so people say why bother.