"the world according to J.R.; a grain of salt is recommended."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
NY Times Election Analysis
The NY Times has an interesting analysis of the election which suggests that the results might indicate the end of the "southern strategy." I hope so, but I'm not so sure.
I agree the Southern strategy should be jettisoned. There are plenty of reasons for Southerners to vote Republican other than race. The south and the southwest are still growing areas of the country and so the politics in these areas are shifting.
I do find the tone of the NY Times article to be rather condescending, which is such a surprise. These poor, ignorant southerners voted for McCain because the other fellow was black or maybe a Muslim. But the enlightened African-American population voted for Obama at a 96% clip because he is such an oratorical genius with solid experience; I think not.
I think racial prejudice only had a slight impact on the election results. African-Americans typically vote Democratic at about 90% in presidential elections. It seems that percentage went up to 96%. Obviously there was increased excitement due to the historic nature of this particular candidate.
Southern whites seemed to have voted against Obama at a slightly higher percentage than they did against John Kerry in 2004. This may be because Obama is African-American or may be because Obama's policies / liberal rating are even more offensive to Southern whites than Kerry's in 2004.
J.R., what do you think about the hispanic voting results for the election? It seems that the extreme anti-immigrant stance of that certain wing of the Republican party has hurt them. I presume you agree with Pres. Bush more moderate approach to the illegal immigration issue. He has done much better with the hispanic vote percentage in the past.
The conservative right wing of the Republican Party flushed the hispanic vote away. They're stance is ridiculous. We can't deport 12 million illegals, a border fence is insulting and a waste of millions of dollars, and those people are not here to steal jobs or get on welfare, but to work and realize the American dream.
The whole thing is a fear of those little brown people. Ridiculous!
"I think racial prejudice only had a slight impact on the election results."
Get real Cousin Mark. In Houston we had, what, 30 maybe, Judge contests, that were won by 1-3% points? That was due to straight ticket voting. The problem I have with that? The majority of those voters went in to vote for the President, and the President only. They had no idea who was running in any other race, what their qualifications were, or even what the race was. They didn't want to spend a lot of time inside voting, so hitting straight ticket was the easiest. They were also well coached that straight ticket voting was the way to go. These voters need to be educated that they can vote in just one race, then get the hell out of the booth so they don't screw up the other races. We lost a lot of good judges in Harris County this year because of the Democratic ticket and some freeloaders that jumped on for the ride. It will be an interesting year for the criminal, and possibly a sad one for the victim, here in da city.
4 comments:
I agree the Southern strategy should be jettisoned. There are plenty of reasons for Southerners to vote Republican other than race. The south and the southwest are still growing areas of the country and so the politics in these areas are shifting.
I do find the tone of the NY Times article to be rather condescending, which is such a surprise. These poor, ignorant southerners voted for McCain because the other fellow was black or maybe a Muslim. But the enlightened African-American population voted for Obama at a 96% clip because he is such an oratorical genius with solid experience; I think not.
I think racial prejudice only had a slight impact on the election results. African-Americans typically vote Democratic at about 90% in presidential elections. It seems that percentage went up to 96%. Obviously there was increased excitement due to the historic nature of this particular candidate.
Southern whites seemed to have voted against Obama at a slightly higher percentage than they did against John Kerry in 2004. This may be because Obama is African-American or may be because Obama's policies / liberal rating are even more offensive to Southern whites than Kerry's in 2004.
J.R., what do you think about the hispanic voting results for the election? It seems that the extreme anti-immigrant stance of that certain wing of the Republican party has hurt them. I presume you agree with Pres. Bush more moderate approach to the illegal immigration issue. He has done much better with the hispanic vote percentage in the past.
The conservative right wing of the Republican Party flushed the hispanic vote away. They're stance is ridiculous. We can't deport 12 million illegals, a border fence is insulting and a waste of millions of dollars, and those people are not here to steal jobs or get on welfare, but to work and realize the American dream.
The whole thing is a fear of those little brown people. Ridiculous!
"I think racial prejudice only had a slight impact on the election results."
Get real Cousin Mark. In Houston we had, what, 30 maybe, Judge contests, that were won by 1-3% points? That was due to straight ticket voting. The problem I have with that? The majority of those voters went in to vote for the President, and the President only. They had no idea who was running in any other race, what their qualifications were, or even what the race was. They didn't want to spend a lot of time inside voting, so hitting straight ticket was the easiest. They were also well coached that straight ticket voting was the way to go. These voters need to be educated that they can vote in just one race, then get the hell out of the booth so they don't screw up the other races. We lost a lot of good judges in Harris County this year because of the Democratic ticket and some freeloaders that jumped on for the ride. It will be an interesting year for the criminal, and possibly a sad one for the victim, here in da city.
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