Half of white women continue to vote Republican. What's wrong with them?

[turbinetree]

Moira Donegan

Some 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election – the real story of white women voters is both more grim and more complex than the figure reveals

For the past two years, the American left has been haunted by a number: 53. It is the percentage of white women who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. In the sectors of the left where the figure and its implications have become a perennial theme, the number is treated both as disappointing and darkly unsurprising, a reflection of the conventional wisdom that white women would rather choose the racism espoused by the Republican party than join in the moral coalition represented by men of color and other women. On the left, this number can elicit exasperation, rage, and even suspicions about the moral legitimacy of the feminist project. It casts doubts on the political convictions of liberal white women, colors leftist perception of female-coded liberal political projects like the Women’s March, and has prompted long-overdue calls for increased political leadership by women of color.

The real story of white women voters is both more grim and more complex than the 53% figure reveals. The truth is that the 53% of white women who voted for Trump in the last presidential election was actually an improvement on even worse numbers from previous cycles. White women supported Mitt Romney at 56% in 2012, and supported George W Bush by 55% in 2004. Even these robust showings by Republican white women were down from their previous highs: Ronald Reagan won a staggering 62% of white women in 1984. All of these totals were lower than those for white men, who continue to support Republicans at alarming rates, but they were solid majorities nonetheless.

Preliminary results from this week’s midterm elections seem to suggest that the trend is continuing, with Republican candidates slowly losing the support of suburban white women across the country. According to the Wall Street Journal, white women’s overall support for Republicans slipped from the infamous 53% in 2016 down to 50% in 2018. CNN’s polling places white women’s support for Republicans just lower, at 49%. As the Republican party has shifted its rhetoric away from drab Romneyite fiscal conservatism and towards the sadistic racism that is Donald Trump’s stock and trade, there is some evidence that growing numbers of white women are turning away, repulsed.

This shift makes white women at once one of the largest voting blocs in the nation and also one of its most divided, least ideologically coherent demographics. No other race and gender group is so split. There is a battle on for the soul of America, between the peevish, racist cruelty of Trump and his supporters and a vision of inclusion, justice, and decency forwarded by an increasingly diverse coalition on the left. Much of that battle is being waged in white women’s hearts, with the left hoping that more and more of them will break with their historical loyalty to white supremacy and embrace a kinder, more sustainable model for the future.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/09/white-women-vote-republican-why

[dalton99a]

1. They don't want nonwhites taking their husbands' jobs and marrying their babies.

Yes, it's that simple

[vlyons]

2. They don't want grandchildren with coffee colored skin,

frizzy hair, or Asian eyes.

[dalton99a]

8. And have to eat weird food with inlaws

possibly of a different religion, in which case more weird stuff

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Likewise, what's wrong with the farmers who voted for Trump?

Or the people who have a child with a pre-existing medical condition who vote for Republicans?

A lot of people aren't paying attention to which party actually does what.

[Submariner]

4. They vote for who their husbands tell them to vote for

subservient females to NRA gun humper husbands.

[CentralMass]

5. A related article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/12/22/whats-wrong-with-white-women-voters-heres-the-problem-with-that-question/
".. it also ignores the fact that a majority of white women have voted for the Republican presidential nominee in all but two elections since 1952."

"Among women overall, 54 percent identified as Democrats or lean Democratic and 38 percent said they were or lean Republican, according to the Pew Research Center’s party identification report. Among white women, however, voter identification was split almost evenly — 47 percent Republican and 46 percent Democrat. Still the percentage of white women who identify as Republicans is far lower than white men, 61 percent of whom say they are or lean Republican.

Women, just like men, tend to vote based on their party affiliation and ideology, and Dittmar said it’s wrong to assume these women don’t know what they’re doing. For some women, free markets, smaller government and curbing abortion “is pro-women. They see that as particularly helpful to women and families, so it doesn’t seem to stand in contrast to voting for somebody from that party.”

[NurseJackie]

6. Religion? Subservience to their GOP husbands? Bigotry? Racism? Fear?

Those are the only things I can think of.

[CincyDem]

7. Take it in alphabetical order...they're white before they're women.

IMHO, white women spend their lives living on two sides of the privilege coin. White relative to non-white. Women relative to men. That 50% of white women voted republican implies a hierarchy: better to be a white woman than a black man...racial privilege is more valuable gender privilege.

I don't buy this argument that it's about their "men" and jobs and babies. I think it's about these women themselves. They've concluded republicans will reward them more for being white than hurt them for being female. It's a 3 steps forward 2 steps back calculation...and they're good with that.

[phylny]

9. 47% of white women did not vote for Trump.

This country isn't getting any older, and it isn't getting any whiter. We're moving in the right direction.

Says this 60-year-old white woman.

[RazzleCat]

10. Its way more complex than that

I live in the white women voting for trump area. The issue is not just a single item. You have a combination of many factors.

1. Racism

2. Lack of education (mostly high school, and or some college).

3. Economic anxiety, both for themselves and there spouses.

4. Lack of information/understanding of what each party represents. Tribalism

#4 is very important, I live in Missouri, south of St. Louis. Here is how my area voted. Yes on increasing minimum wages (democrat position), yes on medical weed (democrat position), yes on less gerrymandering, and more strident lobbying disclosure (democrat position), also voted prior this year to protect unions (again democrat position). So why did these same women also vote for all republican politicians who were opposed to each of the above. My only thoughts are they just don't know what the person they are voting for stands for, and or receive all there voting information from political ads, facebook, fox news. When they are given and easy to understand proposition on the ballot (see all of the above), they vote progressive every single time, but when they they select a representative they vote republican every single time I think they just don't know.

[Jake Stern]

11. One of the most trumpy women I know

votes GOP because she believes that Dems want to "take away her right to defend herself" aka her gun.

[dembotoz]

12. they do not have preexisting conditions, not their uterus under attack, they think they get same pay

being conservative is easier if you have not been screwed over.

if poor folks are hidden away you do not see them
if all the folks you see are white you do not see discrimination
if your family is healthy, healthcare is wonderful but too expensive cause you pay for what you do not use


ozzie and harriet prob would vote gop cause why not?

they need to get woke and how not sure.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Racism, that's it. That and the white male hegemony *is* in their interests.

[libdem4life]

14. Stuck back with Tammy Wynette...Standin' by their man...any man...misplaced protection reflex.

Listen and weep. Or... as when HRC was running...staying home and baking cookies...anyone else remember?


https://www.google.com/search?q=tammy+wynette+stand+by+your+man+live&rlz=1CASMAI_enUS811&oq=tammy+wynette+stand&aqs=chrome.5.0j69i57j0l4.7509j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[spooky3]

15. according to this Pew study, the % is 47, not 53.

http://www.people-press.org/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/

[violetpastille]

16. Same thing that's wrong with white men.

[GeorgeGist]

17. Maybe what's wrong with them is ...

Fuckme pumps have warped their brains.