Who will win the Straight, Middle-Class White Male Vote?

[YoungDemCA]

Certainly a more monolithic and ideologically homogeneous voting bloc than "Women" or "Minorities"-yet no one seems to treat Straight, Middle-Class White Men like any other minority group. They are hardly ever mentioned as a group-certainly not as explicitly as I have mentioned them in this thread.

They are hardly ever mentioned, because they are considered part of-or equal to-the "norm" or 'the default." That's what privilege does-it makes the privileged groups "normal" and everyone else "Other" or "unusual" or "special interests." They are the ones who shout the loudest about "rugged individualism" and "traditional values"-ignoring, of course, that people who are not Straight Middle-Class White Men are individuals too, with their own stories and traditions and values that might actually be different from said "norm"-that is, if straight middle-class white men (as a group) were humble enough and curious enough to listen, to show interest in those who are different from them.

Suffice to say, a vast majority of this demographic, this privileged minority, votes accordingly-for the Republican Party. And there's no sign of that trend slowing down any time soon. But even among those who claim to support the Democratic Party, latent racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism (among other prejudices) can periodically be observed. Those of us at DU know that the bigotry of the privileged knows no ideological or partisan boundaries.

No, you don't get a cookie or brownie points for being one of the 20-25 percent (if that) of straight, middle-class white men who vote Democratic, for not being the kind of bigoted asshole that the Republican Party attracts like flies to cow shit. That's the bare minimum here. What you do get is the opportunity to check your own privilege, to challenge prejudice in yourself and in others, and to stand up and speak out against those who continue to deny women, minorities, the poor, the LGBT community, and all other oppressed, disenfranchised, and marginalized groups the same rights and opportunities that you-the straight, white, middle-class men-take for granted on a daily basis.

-My $0.02.

[bluestateguy]

1. In answer to your question

Usually Republicans.

[geek tragedy]

2. actually, it's white working class men who

are the monolithic base of the Republican party. Democrats poll about 5-10 points better with white middle class men than they do with their counterparts in the working class--it's still not a good showing, but significantly better.

It's more likely to be men who don't see themselves as privileged but wanting to cling to the few privileges--being white and male--that they have. "Hey, at least I'm white."

[YoungDemCA]

3. How are you defining "working class" vs "middle class"?

Income, employment status (self-employed vs employed wage/salary workers vs unemployed) or level of education? This is important.

If it's level of education, there are plenty of rather affluent white men (and even some outright rich ones) who lack a college degree. Business owners, contractors, entrepreneurs, wealthy retirees. Most of these would be in the "some college" category nowadays. And they would be overwhelmingly Republican as a group, I suspect. Todd Palin and Scott Walker are two prominent examples that spring to mind.

[geek tragedy]

4. hard to disentangle the two, but generally education level.

the generally dismal reality of this country is that white people of all kinds are really right wing, and have only been getting more rightwing as a whole for the past 40 years.

the only thing that's making the electorate more liberal is ethnic/racial diversification

this holds even in the case of the youth vote. white milennials are mostly Republican, but young people of color are overwhelmingly Democratic.

[YoungDemCA]

5. True

It's that dominant culture rearing it's ugly head as reactions to erosion (real or perceived) of privilege . Look at my edited reply though, for some additional things to think about.

[nomorenomore08]

6. On my darkest days, I wonder if maybe Kamau Kambon (nutty as he was/is) actually had a point...

[JustAnotherGen]

10. Add in the "ownership class"

Hubby had drinks this afternoon with two different HVAC guys - small companies. Wives who Bust their asses in their own jobs - they is pretty pissed this afternoon.

Two white guys - indie operators - one is 47 and one is 51.

They are starting to get "it" in Central NJ.

[shaayecanaan]

7. The minimum wage hike is polling very well with working class whites

It is one of the very few democratic proposals that is gaining traction amongst that group. They were never socially liberal, but they voted democratic as long as they could perceive that it was materially advantageous to them.

Its still no justification for voting republican, but the working class would say that the Democratic Party left them as much as it was the other way around.

[geek tragedy]

8. white working class voters started voting Republican when Democrats

became identified as the party trying to help African-Americans.

they were and in many cases are convinced that Democrats were going to help 'undeserving' minorities take their jobs away

[shaayecanaan]

9. Only in the south

[P]erhaps most importantly because it is so often overlooked in popular analysis, the defection of the white South from the Democratic Party plays a central role in driving the overarching story of white working class politics. As Bartels succinctly summarizes: “Democratic presidential vote share has declined by almost 20 percentage points among [S]outhern whites without college degrees. Among non-southern whites without college degrees, it has declined by one percentage point. That’s it. Fourteen elections, 52 years, one percentage point.” The same basic relationship holds across all income groups of non-college educated whites: a 20-point-gap between the South and the rest of the country. This is Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy come to life, not a widespread national defection of white working class voters from the Democratic Party. Case in point: in 2008, Obama won 54 percent of whites with incomes under $50,000 outside of the South, while he secured just 35 percent of this group in the South.