WSJ oped: Secret GOP Weapon: The Scots-Irish Vote

[question everything]

Secret GOP Weapon: The Scots-Irish Vote

By JAMES WEBB
October 19, 2004; Page A18

(snip)

Speaking in a quasi-rural dialect that his critics dismiss as affected, W is telling his core voting groups that he is one of them. No matter that he is the product of many generations of wealth; that his grandfather was a New England senator; that his father moved the family's wealth south just like the hated Carpetbaggers after the Civil War; that he himself went North to Andover and Yale and Harvard when it came time for serious grooming. And as with the persona, so also with the key issues. The Bush campaign proceeds outward from a familiar mantra: strong leadership, success in war, neighbor helping neighbor, family values, and belief in God. Contrary to many analyses, these issues reach much farther than the oft-discussed Christian Right. The president will not win re-election without carrying the votes of the Scots-Irish, along with those others who make up the "Jacksonian" political culture that has migrated toward the values of this ethnic group.

(snip)

Why are the 30 million Scots-Irish, who may well be America's strongest cultural force, so invisible to America's intellectual elites? It is commonplace for commentators to lump together those who are descended from British roots into the WASP culture typified by New England Brahmins, or the Irish, who are overwhelmingly Catholic. But it is political nonsense to consider the Scots-Irish as part of either. The Scots-Irish are derived from a mass migration from Northern Ireland in the 1700s, when the Calvinist "Ulster Scots" decided they'd had enough of fighting Anglican England's battles against Irish Catholics. One group settled initially in New Hampshire, spilling over into modern-day Vermont and Maine. The overwhelming majority -- 95% -- migrated to the Appalachians in a series of frontier communities that stretched from Pennsylvania to northern Alabama and Georgia. They eventually became the dominant culture of the South and much of the Midwest.

True American-style democracy had its origins in this culture. Its values emanated from the Scottish Kirk, which had thrown out the top-down hierarchy of the Catholic Church and replaced it with governing councils made up of ordinary citizens. This mix of fundamentalist religion and social populism grew from a people who for 16 centuries had been tested through constant rebellions against centralized authority. The Scots who headed into the feuds of 17th-century Ulster, and then into the backlands of the American frontier, hardened further into a radicalism that proclaimed that no man had a duty to obey a government if its edicts violated his moral conscience... Andrew Jackson, the first president of Scots-Irish descent, forever changed the style of American politics, creating a movement that even today is characterized as Jacksonian democracy.

The Scots-Irish comprised a large percentage of Reagan Democrats, and contributed heavily to the "red state" votes that gave Mr. Bush the presidency in 2000. The areas with the highest Scots-Irish populations include New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, northern Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, northern Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, southern Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and parts of California, particularly Bakersfield. The "factory belt," especially around Detroit, also has a strong Scots-Irish mix... Country music is its cultural emblem. It is family-oriented. Its members are values-based rather than economics-based: they often vote on emotional issues rather than their pocket books... They are deeply patriotic, having consistently supported every war America has fought, and intensely opposed to gun control -- an issue that probably cost Mr. Gore both his home state of Tennessee and traditionally Democratic West Virginia in 2000.

T(snip)


The decline in public education and the outsourcing of jobs has hit this culture hard. Diversity programs designed to assist minorities have had an unequal impact on white ethnic groups and particularly this one, whose roots are in a poverty-stricken South. Their sons and daughters serve in large numbers in a war whose validity is increasingly coming into question. In fact, the greatest realignment in modern politics would take place rather quickly if the right national leader found a way to bring the Scots-Irish and African Americans to the same table, and so to redefine a formula that has consciously set them apart for the past two centuries.

Mr. Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, is the author of "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America," just published by Broadway.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109814129391148708,00.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. I always thought that they were Democratic Voters???

[Kali]

2. interesting

definetly my roots

[bemildred]

3. Right. Creative, but still drivel.

I suppose "redneck" was too obvious.

[puddycat]

4. Sinclair is a Scottish name

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[puddycat]

8. Julian Sinclair Smith was the founder of Sinclair Broadcasting

I just thought this tidbit of information may be of interest to some people because some people had questioned who exactly the Smiths were. Don't get all huffy on me. You simply show your ignorance by doing so.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. And Sinclair Broadcasting is owned by the Smith family

which could be Scottish, but is more likely to be English. You could play the name game all day, but it only tells you about the male line ancestors - a small part of someone's heritage. I have a Scottish surname, but only 1 of my 16 great great grandparents was Scottish.

[puddycat]

9. Why are some of you so huffy? Julian SINCLAIR Smith founded Sinclair

In light of this article about the Scots, I thought this tidbit may be of interest. I never even said what the background of the Smiths was because I don't know for certain. I thought in light of the fact that one of the owning Smith brothers was just slapped with a lawsuit because of racial discrimination, its of interest, though. My interest was piqued the other day when someone asked if the firing of Jon Lieberman could have been motivated because he was Jewish. I personally don't think so, but I am aware that the Scots in America comprised much of the original base for the Ku Klux Klan. Even the name of the group was derived from Scottish.

By the way, I am partly of Scottish descent, so I found the article very interesting. If we can't confront the truth, we aren't able to make progress now, are we? That is one reason why Bush is such a miserable failure--his character precludes him from admitting mistakes.

[George_S]

6. It is written

The Scots-Irish are supposed to vote for Bush :)

Some searches of Webb in the neocon circles would probably be interesting.

[Richardo]

10. Well *I'm* Scots-Irish and I say bollocks to that.

:D

[mac56]

21. me too, Richardo

:thumbsup:

[PhuLoi]

11. My grandmither was a MacGreggor

Guess who I'm voting for.

[PATRICK]

12. A nut is still a nut

That might explain the extraordinary presence of whack jobs on otherwise harmless Irish tradition sites. Still a minority in a minority. Still crazy neocon tools that talk the talk and disrupt.

More desperate pimping looking for the mythical Bush coalition. The only coalition is among the mentally and morally inadequate fanatics and the greedy.

The poor Amish are the only ones who never saw Bush on TV. He probably goes for the deaf and blind vote too.

[Cocoa]

13. since when are the Scots-Irish a secret?

in what way are WASPs and hillbillies a new phenomenon?

[Blue_Tires]

14. why do they contiue to drag this old relic out??

"Diversity programs designed to assist minorities have had an unequal impact on white ethnic groups and particularly this one, whose roots are in a poverty-stricken South."

so this supposedly educated writer never heard of the "ol' boy system" which was in place for two centuries??(and is still alive and well in many southern counties) They always seem to neglect this when talking about the 'romantic' south

[Eumenides]

15. Originally published

in the Parade magazine circular that comes in most Sunday editions of major newspapers. James Webb, the author is also an assistant editor and former undersecretary under Ronald Reagan. I would link to their site but you have to enter your zip to get "your version" of their paper.

Personally, I think this guy is full of horseshit.

[George_S]

16. They will use anyone

To help get votes for their corporations.

[Stuckinthebush]

17. This Scotch-Irish voter won't vote for Bush!

Hell no!

[Tamyrlin79]

18. As a Southern Scotch Irish person, I must agree with this article.

I think he has a very real point. My people are very conservative, but we are also VERY skeptical of any/all authority. In 1980, that was Dems with Carter, ala Reagan Democrats. Now, Bush and the repugs are in power, and that means that we are more likely to rebel against them as the present authority. We are very independent minded. While we are stubborn and its difficult to get us to change our mind, once we do change it, well, that's it. I say, if the Dems can drive a wedge there, then the Dems would make a fundamental shift in the balance of power in this country. Thankfully, we don't have to wait on the Dems... the Republicans seem to be doing quite well at it themselves.

[scarletlib]

19. I'm Scots-Irish and I have always voted democratic

I cherish democracy and would never vote for a repressive republican platform.

[teryang]

20. The true "VOLK" vote for the Fuehrer!

They are the true Aryan spirit!


Oh, please.


:puke: