"Reverse Bradley" or "Survival Instinct" Effect

[Joe Chi Minh]

Some time ago, I told my wife that a "redneck" was a certain type of person in America, who, like us, didn't have much money, but still voted for the Republicans - like our council-house Tories (not too many of them left post-Thatcher); they also markedly tended to be extreme racists.

Well, she told me just now that a lad who called himself a "redneck" lad was interviewed just now on our TV in the UK, and said he was voting for Obama, although a lot of his pals wouldn't be, because he was black.

And it then occurred to me that he might well be very surprised if he could see who those fellow "redneck" pals of his actually did vote for, in the voting booth.

How many of them would be unable to put 2 + 2 together? Not many, I think. In other words, in their world, touting their racism, in the teeth of a recession from which only Obama could rescue them, would almost cetainly have been a kind of perverse bravado. What I'd call the "Reverse Bradley", "Survival Instinct" or even "Secret Ballot" Effect. A pound to a pinch of snuff.

[yellerpup]

1. Spot on! n/t

[melody]

2. I'm a redneck ... "redneck" is an ethnic group not a category of racists

It describes people who come from (usually) the rural south and are English/Scots-Irish. I was born and raised in California but I'm still a redneck. Bill Clinton is a redneck, too. There are plenty of good Democrats who are.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. I know that's the official definition, but in the UK we understand it in a

the pejorative sense I referred to. Not simply rural workers. Not at all. Though I've seen threads on this theme that you've raised. We may sometimes joke about country people, call them "swede-bashers" or whatever, but we don't actually look down on them at all. No reason to.

We're obviously wrong according to the official definition of the term's country of origin, but language is a living thing created and shaped by the people who use it, and that's our usage and understanding of it on this side of the pond. At least, as far as I'm aware.

You may know the French Academy was set up to get the French to use their language in certain ways. Unfortunately, it's like herding cats (and Democrats), so the French simply go on adopting Anglicisms and Americanisms, such a "le weekend", "cool", etc.

I've just found this article on the topic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-442316/French-traditionalists-arms-younger-generation-uses-cool-Anglicisms.html

[melody]

6. Yes, I understand that but if someone over here refers to himself as a "redneck"

... that is the point I was making ... they're not trying to put a particular social spin on it. He/she is just saying he/she is English/Scots-Irish from the rural US south.

[loyalsister]

4. 'Rednecks' come to Columbia for Obama rally

snip
< Tony Viessman, 74, of Rolla started "Rednecks for Obama" last summer and has been on the campaign trail ever since.>

snip

< Viessman described a redneck as "any man that's a working man. Usually has a lot of guns. He's got a boat and a motor, sometimes he's got a 4-wheel drive truck. He hunts and fishes a lot and drinks a little beer."

He and fellow redneck Les Spencer, 60, started their political movement before Obama's July 30 stop in Rolla last summer and have targeted campaign events in Mississippi, Tennessee, Colorado and New York. >

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/30/rednecks-come-columbia-obama-rally/

[Overseas]

5. I've been trying to push calling it REPUBLICAN DESERTION EFFECT

Where folks whose friends think they are solid Republicans get into that booth and just can't vote for more of the same disastrous Republican policies.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. There are plenty of "natural", monied Republicans quite up-front about

changing their party allegiance.

[Overseas]

9. I have enjoyed that parade of conservatives switching to Obama.

But then, with such a parade, how come my "Republican Desertion Effect" moniker hasn't caught on?

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. It's a known. But the corporate media would much rather make a meal out of the

eminently doubtful Bradley Effect.

[BoneDaddy]

8. I believe in the "reverse Bradley effect" more

I don't think white people will cop out in the voting booth with Obama, I do think that there are a ton of people, my guess mostly women from republican circles, who will vote O

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. You may be right, of course, about the first part, as well as the second,

but don't you mean you believe in the Bradley Effect, itself?

[BoneDaddy]

14. well the Bradley effect was 20+ years ago

we are talking bout another generation...

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. Not only that, but I've heard what sounded like an entirely plausible

rebuttal of it. There was apparently an explanation for the turnaround that had nothing to do with Bradley's ethnic background.

[bunkerbuster1]

11. I have felt something similar.

I think there are a lot of white Americans who know in their gut that this younger black man is really much more likely to represent their interests than the older white guy. And while they may claim to support McCain and still be "republicans," they aren't any more.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Yes. On further reflection, I think maybe a better name for it might be: "the Bradley

Schmadly effect.

[maseman]

16. I like your post but I think any "reverse Bradley"

would make more sense from a different group and class of people. I was at an upperscale Halloween party Friday night in a snobby part of Ohio. Of course we were packed in this huge house so overhearing conversations was easy. It seemed like many of these people attending, most probably very well to do, were really complaining about the economy, the war and Sarah Palin. There were some black jokes and I did hear some "Black guy in a white house" kind of crap.

But me thinks that many of these people, especially the females, would maybe not admit in public settings or to polling places that they will vote for Obama but that once in the booth they might pull the trigger. Just my two cents.