Poll: GOP gains big with white voters

[cali]

By Cameron Joseph - 07/22/11 03:36 PM ET

Democrats' advantage over Republicans in partisan affiliation is way down from 2008 as white voters have turned against them, according to a poll released Friday by the Pew Research Center.

While minority voters continue to support Democrats in large numbers, what was just a two-point Republican edge among whites in 2008 has grown to a 13-point advantage today. Republican gains among white voters are "particularly pronounced among the young and poor," according to the report.

White voters under age 30 now break for Republicans by an 11-point margin; in 2008 they broke for Democrats by a seven-point margin. This could spell trouble for President Obama's reelection efforts, as he capitalized on a coalition of minority voters and younger white voters to become president.

Part of the calculus might be the economy: Young adults have the highest rate of unemployment of any age group.

<snip>

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/173071-poll-gop-gains-big-with-white-voters

[Syrinx]

1. never misunderestimate the stupidity of the American voter

[Confusious]

8. Nobody ever went broke doing so nt

[DonCoquixote]

2. White Voters under 30?

White voters under age 30 now break for Republicans by an 11-point margin; in 2008 they broke for Democrats by a seven-point margin.

I call this into question, as many white voters realize that Bush helped do them in, still, if this is half true, it is a triumph of our miseducation system; these are the folks who should be anti-GOP, because they are the ones screwed by them.

[SkyDaddy7]

3. It is the Ron Paul Libertarian crowd...

They here no wars & legalize pot...IMHO.

[Syrinx]

5. so if only the Dems agreed to those two positions...

and added parts about truly universal health and shelter rights, maybe we could win more young people.

I'm not young anymore, but I'd be in for sure. And I'd be much more excited about supporting Democrats than I currently am.

[pnwmom]

6. Young people are listening to the Republican argument

that there won't be any money left to pay for their Social Security someday. I've even heard liberal young people express that idea.

[Syrinx]

7. young'uns would never pay attention to Republicans...

Because Republicans are so uncool.

The problem is the dominance the right has on the media, already.

I think we're out-gunned.

(I started to type "outnumbered." But I realized my obvious error.)

[dissidentboomer]

10. Outgunned by repub/nazi money?? Ya think????

Jesus fuckin' christ!!!

There are times when I'm sure that demo's must be as stupid as repubs and then I see Palin and Perry and, well, all of them and I WEEP, I fuckin' weep for my nation.

So, I look left.... the ONLY place TO look, any more, and I SEE so called "intellectuals" who ARE very smart but who, from a practical political stand point have kept their mousy little librarian mouths shut for FAR too goddamn long and have NO clue AT ALL about how to attract a white, male middle class voter of ANY goddamn age. Just sad.

Seriously, WAKE the fuck UP! Outgunned??? :puke: You have been goddamn buried and it has possibly damaged YOUR NATION beyond fuckin' REPAIR! :mad:



Scotty, beam me up. Scotty? beam me up. Scotty? Scotty, are you there?? Oh fuck..... I'm stuck here.

[DonCoquixote]

19. True

although to be fair, when anybody does try to speak said truth, they get slammed (see Olbermann, Cenk, Schultz, maddow)

[Cid_B]

18. That's part of it...

People I have talked to that are my age and younger (>30) don't think that the SS net will be there when we retire.

Of course the majority of that same group are military and we have our own new retirement program concerns....

[Enthusiast]

11. That's correct.

Our position on the issues could use a bit of fine tuning, by the Party I mean. Democrats could take advantage of the populist energy on these issues.

[Syrinx]

14. one would think

[Chan790]

15. Interestingly...

you've managed to choose two issues I've never heard a great deal of youth support for.

If anything, they've bought into the GOP/Bizarro notion of the puritan work-ethic...if you don't work hard you deserve to die of cancer starving in the gutter & if you work hard, that just won't happen because you're contributing to the motherland and the motherland loves you as long as you're not brown, female or gay or disabled or worst of-all, over-50. (I'm trying very hard not to crack jokes about the new slogan of the GOP being "Arbeit Macht Frei" because it'd be tasteless...but it's getting hard to do.) It's an entire generation poisoned against the social safety-net. You'd be sad to know how many of them actively want to take it away from you and their parents...as an objective goal in its' own right.

But...anti-war, drug-legalization, marriage-equality and other gay-equality issues and a healthy support for agnosticism...the traditional platform of Libertariainm. Nozick-style libertarianism, they're eating it up. That's where the GOP is weak. Too bad it's such a shitty political position to take.

Having marginalized the middle-class and made greed a virtue, the GOP has begun working a generational war, working to pit the young and old against each other and backing both against people between 30-65,

If the President could deliver jobs, lots of jobs...specifically light-technological, liberal-arts sorts of jobs (targeted to young workers) he'd retake the youth vote.

He;s channeling Reagan when he needs to think JFK...money for innovation and infrastructure will save the day.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Meh

Dumbasses.

[dmosh42]

9. Sounds like a "Fox news" analysis!! n/t

[EV_Ares]

12. Would say probably besides young & poor, also uneducated & taken in by those such as Fox news who

blames every bit of trouble on immigrants, blacks, anyone but the whites. These people take it all in and believe it.

One comment says was taken by land line phones, that too throws a wrench into it because most young tend to have and use only cell or smart phones, not land line phones.

The Pew poll may be somewhat correct about the young white voter who is poor but is probably flawed to a great extent. However, it is always needed to pay attention regardless. Another case probably where the right gets their message out and the dems always seems to have difficulty getting theirs out.

[ejpoeta]

13. oh, i am not under 30.

edited because while i am white... i am sadly not under 30 anymore. :(

[newfie11]

16. God help us all.

If people are that stupid there is no hope for this country.Don't they see whats going on in the states that voted in repigs in the last elections????

[dissidentboomer]

17. My sense is that college educated voters, as well as many high school educated voters, under 30

are torn between liberal, even socialist views, and libertarian views. They tend to be very much in favor of individual rights and largely support legalization of marijuana from a practical standpoint (cost savings, less violence, tax revenue), whether they toke or not. However, they are very anti free trade, anti corporate, and tend to view environmental protections favorably.

Most are not prejudiced against gays or other races and ethnicities. However, regardless of race, they think racial quotas and using race or gender as an excuse to get ahead or using it politically are abhorrent practices - relics of history. Some of them think that, should we have favoritism in obtaining admission to colleges, scholarships, jobs, etc., it should be class based and not race or gender based. Finally, they tend to think that illegal immigration and illegal labor have seriously damaged their country and that it is corporate driven and funded and must stop now.

[DainBramaged]

20. Poll, ignorant young bro bigot white trash don't vote, not to worry