The latest Pew Research Center survey found a lot of things that should cheer President Obama. Voter anger against government even among those that identify as Tea Party backers is down, the Wisconsin union standoff hasn't stirred any widespread anti-labor backlash, and there's more tolerance than ever for same sex marriage. But the poll also found a troubling note, a continuing troubling note for the White House, and a happy one for the GOP. White males still by big margins either disapprove or strongly disapprove of the president's job performance. The continued high disapproval ratings among this group are even more glaring since it comes at the point where more Americans than in the past year say they like the job Obama's doing. That is again all except a majority of white males. The temptation is to chalk the continued skepticism and downright hostility to Obama of many white males up to the stereotypical gun rack, beer guzzling, white blue collar Joe. Many of those that don't like Obama do fit that image. But many don't. A significant percent in the Pew Center survey are middle to upper income, college educated, and live in a suburban neighborhood.
Their numbers are big and their political influence potent. The current crop of GOP presidential candidates know that, and bank on them to once more be the driving force in the 2012 presidential election. There's some reason for that expectation.
In 2000, exit polling showed that while white women backed Bush over Democratic Presidential contender Al Gore by 3 percentage points. White men backed Bush by 27 percentage points. Without the big backing of Southern white males for Bush in 2000, Gore would have easily won the White House, and the Florida vote debacle would have been a meaningless sideshow. In the 2004 election the earlier polls that showed Bush getting sixty percent of the white male votes nationally were totally accurate. In the South, he garnered more than 70 percent of their vote. Four years later the margin was 26 points for Bush over Democratic presidential rival John Kerry among white males. Bush swept Kerry in every one of the Old Confederacy states and three out of four of the Border States. That insured another Bush White House.
In 2008, GOP Presidential candidate John McCain got nearly sixty percent of the white male vote. Though this was down slightly from prior presidential years, it still was high enough to keep McCain relatively competitive.
The intense and unshakeable loyalty of a majority of working and middle class white men to the GOP is not new. The gender gap was first identified and labeled in the 1980 contest between Reagan and Carter. That year Reagan had more than a 20 percent bulge in the margin of male votes he got over Carter. By comparison, women voters split almost evenly down the middle in backing both Reagan and Carter. Men didn't waver from their support of Reagan during his years in office. In fact, many of them made no secret about why they liked him. His reputed toughness, firmness and refusal to compromise on issues of war and peace fit neatly into the often times stereotypical male qualities of professed courage, determination, and toughness.
Though the penchant for white males to back Republican presidents gave Bush the electoral edge in the race against Gore and Kerry in 2000, Gore won the popular vote as well as the electoral votes in more than a dozen states and women voters provided the margin for victory in those states for him. The GOP's grip on male voters, however, could have even spelled doom for Bill Clinton in his reelection bid in 1996.
If women had not turned out in large numbers and voted heavily for Clinton, GOP presidential contender Robert Dole may well have beat him out. While men rate defense, a strong military, the war on terrorism, and national security as high on their list of concerns, women say abortion rights, education, social security, health care, equal pay and job advancement, and equal rights are highest on their list of concerns.
While racial, gender, and economic tensions and fears are major forces behind white male devotion to the GOP; they're hardly the only reason for their political love affair with the party. Republicans have also played hard on the anger, frustration, and hatred that many males harbor toward government and their swoon over military toughness. The Tea Party, Palin, the Fox News Network and the shrill pack of right wing bloggers and talk show hosts have fanned and inflamed the anti-government and borderline racism of many white males to power their movement. This paid big dividends in the November mid-term elections. And for four decades before that it has been the trump card for winning GOP presidents and even losing GOP presidential candidates, like McCain.
Win or lose, the GOP still banks heavily that that vote will be there for whomever emerges from the GOP presidential contender pack again. The Pew Center Survey simply confirmed it's not a fawn hope.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on ktym.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Each new generation was supposed to do better than its parents. In fact the standard of living doubled every twenty years from 1790 to 1980. Since then--nada. We're not ideological or analytical. We find the notion of conservatism comforting but don't do the hard work of questioning the avalanche of pro-corporate propaganda. For thirty years we have worked harder and harder. Our spouses have gone to work to maintain our standard of living and we then got tapped out borrowing against our homes.
The Root Cause: It must be the welfare chislers, the illegals, the Muslims, the "liberal elites." Somebody must have done this to us. Perish the thought that the people we vote for are the culprits, busily transferring the wealth we create to the top 0.5% of the population. We're so confused that we expect Medicare and social security while demanding the government cut entitlements and stay out of Medicare. Until we master class consciousness we shall continue to struggle.
And it's very lucrative for them. They're hired as the contractors who are paid much more than the public servants.
"I'm a Dem/Lib and I voted for him last time but won't vote for him unless he does 100% of everything I have in my list below."
Worked good last November, so its to be everywhere all the time.
First, there are those who never liked him and never will. Those are the beer swillin', gun totin', pickup drivin', couch sittin' males the author refers to. He's right that they do not all live in the rural south. They will never vote for Obama, no matter what.
Then there are the white, male liberal progressives, such as myself. We voted for Barack Obama. He could win us back into his column easily with a few simple, common sense moves.
1. Prosecutions against Bush administration officials, most notably George Bush.
2. Free Bradley Manning
3. Slash military spending - leave Head Start alone
4. Stop sucking up to Republicans and talking about bipartisanship
5. Tax the rich
I want to like him, I really do. But I need a reason and, so far, he hasn't given me one.
I often wonder what President did they like? Was it Clinton who brought us DADT and DOMA and NAFTA? Who undercut welfare to appease this whites who do not want blacks to get there unfair share? Who supported longer terms for crack than for cocaine? Do they really want Bush cowboy swagger and facade and forget the boring, unglamorized substance in the face of being President of the country and not just so called progressive white men?
You named 5 things you wanted, but ignored the hundred things he has done to the benefit of us all.
In the end, you do not have to like him nor does he have to fit your idea of perfection, but do not allow the Republicans to win by indulging your dislike. Until you can find someone who is perfect, Obama is the man, not Shaft, but a real man.
Obama gets elected. The economy collapses due, in part, to Bush's push for Deregulation and the President Obama and his team do a great job avoiding a second Depression. But all of a sudden we've got all this fiscal outrage. Interpretation -- fiscal outrage is a politically correct stalking horse to use to attack the President.
A US Congressman calls the President a liar in the State of the Union address. That's never happened to a white President -- nor do I think it would. This President has been treated with an incredible lack of respect from the Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce -- even members of the military.
Even when the President signs onto a Republican-backed initiative (the Healthcare bill passed was very similar to a Republican proposal), he is attacked. He is treated as illegitimate by his opponents. His policies aren't just attacked. He is. He's called unAmerican. He's even been called the Anti-Christ.
All people who dislike the President are not racist. Having said that, some that do dislike Obama are.
I liked your post, especially that last line.
Mike