Just How Dumb Are White Males?

Let me now defend white males. We can't possibly be as dumb as the polls showing we are John McCain's most reliable voting base would indicate. Do we white men believe for an instant that a vote for McCain would not represent more of President Bush's failed economic policies at home and costly military adventures abroad? If we don't hold such a belief, why are a majority of us expected to vote against the positive change that Barack Obama so clearly represents?

Most of us know how to read, and can even Google, so why would we think that GOP candidate McCain, who has supported Bush on every one of his economic initiatives, is now the anti-Bush? What exactly did McCain mean when he said, referring to his Democratic opponent during a campaign speech in Ohio on Monday, "We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy"?

Is McCain unaware that he consistently voted for the red ink run up by the Bush administration, or was he having a senior moment when he said that same day, "We cannot spend the next four years as we spent much of the last eight: spending ourselves into a ditch, and hoping that the consequences don't come"?

The only time McCain took issue with Bush's economic policy was in his short-lived criticism of the tax cut for the rich--a strategy he now defends. But if McCain doesn't increase taxes for someone, just how does he plan to pay for the enormous Iraq war debt, now vastly compounded by the banking bailout? On Monday McCain gave his answer: "I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs, like defense, veterans' care, Social Security and health care, until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren't working for the American people."

Is he kidding? If he doesn't curtail those programs, which make up almost the entire federal budget, then he's talking about chump change in possible cuts. There just isn't enough money in those earmarks that McCain goes on about to make a dent in the massive national debt.

President Bush's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, left our collective credit card on Wall Street, where the bankers are once again to be trusted to regulate themselves. Are there any white males out there still so in the dark that they don't know that the radical banking deregulation legislation that McCain pushed so aggressively is what legally enabled those he condemned on Monday as "the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess"? Have they never heard of Phil Gramm, the man McCain picked to co-chair his presidential campaign, who sponsored the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act--both of which made legal, for the first time since the Great Depression, the credit swaps and hybrid instruments at the heart of the Wall Street scams?

Call me naive, but I think white males, startled by job cuts and the devastation wreaked upon their retirement savings, are finally getting the point: Someone's got to pay for this mess, and better those who got rich off the stock market theft than the rest of us.

Can you imagine the uproar now if the McCain-Bush plan to privatize Social Security by linking it to stock purchases had become law? And have you noticed that the Wall Street crooks are not using the bailout money to ease credit but rather to line their golden parachutes? They know how to take care of their retirement.

I don't think McCain gets that the rest of us could use a bit more lift from the government safety net. That's the same federal support that GM CEO Rick Wagoner asked about when he went, hat in hand, to Washington on Monday to lobby for a $10-billion gift to keep his company out of bankruptcy. Or is the CEO of GM just another tax-and-spend socialist?

Robert Scheer is author of a new book, "The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America."

Comments

[Berettasskeeter]

Very nice. You set up a strawman of racism, but neglect the real reason a majority of white men will not vote for Obama. He's a SOCIALIST, possibly a MARXIST. He opposes everything about keeping what is yours that he can. He has NO right to the fruits of my labors. You people here have NO rights to the fruits of my labors. If you want to improve your lot in life, get an education and work your tail off, as I did through 26 years in the Marine Corps, then continue to work your tail off after you retire.
There is no more racism in the white community that opposes Obama, than there is in the black community that supports him! Care to address that?
Semper fi

[lucasmi]

Hm. I respect your commitment to succeed, and your ability to provide for yourself and your family. You seem to be misled, though, about both Barack Obama (who is a moderate Capitalist much in the vein of Richard Nixon) and socialism. In no form does socialism take money from working-class or lower-middle-class families. I live half the year in Germany, where both government and capitalism wears a friendlier mask than in the US at the moment, and yes, taxes are higher, but oh what a difference in quality of living.

Wikipedia is a good source for information, if you care to free yourself of your misinformation. Look up 'Savings and Loan crisis' or the 'sub-prime mortgage crisis' if you want to know what's happening to your (our) money. Just a taste: the first crisis, the product of deregulation (supported always by McCain), cost around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for us.
The second (current) crisis, which was also due to deregulation, will cost at least $700 billion (those are current figures). Welfare, to contrast, costs 117 billion a year.
Please inform yourself - we need informed citizens, not those who swallow official fish stories. And either way - be well.

[DuganS1]

The quality of life is much lower in Germany than the US. Retail goods are often not easily accessible. Retail stores often look like their US counter-parts in the early 80s. Houses are smaller. There aren't nearly as many TV channels. There are fewer fast food places. There is no football, basketball, or baseball. I like Germany myself, but you have to live without the American conveniences that we take for granted here in everyday life.

[JerryFreeman]

You got an education and worked your tail off? Thats just not possible, see your a white man, and basically everything has been handed to you on a silver platter. You don't have to compete for jobs, education or anything else. You don't have to worry about bills or healthcare or how your'e going to put your kids through college. As for serving in my beloved Corps, well you must just be a war monger or stupid for enlisting because women and minoriites only join the military because they don't have all the choices and advantages you do. Its great that your sucessful, but why shouldn't you be, you were set up for it since the day you were born. If you had failed, well hell thats on you, you don't have the luxury of blaming anyone but yourself.

Semper Fi Devil Dog

[tbone99]

Its not that white men are dumb , far from it. But way too many of them are hateful and possessed of a feeling of superiority above other people and beings.

[lucasmi]

No, that's not it. Hateful and feelings of superiority are not dictated or influenced by race. White men are simply the target of nearly all of the most distasteful propaganda today, and have been since the dawn of this country.

'Dumb' isn't right, either, but it's closer. We're certainly deluded and deceived, and resentful (though the latter applies to most group these days).

[darker]

White men are not idiots.
Many of us WILL NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN.

The motto of Republicans since Ronald Reagan has been "spread more wealth to the greedy rich & corporate welfare queens by PICKPOCKETING THE WORKING AND MIDDLE CLASS." Reaganomics snowballed into the current economic disaster.

Republicans ATE YOUR PENSION.
Republicans ATE YOUR MORTGAGE deal. they ATE YOUR HOME EQUITY.
Republicans = SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH and corporate welfare queens and debt, destruction for working and middle class Americans.

VOTE: Obama-Biden '08

[SonyaInTx]

Gosh I needed to hear that. To see the crowds following Sarah Palin, you would think that white males vote with whoever winks at them most. :)

[ohioan73]

I'm black. My bf is a white blue collar guy and so are his friends (some are union members). So far every friend of his except ONE (who is a business owner-pipefitter-makes just over $250,000 a year) is voting Obama. They aint stupid.

[SonyaInTx]

Good for them!

[carrieanna]

People like what is familiar...especially if it matches what they see in the mirror. I can understand why in a world of massive change (the wars, the stock market) one would even be more likely to cling to what is familiar.

[Aesthete]

The white male has been the perpetual and virtually unchallenged king of the moutain for centuries. I think that this lack of real challenge that allows one to always have things his way actually weakens him over time. He gets too comfortable and arrogant in that position, growing stale and eventually declining because the rest of life is not going to stand still no matter how long it may take. There is really nothing racial about this. Just go back and look at human history. There has never been permanent rule or dominance by ANY group, category, or subcategory of humans. This point is well illustrated in such literature as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables" or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, which both deal with the fate of those who try to set themselves above others by any means they consider necessary, whether it involves race or some other criteria.

[donndublin]

I thought affimitive actiion was suppose to even the playing field. It's been in effect for more than 40 years which is a whole generation. Seems to me the ones being lazy and complacent are those who don't have to compete for positions. What you do want next take away the rights and force white males into slavery to get even and turn the tables? Reverse racism is being justified by ideas like yours.

[Aesthete]

I'm only saying that lack of challenge makes one less sharp. If one is guaranteed a better life because of his race, connections, or whatever, he will not develop the skills to effectively compete when confronted with a stiff challenge. By the way, I'm black and know very well that affirmative action is not what it's cracked up to be. Thankfully, I've never had to depend on it.

[FarOutFish]

White males are just about the only voting group left you can attack. If you said "How dumb are (insert "protected class here) you would be pilloried for racism, sexism, ageism and any other ism that can be imagined.

[MeiLing]

It's not all white males just the ones who think that their place in life should be secured by their race and their gender!

If the shoe fits, baby, wear it!

[FarOutFish]

You can find those people all in one place, The Jerry Springer Show.

[TheHandyman]

Obama is only slightly less like Bush than McCain in spite of his words. His long history of deeds speaks more of who and what he is. The Repugs have wasted their time and money on lies about Obama and gotten less bang for their buck than they would have if they had told the truth.

I have voted my conscience once again sending my ballot marked for Nader/Gonzalez knowing that they are the best people for the job. The lesser of two evils is not acceptable to me. I government headed by McCain or Obama doesn't represent me.

I also reject the notion that somehow white males are any stupider than males in general or females for that matter. What has happened in the country over the last 40 years is the practice of willfull ignorance on most Americans part without regard to gender. Sorry Robert, no pass on you premise.

[MeiLing]

Sure, it's willful ignorance. But very obviously it exists in larger numbers among white males.

[SonyaInTx]

Oh come on! Hillary and Bill were right about Ross Perot, and any other third party candidate. Wasting your vote on Nader or Buchanan gave Bush the presidency in 2000.

When will people learn to band together to get rid of the the blight in the White House?

[lucasmi]

'Banding together' gave us NAFTA with Clinton. Why can't I vote for a real, really progressive candidate who doesn't speak in sound bites and clichés? Why should I settle for a corporate clone, just because he's probably less evil and brown (at least that's right)?

[mjc]

Sonya..., the Supreme Court gave Bush the presidency inm 2000, along with a certain retired sw who was Fla's Sec of State and James Baker.

[MatoSka]

It is remarkable in this day and age that "white" men continue to be addressed as some sort of subculture in America. The fact is that we make decisions that are based on the welfare of our families, the same as everyone else. We do as best we can in fulfilling our civic responsibilities, whether it is as volunteer fire fighters, church members or pofessional organizations. We work two, sometimes three jobs, so it is sometimes hard to sift through the election year rhetoric. Few of us identify ourselves as "white" or shape our relationships just to prevent interactions with people from other backgrounds or ethniciies.

By "white" do you mean Russian, or German, or do you mean someone from Mississippi or California or Maine? We are not a bloc of self-defined people. We are simply businessmen, teachers, factory workers, bankers and many other occupations.

So please if you want to discuss "Joe the Plumber" please do so. It really isn't his politics that has linked him with McCain, its his hopes and concerns for a better future that everyone has. If he makes a mistake he is no more different than any of us have been. Let's not make Obama the personification of virtue and perfection. He is sure to make his share of mistakes. And he has yet to show anyone what he is capable of accomplishing.

[foxfan]

Is it about race or about party?

[Shieldmaiden]

They're voting for Palin because they think she's pretty. That had better be their reason, because I can't think of a logical reason to pull the lever for 4 more years of this madness.

[vegas9999]

Well, they voted for Clinton because they thought he was cute!!

[brief candle]

Does Joe Six Pack ring a bell? You Betcha Wink Wink

[jeffrey678]

Bashing white males drives them to vote for McCain. How dumb is that?

[Mildmannered]

white males who vote for mccain don't read Robert Scheer's columns

[RadLeftVetPatriot]

Not THIS one.

[Georgia1992]

Excellent article. Keep them coming. I'm in total disbelief myself. I know some men who only see Sarah Palin's pretty face and short skirt. Voting in the next commander-in-chief is serious and not about the pretty face and skirt.

[steamboat]

So your telling me 98% of African-Americans are voting for Obama NOT because of his color? BTW, before you tell me blacks vote democratic anyway, explain why Obama got 90+% of the black vote in the primaries v. other DEMOCRATS, not the general election

[Intelligentia]

Since Blacks have voted for white men 100% of the time, what is wrong voting 90%, once, for a (half) Black man? 90% ,once, is still less than 100% everytime, don't you agree? By the way, I am voting for Obama because he is the most qualified candidate, not because he is Black. Can you say the same thing about voting for McCain?

[Hemhaw]

Can't say, but we are about to find out on Nov 4...