Prometheus 6

White Male Vote Especially Critical
Questions Remain Over Obama's Ability to Appeal to Demographic
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 17, 2008; A05

In the fierce campaign between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, a battle dominated by questions of race and gender, white men have emerged as perhaps the single critical swing constituency.

The competition for the support of white men, particularly those defined as working class, will shape the showdown between Clinton and Obama in Pennsylvania's Democratic presidential primary on April 22. Obama (Ill.) won majorities among those voters in what appeared to be breakthrough victories in Wisconsin and Virginia last month. But he badly lost working-class white men to Clinton (N.Y.) in Ohio and Texas two weeks ago, keeping the outcome of the Democratic race in doubt indefinitely.

sigh

Let's visit a town called Prometheusville and take a walk down memory lane.

2003:

The idea of Blacks and Hispanics is going to set some folks' teeth on edge. But it shouldn't, and I'm going to explain why (this is going to sound cynical as hell, which to some degree it is).

The only way to ensure your rights is to ensure Black peoples' rights. Because whatever we get, you can't be denied… otherwise it'll be 1994 all over again;

See, Angry White Men never really lost power in this nation. If they had, they couldn't have changed the social and political trajectory of the nation in a single election cycle.

Think about that.

Look at the Democrats. You got them scared and wimpy as hell. Believe me, you've taught them a lesson they'll not soon forget. Now, how about workiing with us to get a government that will do something for 95% of the people instead of just 5%? Because you know damn well you ain't one of that 5% and if the greedy, selfish, power-hoarding bastards have their way no one but them will ever be.

2004:

White Male Beneficiaries

In the last seventy years of social engineering, the vast majority of direct beneficiaries of affirmative action policies were not minorities; they were white males. Preferential social policies for those in need were not invented by civil rights leaders. Under Franklin Roosevelt, whom most white Americans still revere, the New Deal embarked upon a massive affirmative action approach to social crisis. With the critical exception of segregation, Americans approached their social problems -- unemployment, poverty of senior citizens, re-entry needs of veterans and GIs, farmers needing price supports -- through planned social engineering. The post World-War II Marshall Plan, a plan that provided billions of dollars for training and jobs, was a massive affirmative action plan for Europe. Former enemies got free training programs in Europe that were denied Black GIs at home in America.

The New Deal concepts became unpopular only after they were applied to the crisis and effects of segregation. It was not affirmative action itself, but the extension of affirmative action to minorities and women, that caused the backlash.

Pause for a moment because politicians don't give a damn about anyone when there's no election on the line, and

A Demographic the Democrats Can't Forget
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, January 18, 2008; A19

This is a good time to put in a word for the white working class....

"Working class" seems an antique term, but the people it describes still exist, more now in the service industries than in manufacturing. Demographers often use education levels as a surrogate for class position, and the past three decades have not been kind to Americans who are not college graduates.

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In election 2008, don’t forget Angry White Man
Gary Hubbell
February 9, 2008

...There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

Then, of course, there's Dan Balz' piece, linked above the fold. How could we EVER forget YOU when we keep getting reminded?