According to The New Republic Online, in this month’s congressional elections, 60% of white voters cast their ballots for Republicans, and 37% voted for Democrats. This was the largest percentage of the white vote attained by Republicans in recent decades, including the 1994 year of the Republican Contract with America.
So, what does this mean? Discuss.
The liberal viewpoint would hold that this outcome demonstrates the tangible success of the GOP’s systematic campaign of race baiting. It is the divisive rhetoric, and the unapologetic whispers about Obama being “different”, that was used to activate white fears about blacks. It represents the rebirth of the Southern Strategy that worked for so many years.
The conservatives would object to the tracking of this voter statistic in the first place. If liberals were really interested in a color-blind society, they’d say, they wouldn’t market these statistics that encourage mistrust and division between races. Further, it demeans blacks – “Don’t you think that white AND blacks can think for themselves, and make an independent, educated choice for the candidate that best represents their concerns, without regard to race?” Stop talking down to people, and looking for the worst!
The statistic I quoted in the beginning is a factually true statement of how the electorate voted, but it may not reveal a truth about the electorate. My raised eyebrow is especially arched with suspicion, as I am currently reading Super Freakonomics, the follow up book to the bestseller, Freakonomics. According to the authors, two contrarian economists, the book uses economic data to challenge readers’ acceptance of conventional wisdom and societal assumptions. It is also an examination of the universal law of unintended consequences, which makes it abundantly plain that nothing is as clear cut as we like to think or argue. That’s a topic for another day. Statistics never tell the entire story. The authors use the statistic that the average human being has one breast and one testicle. Factually true, but obviously only “half” of the story. I suspect that the exit poll numbers above paint an incomplete picture, and the omissions are colored in with our own preconceived notions of racial preferences in America.
…and then I come across this not-so-secretly-coded tidbit from the self-proclaimed voice of conservatism, Rush Limbaugh:
"This guy is an utter wrecking ball all by himself on the world stage to the point now of getting embarrassing. This presidency of Obama’s, it doesn’t take much to irritate the left. Try this: “Barack Obama’s presidency is graffiti on the walls of American history.” That’s what his administration is. No more than graffiti on the walls of American history. We have a juvenile delinquent for a president who has ruined so much public and private property, not even his gang is making much of an effort here to protect him. It’s an utter disaster."
Nice. He mentions "graffiti", "gangs", and "juvenile delinquent" along with Obama. No decoder ring needed here.
This is the picture he had posted on his website:
Distasteful? Yes. Racist? Probably. Effective? One plausible conclusion from the exit poll numbers is that elevating white anxiety wins elections (and listeners). If that’s true, I am beyond discouraged, and I am beginning to question if the “will of the people” isn’t a not-so-secret-code for strong trumps weak, loud defeats righteous, and ends justify means. I like to think we as a nation are better than that, but we seem to be a few decades shy of a post-racial period in America.
Statistics may not tell the whole story on white voter preferences, but Limbaugh’s rant tells me all I need to know.
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.” - John F. Kennedy
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