Posted on 07/19/2003 2:35:11 PM PDT by madprof98
Democrats thanked soccer moms for their success in the 1990s. But "office park dads" could spell their doom in 2004, warns Democratic pollster Mark Penn.
Penn told a June meeting of the New Democrat Network that white males prefer the GOP 2-to-1. Just 24% of white males consider themselves Democrats; 53% call themselves Republicans.
That's even worse for Democrats than Al Gore did in 2000. Gore got 36% of white male votes — less than Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
President Bush won 61% of white men with college degrees, 63% of white men without degrees and 62% of white men making more than $75,000 a year.
The growing GOP pull among white men is a double blow to Democrats. White men are still 39% of the electorate. Men also give more money to political causes than women do — three times more in the 1990s, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
And trends among white females show them following white males.
The gender gap, portrayed as GOP problem, opened up in the 1980s because men left the Democratic Party, not because women ditched the GOP.
Likewise, the fund-raising gender gap widened in the 1990s because men gave Democrats much less, not because women gave Democrats more. The Democrats' share of women's dollars actually declined after 1992.
The CRP suspects some hard money donated by women really comes from men donating in their wives' names. Married women also more often vote Republican; 54% did in 2002 vs. 42% who voted Democratic.
Democrats still do well with single women, blacks and Hispanics. In 2002, 88% of blacks, 60% of Hispanics and 69% of single women voted Democratic, says Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.
But Republicans raised their take of the female vote in congressional races from 45% in '00 to 48% in '02.
"The big news since last time isn't really what's happened to men so much as what's happened to women," said William Galston, professor of public affairs at the University of Maryland and an adviser to presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
"For a lot of women — soccer mom types, women with families — Sept. 11 has turned national security into a domestic security issue," Galston said.
That has boosted Bush's standing among women, bringing them more in line with men.
Before 9-11, men rated Bush higher than women did by an average of 8 points in the IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index.
After the attack, Bush's popularity soared and the gender gap closed to 1.1 points. It widened out to 10.2 points on the eve of the Iraq war, but shrank again to 1 point in July.
"The narrow gender gap is also seen in how the two genders perceive Bush's performance on individual issues," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner.
Men and women differ most on strengthening defense (8.1 points), handling Iraq (5.7), and encouraging high moral standards (4.2) and handling the economy (4). Men give higher marks on all.
When it comes to cutting taxes, Bush gets an "A" or "B" grade from 44% of men ad 43% of women.
They hardly differ on three big social issues: Social Security reform (1.5), Medicare reform (0.7), and education (0.4).
Researchers have long known that male and female voters differ little on so-called women's issues.
"Women's issues had almost no relationship at all to the gender gap," said Richard Seltzer, professor of political science at Howard University and co-author of "Sex as a Political Variable."
"On most feminist issues you see very little difference (between men and women)," Seltzer said. "There are some differences on intensity of feelings, but differences on support or lack of support on women's issues are fairly nonexistent."
Even on some women's issues, the trend favors the GOP.
In a recent poll by the pro-choice Center for the Advancement of Women, 51% of women favored limits on abortion, up from 45% in 2001. Just 30% said abortion should face no restrictions.
Even so, Democrats' White House hopefuls still strive to out-do each other as feminists.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has said he'll filibuster any Supreme Court nominee not fully pro-choice.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has boasted to the political action committee Emily's List that "You won't find a better feminist running for president."
GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway says feminist dominance of the Democratic Party turns some men off.
"They've feminized their party to an extent where some men may feel unwelcome," she said. "I'm not sure the welcome mat is still out in front of the Democratic Party for men."
One feminist success may be helping the GOP: More women working means more women thinking about taxes and the economy.
Conway says another reason for the gender gap in the past was that men and women got their news from different sources. Men read newspapers and magazines, while women relied more on TV news.
Today, Fox News, talk radio and the Web expose women to more GOP-friendly views.
About damn time!
"The growing GOP pull among white men is a double blow to Democrats. White men are still 39% of the electorate."
Awwwww........ Shame that white men are still around, isn't it?
Please don't forget also:
- Abortionists
- Homosexuals
- Communists
- Mental Patients
Not sure the welcome mat is out for anyone who's normal.
Seems to me-liberal men and women (also ingratiatingly whiney and full of professing victemhood)- only exist to promise expensive, devastating programs (designed to rob others of their dignity and independence and accountability) in return for the votes to keep the elite politicos of the criminal enterprise known as the DNC in power seats.
They have no honor, subverting our rule of law in order to win at any cost is their unwritten mantra.
No wonder so many are embarrassed to be associated with this party.
Real men are not afraid to take a stand. Liberals are always afraid to do so....at least BEFORE reading the latest polls.
In a way, we all owe bilary klinton a huge thank you. Their behavior, their actions, their hiding from the press and back door dealings somehow exposed the heart of the liberal party and finished off, forever, the late great dem party. I kinda miss the old dem party-where at least real statesmen, who believed in something worthy-fought the good fight.
Alas- the dems became their far left activist groups, indistinguishable, mingled and one and the same, became cowardly and afraid of standing against innane requests from these creepy groups, and have managed to turn off any who hold to common sense and the ever perfect constitution of the United States of America.
This article doesn't surprise me, one iota.
Real men and women understand that freedom is not free.
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