 RICK McKAY / Washington Bureau Mark Fedele of Cross, S.C., with wife Katrina at the Southern 500 race in Darlington. |
Posted on 08/30/2003 10:29:05 PM PDT by Pokey78
|
|
|
|
||
Darlington, S.C. --
If "NASCAR dads" are in the driver's seat for the 2004 presidential election, the Democratic Party's chance of recapturing the White House may well be roadkill.
In fact, as thousands of racing fans descended on this small town for the Labor Day weekend running of the Southern 500, it was difficult to find any NASCAR fan, dad or mom, willing to listen to Democrats.
In interviews amid the Confederate flag-flying RVs in the parking lot and infield of Darlington Raceway and among the souvenir trailers lined end to end just outside the raceway gates, only one Democratic presidential candidate got a favorable mention -- Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
This is a bastion of middle- to lower-class white males, mostly from rural areas, who have been lumped together by political analysts as "NASCAR dads." They make up a demographic that Democrats want, much as they sought the suburban "soccer mom" vote in 2000.
Years ago, NASCAR dads might have voted their wallets with the Democrats, who tailor the economic policies to the less-well-off. But not now. As a group, NASCAR dads are not terribly political, but when they vote, they align culturally with the Republicans.
They are people like Mike Eidsen, 55, of Douglasville, a former Atlanta Gas Light employee and father of two, who now follows the NASCAR race circuit as a fan and a vendor, selling T-shirts, hats and jackets bearing the logos of popular drivers.
"My granddaddy was such a Democrat he would have voted for Satan himself if he was on the Democratic ticket," Eidsen said. "So I grew up Democrat and always voted Democrat. But not anymore. That was a mistake."
The last Democrat he voted for? "Jimmy Carter in 1976," he said. "And that was another mistake."
Big cultural divide
Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, who has surged into the lead in the campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly said that his party should not cede the NASCAR dad vote to President Bush and the Republican Party. He believes these voters will respond to job creation economics.
But nonpartisan political analysts say Democrats must narrow the cultural divide before NASCAR dads will pay attention to their economic message.
"Some Southerners have the perception that Democrats are elitists and look down on things like, say, NASCAR racing," said Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia. "So the Democrats have to begin showing that they are at least interested. That's a first step."
Edwards, who needs a good showing in the Feb. 3 South Carolina primary, took such a step in his Senate race by sponsoring a race car. Democrat Mark Warner did the same in his successful campaign for governor in Virginia, a state dominated in presidential elections by the GOP. And now, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, one of the nine Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination, is sponsoring a truck in NASCAR's racing truck series.
"If you're going to send a message of hope to rural America, there is no better vehicle than NASCAR," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, the Virginia Democrat behind Warner's sponsorship of a race car in 2001. He is now an adviser to Graham's presidential campaign.
But the liberal constituency that dominates the Democratic Party's presidential nominating process makes it difficult for Edwards and Graham to follow the example of Warner and largely ignore the cultural issues that frequently divide Democrats from Southern conservatives.
"Just as the GOP has been mainly frustrated in its minority recruitment efforts, the Democrats are likely to be blocked in winning NASCAR dads," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who has exhaustively analyzed Warner's successful campaign.
"Social issues, like gun control, gay rights and abortion, will usually trump the economic concerns that could lead this group to vote Democratic more often," Sabato added. "That is, the Democrats now running for president are all so liberal on social issues -- even [Connecticut Sen. Joe] Lieberman, the most conservative of the lot -- that the Democrats will be lucky even to get a hearing on their economic and health care pitches for the less well-off, such as NASCAR dads."
Edwards, however, got the attention of Mark Fedele, 57, a front loader operator from Cross, 70 miles to the southwest, with his TV ads in South Carolina promoting job growth, health care and education. "I usually vote for the candidate with the best line of bull, and that's usually the Republican," he said during a visit to one of the souvenir trailers at the track. "But this Edwards guy is making some sense."
Fedele's wife, Katrina, 48, a corrections guard, agreed. "Politicians all sound good," she said. "But you've got to pay close attention to what they say." Although she's a staunch Republican, she said she would pay attention to Edwards -- "at least give him a chance."
Edwards, though, trails badly in the polls, well behind the front-runners, Dean and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, two New Englanders whose rise to the top of the Democratic presidential field thrills Southern Republicans.
"You walk through that infield at Darlington, and I challenge you to find anybody who is going to support Howard Dean or John Kerry for president," said Whit Ayers, a nationally known Republican pollster based in Atlanta.
'We support Bush'
"Most of our fans are politically conservative, yes," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications. "But they're a pretty good cross section of America, a good reflection of American values, of American beliefs in heroes, in family."
That's what brings families like the Joyes from their home in nearby Lamar to NASCAR races.
"It's a great atmosphere for families," said Eddie Joye, 35, as he, wife Vickie and sons Rob, 10, and Lee, 7, made their way through the special displays of race team sponsors. And, yes, "we support President Bush," he added.
So, too, does 52-year-old Dennis Hurley, a federal government employee from Silver Spring, Md., who has come to the Southern 500 every year for the last dozen years, sometimes with his wife, Faye.
Hurley, a stepfather to two children, was here in 1992 when the race crowd booed then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. And though he is a registered Democrat, he joined in the expression of displeasure with Clinton, already considered a womanizer, and has been voting Republican ever since.
"I was just disgusted with him," Hurley said while unpacking his pickup truck to join friends in their RV.
"The Democrats have just been out of control," he added. "And as long as they are out of control, I'm voting Republican."
Sure, the Democrats tailor their economic policies to the less well-off, if that's what you call "give us 10 dollars and we'll give you five".
Keeping people less-well-off instead of making it possible for them to succeed financially is not the kind of tailoring rational people want.
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The Democrats prove that every year.
Throw-away shots like this one remind me of Mr. Subliminal. The Democrats [Communists] keep pushing their image [pimps] and the press [whores] keeps playing their tune [broken record].
Yeah, a Southerner who names one kid Robert and one kid Lee. The Dems want nothing to do with anyone who doesn't view Robert E. Lee as a war criminal.
Good luck. Until the 'Rats dissolve the Superglue attaching their lips to the NAACP's rear end - they can kiss this strategery goodbye.
"Who among us does not love NASCAR?"
Jag
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.