“The fact that Clinton beats out McCain but Obama doesn’t reflects the very serious racial divides in New Jersey which has one of the largest minority populations in America and one of the most Democratic.”
This would tend to verify Robert Putnam’s assertions in “Bowling Alone” that in areas of mixed cultures and ethnic groups, people of one group are, by and large, distrustful of those of other ethnic groups.
Unlike the whites of, say - Iowa or Vermont (lily-white states), those in New Jersey have learned from experience about the conflicts between groups other than their own. They won’t be as predisposed to faint for the Obamessiah.
- John
Interesting point.
I think in areas where people have not “mixed in” and have a history of thinking of themselves as hyphenated Americans
(I hate it when people hyphenate me because of my last name) instead of just plain Americans, this is true.
New Jersey has come far in the pat few years in being more inclusive, but it still contains ethnic commnunities where people identify closely with their ancestral origins.