Posted on 07/08/2012 5:34:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
When Carolyn Coulson was deciding how to vote in 2008, she found Barack Obama’s rhetoric “exciting,” especially when he talked about a “different kind of politics.”
Then a student at Vanderbilt, she said John McCain was dull in comparison.
Coulson, now 25 and a Wall Street consultant, finds no trace of that Obama today.
“His rhetoric is aimed just at specific groups of people, not as someone who would bring the country together,” she said.
Identity politics is something you do when you don't have the worst economy since World War II, according to David Woodard, a Clemson University political science professor. “He cannot say anything about the economy and win,” Woodard explained.
From his mini-amnesty pitch to Hispanics, his support of gay marriage and his “identity” comments on the death of a black youth, to his turning contraception into a wedge issue, President Obama is shaping his electoral path to victory with identity politics.
After the 2008 election, he began losing white voters almost immediately. That began with stimulus spending, escalated with the health-care vote, and was cemented by a series of speeches and seemingly inconsequential decisions, such as getting involved in the goings-on of a Massachusetts police department that led to an awkward “beer summit.”
White voters make up a majority of the electoral pie, and white Democrats in the middle- to low-income working class are the soul of that coalition. In 2008, white voters without college degrees made up nearly 40 percent of all voters.
In the 2010 midterm election, when Republicans crushed Democrats up and down the ballot nationally, less than 33 percent of the white working class voted for House Democrats – a record low.
The latest Gallup in-depth poll shows only 43 percent of white 18- to 29-year-olds plan to vote for Obama, down 9 points from the 52 percent backing him in 2008; his support is down 9 points among postgraduate women, too.
Despite Coulson’s education, profession and gender, she is as yet unmoved by Obama despite being a clear target of his identity politics.
Those numbers are why you must picture Obama's strategy as creating a majority coalition of "hyphens" (African-American, Mexican-American, gay/lesbian-Americans, etc.), said Eldon Eisenach, a Tulsa University political science professor.
“Recalling Teddy Roosevelt's rejection of ‘hyphenated Americans’ and his call for national citizenship, one might add that hyphens can't govern … in the national interest,” Eisenach added.
Obama’s campaign talks about “winning the future” because that is what he is trying to do politically, according to Baylor University political scientist Curt Nichols: “Demonstrate for Democrats a new path to political power, one that disregards traditional Democrats in favor of a coalition focused on women, blacks, Hispanics and gays.”
Two weeks ago, when the Supreme Court upheld the health-care law, one thing missing in the noise following the news was the sudden intensity within the conservative base. Before that moment, Republican Mitt Romney was on the brink of being forced to counter Obama by mirroring his identity politics and juicing up Romney’s own base.
“Oh, that is already done for him with this ruling,” said Democrat strategist Dane Strother. “This hands Romney an intensity level that no one predicted he might achieve.”
Couple that with independent voters souring on Obama over the economy, and this is the perfect storm for Romney, said Bruce Haynes, a Washington-based GOP media consultant.
Obama already has lost the white working class and rural votes; both only needed to be convinced to come out and vote for Romney – and the Supreme Court gave them that reason.
Obama's support among suburbanites in places such as Philadelphia is tenuous at best, too. If northern suburbanites and young professionals turn, then he is doomed to a huge loss. And persuadable voters such as Coulson are looking for a compelling reason to abandon him; divisive rhetoric is turning them off, and economics is only half the story.
If Romney can reassure suburbanites that America is exceptional because it doesn't vote for or against anyone based on skin color, ethnic heritage or religion – that it votes based on a candidate’s principles, priorities and performance – then he has a chance to undermine Obama with northern suburbanites and to rout him in a landslide.
Ms. Coulson is the kind of emotion-based voter that should best stay home on election day. Has she apologized to America as yet for election this destructive buffon president? To top it off, with her poor judgement she works at Wall Street.
Hyphens-are-more-popular-than-ever-before.
The new Obama Jobs Program is still another bail out for Wall Street. After all is grousing about Wall Street, not a single prosecution has resulted from their behavior. Still, the Occupy gang and minority voters will turn out in full support of the man who mocks them with his every political move.
HYPHENATE PRICE TAG the price we are paying so that vote-crazed Obama and other desperate pols can get re/elected. NOTE Oftentimes the conniving pols bury these programs within other programs making them difficult to find. Americans have been hammered with govt propaganda that it was the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting the US. Here’s the real reasons:
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify at: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8
2. $22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary & secondary education for children here illegally and [usually] cannot speak a word of English. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt....0.HTML
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies (or as Terry Anderson says “JACKPOT” babies!)Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Verify at: http://transcripts.CNN..com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt...01.HTML
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & socialservices by the American taxpayers. Verify at: http://premium.cnn..com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01..HTML
9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRI
13. In 2006, illegals sent $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www/..rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States. Verify at: http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR WHICH WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY. Are we THAT Stupid?WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!
PLUS!
1. The Earned Income Credit...money people get back on their taxes that they NEVER paid into in the first place! Illegal aliens, most of which pay zero in net taxes, enjoyed $4.2 billion from the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) last year. That’s more than the annual revenue from the selected oil tax deductions and corporate jet deductions combined!Verify: http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2011/09/02/illegal-aliens-receive-4-2-billion-in-additional-child-tax-credits/
2. The cost of prosecuting and making SURE the “rights” of illegals are protected by US laws madefor US citizens. In 2009, the U.S. Justice Dept filed nearly 92,000 pro-immigrant-related criminal cases in the federal courts. The record-breaker accounted for more than half of all new federal prosecutions, according to data maintained at Syracuse University. Verify at:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=federal+court+cases
Salena Zito acts as if the right is different in this regard. That the right doesn’t echo the need to ‘reach out’ to blacks, Hispanics etc. Just like the Tea Party reacted when accused of being racist. Or how almost all of the right treats the likes of LaRaza or The Black Caucus et al as legitimate political interest.
What a delusional mindset that embraces the very same thing the left does and then runs around in circles accusing the left of being the ‘real racist’.
Everyone keeps saying this.
It's so early. I think if obama wins the nation is done...over and out. It scares me half to death.
It's ironic that a party whose ideology is a blend of Karl Marx and Jean-Jacques Rousseau should have such a small share of the vote of the group they are supposedly championing, the "working class."
In the 2010 midterm election, when Republicans crushed Democrats up and down the ballot nationally, less than 33 percent of the white working class voted for House Democrats – a record low.
The latest Gallup in-depth poll shows only 43 percent of white 18- to 29-year-olds plan to vote for Obama, down 9 points from the 52 percent backing him in 2008; his support is down 9 points among postgraduate women, too.
BTTT! Thanks for the numbers, Salena! There's so much undo pessimism on this forum these days.
If Hillary were president and nobody had heard of Obozo, she would be doing the identical thing with this bad economy.
Remember, the Klintonx taught Barry this crap, not the other way around.
If northern suburbanites and young professionals turn, then he is doomed to a huge loss. And persuadable voters such as Coulson are looking for a compelling reason to abandon him; divisive rhetoric is turning them off*, and economics is only half the story.
The writer is a northern, urban-burban neo-con desperate for a path to the White House for a non-Southern, non-conservative candidate that does not include the white South -- whose people she despises even more than she does Obama's Marxism-Leninism or race politics.
You let the cat out of the bag, sweetie.
* This is code for conservative campaign themes and memetically conservative arguments, which include Obama's credentials and hidden background, Obama's associations (Van Jones, Eric Holder, Ayers and Dohrn, Shirley Sherrod, Man's Country, the Muslim Brotherhood), Obama's sharp-elbow politics, and his ideologically hidebound and racist policies. Good luck with that -- "breaking the box" (the "Finkelstein box") almost always means a 'Rat victory. You want to "break the box" -- and win with your Yacht-Clubber anyway! Like I said, good luck with that.
The way things are going, I'm thinking Sarah Palin might just walk into that convention hall and come out with the nomination.
I should point out that she never ended up voting for him.
I should point out that she never ended up voting for him.
LOL!
Sarah Palin is a nobody in this election. I don’t understand why she is still put up on a pedestal.
May I quote you?
People post on this forum as if Palin is running for office. It's laughable.
I don't think it is genuine pessimism regarding Romney's chances so much as it is folks wanting Romney to lose and disparaging his chances as a means of campaigning against him.
You let the cat out of the bag, sweetie.
You lost me. I believe she comes from Pittsburgh or thereabouts from a working class family. She often covers "The Rust Belt" and Appalachia. I read the author anytime she is linked at RealClearPolitics.com. Where have you seen an animus against southern whites?
"White voters make up a majority of the electoral pie, and white Democrats in the middle- to low-income working class are the soul of that coalition. In 2008, white voters without college degrees made up nearly 40 percent of all voters.
"In the 2010 midterm election, when Republicans crushed Democrats up and down the ballot nationally, less than 33 percent of the white working class voted for House Democrats – a record low.
"The latest Gallup in-depth poll shows only 43 percent of white 18- to 29-year-olds plan to vote for Obama, down 9 points from the 52 percent backing him in 2008; his support is down 9 points among postgraduate women, too."
When she has the numbers, she'll include a demographic analysis. The rats are toast with the white working class, if not the party, at least Obama, IMHO, but the rats may have finally doomed themselves with the white working class by its embrace of radical environmentalism. It's a bread and butter issue now if your family works in the coal, oil, natural gas and power industries.
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