AP-GfK Poll: Working-Class Whites Shun Dems

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 6, 2010
Filed at 4:04 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Desperate for jobs and cool toward President Barack Obama, working-class whites are flocking to Republicans, turning a group long wary of Democrats into an even bigger impediment to the party's drive to keep control of Congress.

An Associated Press-GfK poll shows whites without four-year college degrees preferring GOP candidates by twice the margin of the last two elections, when Democrats made significant gains in the House and Senate. The poll, conducted last month, found this group favoring GOP hopefuls 58 percent to 36 percent — a whopping 22 percentage-point gap.

In 2008, when Obama won the presidency, they favored GOP congressional candidates by 11 percentage points, according to exit polls of voters. When Democrats won the House and Senate in 2006, the Republican edge was 9 percentage points.

Compared with better-educated whites, working-class whites tend to be older and more conservative — groups that traditionally lean Republican and are uneasy with the young president's activist governing. Their wariness is reinforced by a prolonged economic funk that has disproportionately hurt the working class and shown scant signs of improvement under Obama and Congress' majority Democrats.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/06/us/politics/AP-US-AP-Poll-Working-Class-Whites.html?_r=1&ref=news

---

The majority of white males voted for McCain.

[Nostradammit]

1. I do not trust the AP in any way, shape nor form

These are the same people who rah-rahed the nation into Shock and Awe and these are the same
people who fawned all over the idiot son of the war criminal G.H.W. Bush.

Fuck them and all their nonsense. They think we are not only dumb but very forgetful as well.

Fuck them.

[indimuse]

2. not. n/t

[NBachers]

3. I fit the demographic. I'm a huge leftist-Democrat supporter

AP: "Throw it on the wall, see if it sticks"

[DallasNE]

4. Voters 65 And Older

Have historically voted Democratic to protect Social Security. No more. They seem to be buying into the notion that you can pay current retirees existing benefits and pay for individual accounts invested in the stock market with the same money -- like having your cake and eating it too. That, and the fact that our President is black, drives these voters -- but not all of them :)

[Iowa]

48. Nah, I don't buy that...

At my Democratic precinct caucuses, it looks like a sea of white hair. There are still quite a few FDR Democrats out there, and they always vote. And that older demographic has no interest in the stock market; although many would have been children at the time, they grew up during/shortly after the Great Depression. They tend to be terrified of the stock market.

[boppers]

5. Uneducated favor carnies...

Shit, even carnies know better.

I guess they know why they have an audience.

[whathehell]

33. I don't know what "carnies" are but it sounds disparaging..and guess what?

My dad was not college-educated but he was a strong, FDR Union member whom you could not have PAID to vote Republican.

My dad hated the RW so much he would turn off President Reagan when he spoke at televised press conferences.

[alp227]

37. Carny is slang for "carnival worker"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_%27carny%27_slang

[whathehell]

40. I don't need a wikipedia link..

...unless you have one for a "carny favor".:eyes:

[boppers]

66. No disparagement meant, as I'm part of a carny family.

Performers, entertainers, those who offer "a show"....

Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. are all more entertaining than Kerry, Gore, Axelrod.... hence, Obama winds up being part thinker, part entertainer.

[whathehell]

49. Oh yeah. I can see by your homepage that you're too young to remember

a time when the "uneducated" working class was respected instead of shit on.

[independent_voter]

53. that bugs me too

because i was smart enough to know who was next.....

and H-1b visa confirmed my worst fears

it starts with the 's--t on', then proceeds with policy that wipes you out

I saw this with working class people arguably archi bunker helped make people unsympatheic to 'uneducated workers'

In the 1980s, tech worker stereotype was the blue or grey suited IBM, or Arthur Andersen, with the starched white shirt and windg tipped shoes

then, came the media stereotype of the 'nerd. 'geek' etc, and the H-1b wipeout followed almost immediately

[whathehell]

54. Right...but I hoped it also bothered you

because of what they were doing to other Americans.

[independent_voter]

55. that's ABSOLUTELY why it bothered me

among them were some of the best people i've ever known

in the ranks of these people were many who'd been in uniform for their county

it made me sick to see how they were repaid

but there's no contradiction between concern about other people and concern that you're next

[whathehell]

57. No.

but they can, and in the case of our freeper friends often do, exist independently.

[independent_voter]

58. true - all too often i see people ok with someone ELSE getting the shaft

and it isnt just freepers, you see it on here too sometimes

but only a fool thinks it isnt eventually coming to them too

[whathehell]

60. Yes...It's an "everyman for himself" attitude which is both cold and foolish, imo.n/t

[boppers]

68. I entered the workforce in that late 80's/early 90's.

I knew I wasn't competing against the guy down the street, I was competing against everybody on the whole goddamn planet, *and* competing against robots that never needed a sick day, time off, overtime, etc.

Sometimes I think the people who have it the *hardest* are the ones who grew up in a paradigm where they didn't realize what their competition would be.

[boppers]

67. Homepage?

As far as remembering back to a time when education wasn't a valuable thing, I admit to not being alive in the dark ages.

[SkyDaddy7]

6. Thank TALK RADIO!

I have no idea what it is like in other parts of the country but down here in the South you can't listen to a radio station AM or FM that is not bashing Obama & the Democrats all day! The crap they spew is beyond anything even similar to the truth and folks buy it!

We, or at least I, live surrounded by weak minded gullible knuckle heads! And Religious freaks which drives most down hear to hate the Democrats!

[saigon68]

15. surrounded by weak minded gullible knuckle heads

You forgot to state, that they hate people of color.

[RamboLiberal]

63. Same damn thing up in my area of SW PA

If I'm driving around in my car during a weekday in Western PA, Eastern OH, or WV and scanning the radio dial all you get is RW talk. Not a liberal/progressive to be heard.

Amazing how they convince the chickens it's in their best interest to vote for Colonel Sanders. Got that from a local columnist over the weekend.

Bamboozled by the Colonel

It always amazes me how many chickens will vote for Col. Sanders," said my brother. He was commenting on my last column, about the disappearing middle class and how monied interests are manipulating voters into plucking their own feathers.

-----

Every day, average citizens are losing ground through no fault of their own. Some 3.7 million people were driven into the Medicaid program last year due to lost jobs and health benefits, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Another new study, from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, found that two in five children under age 5 live in low-income families -- that's a shocking 40 percent -- and a higher proportion of uninsured young children than last year.

We did not get to this point overnight. It took years of outsourcing and automation, aided by the financial collapse, abetted by government policies that favor the rich. It also took years of middle class voters getting bamboozled by the colonel.

Step right up, folks! This country is being ruined by gays and atheists and scientists who want to take your guns and outlaw God and teach evolution so the terrorists can win! Pay no attention to that deep fryer behind the curtain ...



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10276/1091894-149.stm#ixzz11cdMTD7N

[ingac70]

7. I don't have a 4 year degree...

And I would rather have my eyes gouged out than vote for a Republican.

[whyverne]

8. I used to say that you couldn't pay me to vote Republican.

But things are so bad these days that I will vote R for 10 grand.

[ingac70]

9. I reckon everyone can be a whore and has their price. n/t

[The Wizard]

17. We have a secret ballot

Who would know for whom you cast a ballot? If someone gave me ten grand I'd tell them anything they wanted to hear, and see if they could prove if I was lying.

[Zoeisright]

10. "Activist governing"??? What is that, some kind of dog whistle phrase?

What that means is DOING SOMETHING. What a pile of shit the AP is.

[Doctor_J]

41. They really object to "Blackness of the young president"

[Burma Jones]

11. It's been like this, to varying degrees, since 1968....

Get out the Vote......

[Alcibiades]

12. Utter garbage

"Included were interviews with 416 whites without college degrees, for whom the error margin is plus or minus 6.6 points."

So their "whopping 22 percentage-point gap" could be as little as 10%.

There's a reason why you don't carve up samples like this: the results get rather unreliable, very quickly. Of course, they buried that, and acted as though they had conducted a poll of whites without college degrees, which is not what was done. What they AP did was to cherrypick data.

[bemildred]

14. Yep, the methodology sucks. nt

[wilt the stilt]

18. 416 is way too small of a sample

In order to be fairly accurate you need a 1,000.

[Joanne98]

13. That's really stupid! Republicans are the ones who ship jobs overseas!

[No Elephants]

24. The Republicrats and the Demlicans have both done that.

[Tempest]

16. Another example of people voting against their best interests

I don't understand why those people (white working class, which I belong to) would want to vote for the same party who threw them out of work in the first place.

[Owl]

23. I agree. And unfortunately I personally see that same sentiment with many working class whites.

It's mind-boggling.

[Romulox]

28. Which of these is in working peoples' "best interest"? NAFTA, MFN China, Bankster bailouts,

Allowing BP to be in charge of investigating itself, taxpayer funded bonuses for Wall Street, Deregulation of exotic securities (CDS, i.e.), etc. etc.?

All Democratic policies. All terrible for working people. :hi:

[Tempest]

29. The bank bailouts were necessary

Economists all agree the bank bailouts prevented a depression.

[Romulox]

30. But bailouts of regular people aren't, huh? What were you saying about "best interests", again?

:hi:

[Tempest]

34. Nice strawman

But bailouts of regular people aren't, huh?

I never said or insinuated any such thing.

Please try to stick to what a poster says, and not what your bias thinks they said next time.

[Romulox]

35. No Strawman. We're talking about Democratic policies as they exist on the ground.

"I never said or insinuated any such thing."

The Democratic leadership has.

"Please try to stick to what a poster says, and not what your bias thinks they said next time."

Um, you have no right to have your posts read out of the context of actual, factual, on-the-ground reality. There has been next to no stimulus for regular people, and tons of them for banks. If you defend this status quo, you are defending both parts of that proposition.

[independent_voter]

50. nothing in this crisis has addressed the free trade causes of it

ever since free trade started in ernest under bush sr, and continued by everyone ever since, the economy has been unable to function witout abnormal amounts of credit, deficit spending, currency inflation and bubbles, some of which are deliberate by the fed reserve (housing)

the bottom line is free trade has hollowed out the American citizen's ability to produce it's own real income, both at the personal, and governmental levels

the ruling class bribed both parties to throw the American middle and working middle classes under the bus in the attempted creation of an Empire, which is failing

[Owl]

64. What do you mean by "bailouts of regular people"?

[independent_voter]

45. you forgot H-1b visas and outsourcing too nt

[Iowa]

51. With a two party system, and the sorry state of today's DLC driven Democratic party...

... you either vote against your own best interests, or you don't vote at all (which is even worse). Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Choose you poison.

[independent_voter]

52. DLC Driven means the economic voter has NO choice

and will be brow beaten by social issue voters to excuse the economic sellout

[HughBeaumont]

19. Yet another case of Friedman Shitonomics being allowed another decade margin of error . . .

. . . while the more sensible and boring Keynesian economics gets only TWO YEARS.

I always say it's cruel to blame the American workers for the mess they're in, but shit like this sort of gives the con a case.

[Romulox]

26. Spending trillions on multinational banks, almost nothing on regular people = "Keynesian"? Really?

:shrug:

[HughBeaumont]

31. TARP = Bush II /Paulson, not Obama.

Arguably, the stimulus under Obama should have been far larger and more inclusive to working Americans. It's just the point - real Keynesian economics hasn't even been tried because we don't have the money or patience to do it, thanks to Bewsh putting us in such a huge hole and the American voter wanting everything right NOW.

But rather than give it time to work properly, the voters would rather go backwards and put the people in that would blow America sky high again, thanks to the fact that they really, REALLY HATE Democrats as opposed to merely being ticked at Republicans.

[Romulox]

32. Stop. Obama voted for, spoke in favor of, and spent half of TARP

No need for revisionism--Obama supported TARP with all his energies. At any rate, the Obama administration has extended over ten trillion in US taxpayer resources to multinational banks. The "stimulus" barely figures when compared.

"But rather than give it time to work properly, the voters would rather go backwards and put the people in that would blow America sky high again, thanks to the fact that they really, REALLY HATE Democrats as opposed to merely being ticked at Republicans."

LOL. Voters are supposed to have patience...for Democrats to implement a strategy which we haven't tried or proposed? That doesn't make much sense.

[independent_voter]

46. Senator Obama voted for TARP nt

[Jefferson23]

20. Complete bullshit. n/t

[AnneD]

21. And those of us that have a job....

are in sticker shock at the rate our health care premiums have gone up. Yeah, thanks for that excellent job of standing up for us against the insurance lobby. I know how Czechoslovakia felt when they were handed over to Hitler's Germany. With friends (and a majority) like this, who needs enemies. I voted for a real change and it has been the same old same old. We get nothing but crumbs. Outside the beltway, we are getting killed in this economy.

I work as a school nurse and most teachers are furious at the way Duncan bad mouths them and the few measly benefits they get. Don't count on much support from them. Most I know will be staying home or just voting the very local election level (school board, city, state). It is sad because the Dems could have made serious inroads here in Texas.

edited to add..I will for for Dems when I feel I can-but blue dog Dems and those that haven't stood their ground will get neither my vote, time, or my hard earned money.

[impik]

22. Stupid people will get what they deserve

[No Elephants]

25. Smart people don't get what they deserve, though.

[Romulox]

27. This is because the Democrats refuse to adopt economic populism

The Obama administration has continued the "trickle down" policies of Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes. Call it "Keynesian" if you like ( :rofl: ) but all the money went to banks, almost none to regular people.

[independent_voter]

47. the term is 'neoliberalism'

explained by a 'recovering trade lawyer' and law school classmate of Obama Lori Wallach

brilliant presentation in this link

http://www.iptv.org/video/detail.cfm/3135/ittv_20081220_155

[RussBLib]

36. what bullsh*t, "flocking to Republicans..."

The AP is rapidly becoming a disgrace to journalism.

I don't believe this, even for a second.

[mcollins]

38. I think we'll see more and more fake polls before the elections. nt

[AngryAmish]

39. If they don't support us then they must be punished

I am sick of their cracker bullshit.

[whathehell]

42. ..and their freeloading, tax cheatin' pets too!

Geebus...Am in Freeperville?

[Quantess]

43. This seems like a crock.

It no longer is accurate to divide between "better educated" and "working class", since a lot of highly educated people are now in the "working class" income level. That's just for starters.

[Zorra]

44. The "dumbing down" of America by republicans since the Reagan era

looks like it has been a huge success for them.

Working-class whites that vote for republicans are just flat out stupid, and that's not a generalization.

[independent_voter]

56. Democrats are forgetting that the gains came from disgust with the incumbant party

2006 and 2008 were about punishing the incumbant party - 2010 might be too

would that make republicans undeserving beneficiaries? sure. but beneficiaries just the same

people felt that things were headed in the wrong direction

where is the surprise in that happening again

[independent_voter]

59. Are there people against Obama because they are racist? Of course there are

but there are a lot of working/middle class whites who would be eager to vote for him in 2012 if they really saw a turnaround in the free trade issues that are hurting them. Even if it were just a roadmap - but there isnt one

and they get offended as hell their lack of enthusiasm is dismissed as 'racist'

[maxsolomon]

61. the thinking of serfs.

longing for the protection of feudalism.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

62. Voting to help the rich people they think they'll become.

:banghead:

[ProgressiveEconomist]

65. It's not as if educated whites go for Democrats whole-hog. Lyndon Johnson was the last

Democratic President to win outright the white vote as a whole.

According to the article cited in the OP (at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/06/us/politics/AP-US-AP-Poll-Working-Class-Whites.html?_r=2&ref=news&pagewanted=print ):

"Working-class whites' views contrast with whites who have college degrees, who the AP-GfK Poll shows are SPLIT EVENLY between the two parties' candidates. ...

Working-class whites backed GOP House candidates by 9 percentage points in 2006 and 11 points in 2008, according to exit polls of voters. Whites with college degrees were about evenly divided in 2006 and LEANED TOWARD REPUBLICANS BY 7 POINTS IN 2008."

[DiverDave]

69. Where the hell are they finding these people?

I'M a working class white guy, and I'll be damned if I would
go over to those god damned thugs.

And I know quite a few working class white guys and they are all Democrats.

I call shenanigans on this poll.

[w4rma]

70. These are the people DLCers directly piss on. (nt)

[independent_voter]

71. +1