Angry white females?

[reflection]

I remember sitting in my living room in 1994, dumbfounded, as the returns rolled in for what would be called "The Republican Revolution," the infamous midterm election which swept the Republicans into control of Congress. It was the first time I remember the phrase "angry white male" being coined. AWMs were seen as having thrown a collective fit in order to maintain their grip on power. Here's a link to a book which referenced the phenomenon for those who may not remember.

http://www.amazon.com/Midterm-Elections-Transforming-American-Politics/dp/0813328195

My question is, if Obama does not implode, wins the nomination and goes up against John McCain, only to lose by a slight margin, do you think the media will try to broadbrush (no pun intended) white females in the same manner? If white female Hillary supporters, for lack of a better term, take their ball and go home, what would the political consequences be? Would there be irreversible damage to the party? Or would it be something that could be healed by the next election? And would it be the catalyst for a new feminist movement?

(Of course, this all assumes that the AWF would be the demographic which would sink Obama. It may very well not be the case. Disclaimer: I am an Obama supporter and would like to see him elected and all of this be academic.)

edit for bad spelling

[Captain Hilts]

1. As a voting group, marital status strongly affects the way women vote in a way it does not men,...

so, that's why the term 'women's vote' is a misnomer. There is no such thing.

Women split their votes between candidates or lean one way or the other.

[reflection]

3. I agree to an extent.

If you are looking at two demographics you don't want to alienate (AAs, females, and the overlap), it is true that women do not bloc vote as much as their AA counterparts. But this is an unusual election and I think the possiblity is certainly there, especially as older women go. There may very well be a white female boycott (or worse yet, McCain migration) if Obama proceeds as expected. I certainly hope not, and will cast my vote proudly for Obama, but it looks as if there will be a mighty wedge driven straight through the party come November.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Very true. That's why unmarried women are so crucial to the Dems

Economic issues like inflation and retirement security that effect everyone are on steroids where unmarried or un-partnered women are concerned.

[Outlier]

7. Good observation.

I think the feminist movement peeked about 30 years ago, there will be some AWF. Much fewer than the AAA (angry African-Americans) if Obama doesn't get the nomination. White females angry or not, do not vote 90-10 for the Democratic party like African Americans. For a long time I've wondered why Obama in a quiet moment before a debate, didn't just tell her "I'm ahead, and if you steal this from me I will take the black vote with me, and we will stay at home. You will not be my vice president, but you could be my secretary of defense or state. And I will make Bill my first choice for the supreme court. Take it or leave it. Either I'm president or neither of us are."

If the nomination is going to be decided in a back room deal, Obama should be the one calling the meeting. He has all the leverage.

[enfield collector]

12. you may be right, however 2 small points, 1) Bill won't be on the

supreme court because he lost his law license. 2) I believe Hillary would rather take him down if she could not be the nominee

[ieoeja]

16. Two problems with (1).

First, Bill did not lose his law license. His license was temporarily suspended, not revoked.

Second, wouldn't matter if he had. You don't need a license to practice law to sit on the Supreme Court. A number of people have sat on the US Supreme Court without ever practicing law or being a judge on a lower court.

[Captain Hilts]

18. Blacks comprise a small percentage of voters. Women, 52%. nt

[Breeze54]

28. Yeah...OK... what a load of crap!

"Women split their votes between candidates or lean one way or the other."

LIKE MEN DO!!! :silly:

[Captain Hilts]

31. True! But black voters often vote as a bloc. Women, and men do not. nt

[Breeze54]

33. Women are smarter then men..

Didn't you get that memo?

:P

[Captain Hilts]

40. I wish! nt

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. I think they will, and we're kinda screwed either way.

We may lose some of Hillary's older white female supporters if Barack wins. But if Hillary wins we may lose at least the same number of African American, progressive, and new young voters.

Whoever the loser is better work really hard to court their respective "base" or else we hand the election to McSame. Much as it would pain me to see Clinton bully her way to the nomination, I hope Obama will do his utmost to get his voters to support her in November.

[reflection]

5. Agreed on all counts. Nicely said. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

27. Older, white female for Hillary. I'm not angry. Other women I talk to who

support Hillary now are not angry and ready to support Obama if he is the nominee. We realize that a Democrat in the White House is better for us, our children and our grandchildren than a Republican in the White House. If Hillary doesn't win the nomination, we may be disappointed, but we'll vote for Obama. It's a matter of practicality.

[Coexist]

6. I'm a white woman, and I'm only angry at Hillary Clinton.

[reflection]

8. As a white woman,

have you noticed any shift in white women's thinking, at least in the circles you run in? (I know you can't speak for all white women) :) I only have my wife to lean on for opinion, and her support for Obama preceded mine and has not wavered since, even during the Wright garbage. But there are definitely some angry women out there (as is evident by some of the posters here).

[Coexist]

10. I've noticed that most of the Obama supporters I know

are women, of all colors. When phonebanking, the only ones with bad stuff to say about Clinton are the women.

[Skidmore]

11. There have been many women, including myself, whohave been

steadfastly behind Obama. I think the whole angry white woman crap is a media construct to counterbalance the angry black man crap they put out there to keep the pot stirred.

[marions ghost]

25. yep

n/t

[Skidmore]

9. Kickin' and agreein'.

[Coexist]

14. !

[Arugula Latte]

19. I'm also AWWWIMAHC

Another White Woman Who Is Mad At Hillary Clinton

[leftofcool]

13. I think it remains to be seen. You will not really know until the GE

The female voting bloc is quite large but I think it is not only females that are a concern

[reflection]

22. What other groups do you see

that would take an adversarial approach to an Obama candidacy? Obviously there are people with latent racism, as another poster pointed out, but do you have some other demographics in mind which could be seen as inherently anti-Obama? Just curious.

[Demit]

15. Of course the media will look for a scapegoat. And you seem all prepared to swallow it whole.

And what's your squeamishness about using a sports metaphor about? Or don't you understand what "taking the ball and going home" means?

All your if this and if that is based on absolutely nothing. It's pernicious and ill-intentioned speculation. It does, however, reveal your willingness to agree with the manufactured narrative that the media is busy cooking up. Couldn't be that the American public as a whole rejected a candidate, oh no, that might hint that the vote reflected latent racism in America. No, it has to be Somebody In Particular's fault—why not women? I love your line: "Of course this all assumes that the AWF would be the demographic that sinks Obama"—as if that would be quantifiable. But of course it won't have to be! It's already well on its way to being received wisdom. And people like you will nod your heads sagely when the media pulls this sh*t in November. Congratulations.

[reflection]

17. You read a lot that wasn't there.

I was not squeamish about using a sports metpahor, just trying not to ascribe the whole "pouting" aspect of such an act to women.

As for the AWF vote being quantifiable, it will be so, on the way out of the voting booth, via exit polling, which is somewhat accurate. Either the AWF vote will sink Obama, or they won't, or they won't vote bloc anyway. None of these are a foregone conclusion, and I am not trying to assign fault to anyone. Congratulations yourself.

[Demit]

20. LOL! So do you worry that men are "pouting" when they take their bat & ball and go home?

Of course not. You reveal yourself again.

And aren't you postulating that "angry white females" are going to retaliate by staying home on Election Day? They won't be coming out of any voting booths. No, there won't be any way to quantify it. That would only interfere with the easy narrative the media would prefer to advance anyway, the one that doesn't require real evidence. Oh, they'll find a woman or two on November 5, ones who'll say they stayed home because Hillary wasn't the candidate, and they'll triumphantly quote them. Anything to stay well clear of the more obvious implication in an Obama loss—racism.

Not only is it not a foregone conclusion, it is irresponsible speculation that you are engaging in, and it is stupidly pointless as well.

[reflection]

21. What an odd response.

Whatever it is about myself that you feel I am "revealing", you are welcome to it. I don't understand it, nor do I care to, and it's yours anyway, not mine.

That being said, there are generally other races and other issues to vote on during an election. It is not unheard of for one to step into the voting booth and not vote every option. When I say people may "stay home" I don't mean as such literally - but I will admit I was remiss for not being clear about that.

You call the posing of 'what-ifs' "irresponsible", "pernicious" and "stupidly pointless" but you speak of your own post-election predictions as if they were already carved in stone. For those of us who are not blessed with the gift of prescience, we sometimes present ideas to our peers for review. An omniscient person such as yourself should be philanthropic enough to allow the rest of us that small privliege.

Although I will respond to others in this thread, you may have the last word here, for you appear an angry and unpleasant sort of person.

[Demit]

24. I'm calling you on your sexism, if that wasn't clear to you.

And the posing of such what ifs as innocent "presenting ideas for review" is exactly what gossipmongers do when they want to introduce bad ideas without having to claim authorship. "I'm just sayin" or "Of course I don't think this, but..." is another way they put it. You have a preconceived idea in your head—that women are a bloc, unified by their anger, and the anger has one source only: that their candidate did not win the nomination. You bend over backwards not to call this "pouting".

So you've presented your idea for review and I reviewed it. LOL! You just don't like the review.

[marions ghost]

23. Many female OBAMA supporters are ANGRY!

This primary race has given us a lot of insights into the women's vote--particularly the white womens' vote. Conservative white women who can't stomach McBush are generally going for Hillary--that's one type of angry white woman. Liberal women are going heavily for Obama and those voters ALSO include MANY angry white women, you can be SURE. And then there are liberal feminists who are with Hillary all the way--that's another type of angry white woman. And black women can be angry too. All have good reason to be. I think you have to conclude that women who vote Dem are angry in general.

It would behoove any candidate and future president to be aware of the Angry Woman vote in this race. As far as Hillary is concerned, there seem to be a fairly large number of women in this country who are not happy with things, and surprising numbers are expressing it as unrelenting support for the female candidate. I'm actually surprised at the numbers who are supporting Hillary, given her negatives. It says a lot about how women feel they have been treated over the last few decades. That's the interesting thing about it to me...the message worth getting. Also the identification with Hillary as the wronged wife who fights her way back is huge. To give Hillary credit, she has brought some types of angry women voters out of the woodwork, just as Obama has engaged younger voters with his message of change.

When men talk about voting for Clinton, it usually has something to do with the relative era of sanity and prosperity under her husband. They actually seem to believe that the Clintons can take us back in time. They haven't realized that this is a completely different situation now. Nostalgia for the good old days is a very shallow thing to base a vote on in these turbulent times.

Bottom line--ALL of us Progressives/Democrats are ANGRY to a certain extent! If you're not angry, you'd be voting McBush.

Hillary does not have a lock on angry female voters --that seems a very male-centric POV.

[reflection]

26. Great post. Wish I could rec it.

Thank you for opening my eyes a little. :)

[marions ghost]

32. you're OK reflection

:toast: good topic--thanks for putting it out there...we're all learning something new from this historic race--

Got a lot to do for tomorrow. Keep the vigil for Obama. We're working on it.

[reflection]

38. cool. thanks. n/t

[Breeze54]

29. Thank You -- from an ANGRY, WHITE, DIVORCED, FEMALE, SINGLE, PARENT....

KUCINICH SUPPORTER!!

Sorry for all the caps but I was getting carried away in MY ANGER!!!!! :P

:toast:

:rofl:

PS. What a great post!! I think it should be an OP, so I can recommend it! ;)

[Skidmore]

30. Excellent analysis. This is the best assessment of the dynamics

of the voting I've seen to date.

[kwenu]

34. You imply that the media has ethics. They don't. They would use and do anything to sell a story.

[Imagevision]

35. The odds of Obama be defeated by Mccain is triple 000...

[OzarkDem]

36. I thought we were uneducated and downscale?

I'm losing track of how many different ways Obama and his news media cohorts can disparage women voters.

Of course they also neglect to acknowledge many of the women voters supporting Clinton are AA and Hispanic.

:eyes:

[dorktv]

37. women get blamed for a lot of things.

probably this too

[Darth_Kitten]

39. White women have always been pissed off.......

speaking as one of them. ;) Why shouldn't they be pissed off? Either blamed for taking things away from men/not doing enough for them/having their issues and lives totally dismissed by society.

Yeah, women are pissed. :)

[NashVegas]

41. You Can't Blame Women for Not Voting, If They Choose Not To

If they vote for McCain en masse, you'll have a point.