I've been thinking about this, partly in response to Chris' diary, and also partly in response to an exchange I saw recently on
TAPPED between Matt Yglesias, who wondered if race is
still the issue driving whites away from the Democratic party and Garance Franke-Ruta, who was looking at the voting patterns of single women, white men, and white women, and why white women have turned away from the party, returned, and turned away again. She saw it as a matter of "security" (I think they're both somewhat right incidentally). But this leads to the question of who, or what, is the Democratic party?
If the Republican part is a party of white Christians (which is a provocative way of saying, a party for the types of people who have always had power in this country from the beginning), then I'd say the Democratic party is the party of minorities (in addition to currently being
in the minority, of course). For those of us who are obviously a minority for one reason or another--because of our race, ethnicity, religion, gender/marital status or sexual orientation, it is easy to see why we are here. Frankly, we don't have much choice. The other party is composed of people who don't like us. But this does cause some extra headaches for our party...
- Trying to get all the minorities who sometimes have competing agendas to work together.
- Trying to make the party appealing for those white voters who have essentially "volunteered" to become a minority when they have other choices.
Indeed, for those of you (whites, especially white men and married white women) who are offering to become a certain type of minority (politically liberal, yet possibly Christian, white person) the question is somewhat murkier. You may be voting against your economic self-interest. The main things holding you here might be "principle" or "tradition" and those can be tenuous things.
So how can a party that because of its make up has trouble marching in lock step and is composed of the downtrodden and do-gooders win?
2 ways or some combination. That part is not rocket science.
- increase the number of voting "minorities"
- increase the number of white males and married white females who vote Democratic
The how, of course, is enough to fill volumes with speculation and recrimination. But as a start, let's realize that we can't win the way they win, by finding the largest homogenous demographic group in the country and keeping them in line through threats and posturing. Different paths must be pursued.