Just about everywhere you look (except maybe Mitt Romney's neighborhood) you can find a group the GOP is waging war against. About the only demographic they haven't declared war on are rich white folks. That's a prescription for a disastrous Election Day.
Even Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina realizes this approach is a potentially losing strategy.
Graham had a rare moment of honesty back in August when he told the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/...): “The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
He's probably right about the long term, but what about Election Day 2012?
The latest NBC-WSJ poll has President Obama and Romney tied at 47%. Isn't that ironic? Anyway, somehow, if the polls are accurate, there may still be enough angry white people out there to vote Mitt Romney into the White House.
With all the demographic groups the Republicans seem to have written off and generally declared war on, it seems like this election shouldn't even be close -- even with the soft economy, which by all measures is improving.
Here's my short list of all the entities the GOP has declared war on:
Women
Blacks
Hispanics
Lesbians, Gays, Bi-Sexuals and Trans Gender People
Science
Muslims
Democratic Leaning Voters (Check out all the coordinated voter suppression activities in states across America).
Geez. Who's left? You got it: Graham's Angry White People. The GOP is pinning all of its 2012 hopes on the angry white guys Graham referenced. Them and all the poor suckers who don't realize they're among those the GOP despises and in many cases plays like fiddling fools. The GOP tricks these people into voting GOP through appeals all to often based on religion, intolerance, racism and hate. Who are these people? Hope I don't offend anyone, but it's the NASCAR crowd. There's absolutely nothing in the GOP platform that is generally in the best interests of 80 percent of them. But they don't care. They just want to see the white guy win. In a sense, you could say I'm generalizing. But poll after poll suggests that the category of voters Romney is strongest among is under-educated whites, while it seems that he'd be strongest among more educated, higher income whites. Those are the only people Romney really cares about. Not the NASCAR crowd. They're part of the 47% whether they want to be or not.
This excerpt from a recent article by Damon K. Jones from People Before Politics914.Com kind of highlights what I' saying (http://www.peoplebeforepolitics914.com/...):
Many undedicated white blue-collar workers, who are even in unions, have turned away from their support of President Obama. You would think that the many attacks that Romney has taken at unionized labor, these same uneducated white men would think that their workplace rights, safety and benefits will be in jeopardy. Mr. Romney has pledged to; end preference for unionized companies in government contracting, he opposes collective bargaining, end project labor agreements and prevent unions from being able to spend member dues on political activities. Nationally, there are more white men in blue collar and public safety unions than any other ethnic group.
In 2011, the Republican Party also voted against the American Jobs Act. This plan included stimulus spending in the form of immediate infrastructure investments and efforts to shore up state and local budgets to prevent further layoffs of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public safety officials. Mr.Romney is also quoted in saying that there is a need for less Police and Firemen. The Romney policies will attack collective bargaining, rights and benefits of Police and Firemen and other first responders. These jobs historically have been held by white middle class families.
Doesn't that sound like the NASCAR crowd? Why on earth would anyone from this group vote for Romney!?
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't think this many angry whites would jump on board the Romney Express. As recently as late September, I routinely counted far more McCain-Palin bumper stickers on cars than Romney-Ryan bumper stickers around East-Central and South Florida. Then a funny thing happened in the aftermath of the first Presidential Debate October 3: There was a huge jump in the number of Romney-Ryan bumper stickers and yard signs.
Sadly, I attribute that to those who enjoyed seeing what they saw as the white guy (Romney) aggressively telling the black guy (Obama) off and putting his uppity butt in his place. They saw Romney going after the "Food Stamp President" like an attack dog and loved it. I mean really, the only thing Romney didn't do that night was wag his finger in the President's face like that idiot Jan Brewer did that time when she met his plane at the airport in Arizona. That kind of in-your-face BS actually inspires the angry white guys Graham was talking about and who the GOP bamboozles and is so dependent on.
They're there and thus far they seem more apt to react to dog whistles about food stamps, welfare and Socialism (which to them means taking resources away from hardworking, taxpaying whites and giving freebies to lazy blacks and Hispanics) than they are about Romney's anti-union and anti-women positions.
We have to acknowledge that the angry white people demographic is fired up and ready to support Romney--in spite of the fact that many of them are in the 47% Romney looks down upon. To them, it's about race...white vs. black--a line that they're bound to toe. They don't care about tax equality, the environment, marriage equality, sensible foreign policy or even saving Medicare and Social Security. All they want to do is beat the black guy. Nobody wants to believe their motivation is that simple...but it is. They don't even know they're the willfully ignorant victims of the GOP's all-out war on democracy, which is what it really, truly is.
This kind of willful ignorance makes you understand why TV pundit Joan Walsh (who is white, I think) would write a book called: What's The Matter With White People
Ultimately, the GOP has declared war on democracy. The party that has the audacity to tell the Democratic President who averted a Depression, got Osama bin Laden, ended the war in Iraq, saved the American auto industry and added some five million jobs that he doesn't have a record to run on cannot, repeat cannot allowed to lie and cheat its way into the White House.
Our best hope is that those of us in all of the categories the GOP is waging war against can join with whites of goodwill and conscience to defeat them. I'm optimistic and fervently believe that all of the wars they're waging and all the people they're alienating will come back to haunt them on Election Day.