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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHalf of white women continue to vote Republican. What's wrong with them?
Moira Donegan
Some 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election the real story of white women voters is both more grim and more complex than the figure reveals
For the past two years, the American left has been haunted by a number: 53. It is the percentage of white women who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. In the sectors of the left where the figure and its implications have become a perennial theme, the number is treated both as disappointing and darkly unsurprising, a reflection of the conventional wisdom that white women would rather choose the racism espoused by the Republican party than join in the moral coalition represented by men of color and other women. On the left, this number can elicit exasperation, rage, and even suspicions about the moral legitimacy of the feminist project. It casts doubts on the political convictions of liberal white women, colors leftist perception of female-coded liberal political projects like the Womens March, and has prompted long-overdue calls for increased political leadership by women of color.
The real story of white women voters is both more grim and more complex than the 53% figure reveals. The truth is that the 53% of white women who voted for Trump in the last presidential election was actually an improvement on even worse numbers from previous cycles. White women supported Mitt Romney at 56% in 2012, and supported George W Bush by 55% in 2004. Even these robust showings by Republican white women were down from their previous highs: Ronald Reagan won a staggering 62% of white women in 1984. All of these totals were lower than those for white men, who continue to support Republicans at alarming rates, but they were solid majorities nonetheless.
Preliminary results from this weeks midterm elections seem to suggest that the trend is continuing, with Republican candidates slowly losing the support of suburban white women across the country. According to the Wall Street Journal, white womens overall support for Republicans slipped from the infamous 53% in 2016 down to 50% in 2018. CNNs polling places white womens support for Republicans just lower, at 49%. As the Republican party has shifted its rhetoric away from drab Romneyite fiscal conservatism and towards the sadistic racism that is Donald Trumps stock and trade, there is some evidence that growing numbers of white women are turning away, repulsed.
This shift makes white women at once one of the largest voting blocs in the nation and also one of its most divided, least ideologically coherent demographics. No other race and gender group is so split. There is a battle on for the soul of America, between the peevish, racist cruelty of Trump and his supporters and a vision of inclusion, justice, and decency forwarded by an increasingly diverse coalition on the left. Much of that battle is being waged in white womens hearts, with the left hoping that more and more of them will break with their historical loyalty to white supremacy and embrace a kinder, more sustainable model for the future.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/09/white-women-vote-republican-why
dalton99a
(81,578 posts)Yes, it's that simple
vlyons
(10,252 posts)frizzy hair, or Asian eyes.
dalton99a
(81,578 posts)possibly of a different religion, in which case more weird stuff
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,897 posts)Or the people who have a child with a pre-existing medical condition who vote for Republicans?
A lot of people aren't paying attention to which party actually does what.
Submariner
(12,509 posts)subservient females to NRA gun humper husbands.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)".. it also ignores the fact that a majority of white women have voted for the Republican presidential nominee in all but two elections since 1952."
"Among women overall, 54 percent identified as Democrats or lean Democratic and 38 percent said they were or lean Republican, according to the Pew Research Centers party identification report. Among white women, however, voter identification was split almost evenly 47 percent Republican and 46 percent Democrat. Still the percentage of white women who identify as Republicans is far lower than white men, 61 percent of whom say they are or lean Republican.
Women, just like men, tend to vote based on their party affiliation and ideology, and Dittmar said its wrong to assume these women dont know what theyre doing. For some women, free markets, smaller government and curbing abortion is pro-women. They see that as particularly helpful to women and families, so it doesnt seem to stand in contrast to voting for somebody from that party.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)CincyDem
(6,386 posts)IMHO, white women spend their lives living on two sides of the privilege coin. White relative to non-white. Women relative to men. That 50% of white women voted republican implies a hierarchy: better to be a white woman than a black man...racial privilege is more valuable gender privilege.
I don't buy this argument that it's about their "men" and jobs and babies. I think it's about these women themselves. They've concluded republicans will reward them more for being white than hurt them for being female. It's a 3 steps forward 2 steps back calculation...and they're good with that.
phylny
(8,386 posts)This country isn't getting any older, and it isn't getting any whiter. We're moving in the right direction.
Says this 60-year-old white woman.
RazzleCat
(732 posts)I live in the white women voting for trump area. The issue is not just a single item. You have a combination of many factors.
1. Racism
2. Lack of education (mostly high school, and or some college).
3. Economic anxiety, both for themselves and there spouses.
4. Lack of information/understanding of what each party represents. Tribalism
#4 is very important, I live in Missouri, south of St. Louis. Here is how my area voted. Yes on increasing minimum wages (democrat position), yes on medical weed (democrat position), yes on less gerrymandering, and more strident lobbying disclosure (democrat position), also voted prior this year to protect unions (again democrat position). So why did these same women also vote for all republican politicians who were opposed to each of the above. My only thoughts are they just don't know what the person they are voting for stands for, and or receive all there voting information from political ads, facebook, fox news. When they are given and easy to understand proposition on the ballot (see all of the above), they vote progressive every single time, but when they they select a representative they vote republican every single time I think they just don't know.
Jake Stern
(3,145 posts)votes GOP because she believes that Dems want to "take away her right to defend herself" aka her gun.
dembotoz
(16,832 posts)being conservative is easier if you have not been screwed over.
if poor folks are hidden away you do not see them
if all the folks you see are white you do not see discrimination
if your family is healthy, healthcare is wonderful but too expensive cause you pay for what you do not use
ozzie and harriet prob would vote gop cause why not?
they need to get woke and how not sure.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,433 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Listen and weep. Or... as when HRC was running...staying home and baking cookies...anyone else remember?
https://www.google.com/search?q=tammy+wynette+stand+by+your+man+live&rlz=1CASMAI_enUS811&oq=tammy+wynette+stand&aqs=chrome.5.0j69i57j0l4.7509j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
spooky3
(34,476 posts)violetpastille
(1,483 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)Fuckme pumps have warped their brains.