Blue collar or white collar, white men in general are a GOP constituency

[YoungDemCA]

There's been some talk and concern about Obama not doing so well among "blue-collar" white voters, particularly those who have historically voted Democratic in places like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Ohio.

However, a few other factors should be noted:

1) Private sector unions are few and far between these days, or are weakened after years of union busting.

2) White men are a GOP constituency anyway these days. Has anyone taken a poll of white-collar white men and compared it to the blue-collar white male vote? The white-collars are, I suspect, probably even more GOP than the blue-collars.

3) Many Republican-voting "blue-collar" white men are self-employed or have relatively high incomes, considering their jobs. Both of these factors lead people to vote Republican.

4) Oil, gas, logging, construction, mining, coal, farming, ranching...these are all industries that have a lot of "blue-collar" jobs. They are also industries that are usually dominated by conservative Republicans, at all levels. So it's a not a big surprise that the workers vote Republican.

5) Race is a big fault line in politics. To this day, a majority of whites vote Republican, and a majority of non-whites vote Democratic. Gender is also a big fault line, too. If white males are strongly Republican in general, why is it such a big surprise that a considerable segment of the "blue-collar" white male population is also Republican-voting?

These are just a few thoughts I had about this.

[Scuba]

1. Then I say to women and People of color: Save us from ourselves.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Only because class consciousness in this country is so atrocious could

non-essential characterisitics like race and gender of people determine their political affiliations.

[YoungDemCA]

3. Well, that's not a surprise

Consider the enormous power of corporations/business in the US over our consciousness. Look at the media, for crying out loud-they are mega-corporations themselves!

Couple this with a history of slavery in the South, racism nationwide, and the historical oppression of women, and you have a recipe for atrocious class consciousness.

[HereSince1628]

4. some stat said 37% advantage for r's with some group of white men...

if we look at that as a binomial process that'd be ~68% of white men. We would throw away the election if you throw away the 32% of white men who vote for democrats. We would also throw it away if we allow people other than white men to be disenfranchised.

[leftyohiolib]

5. not this white boy

[Salviati]

9. Nor this one.

My momma raised me right. And by right, I mean Left!

[HopeHoops]

6. Worked for the KKK. Worked for the Nazi party. Worked for the teabaggers. What's the problem?

[uponit7771]

7. The "them" has to be turned to Wall Street and KKKons not people...

[hifiguy]

8. Not this middle-aged white male.

I've been a liberal Democrat all my life.

[Mr Dixon]

10. IMO

This all goes back to the you can be rich too myth, work hard and do for yourself and one DAY you will be rich too, the GOP depends on this messages to keep their base in place and for the most part it works. Any government interference they are in an uproar , keep your hands off my guns, get off my lawn, gays stay away, and anyone not Christian is going to hell. Sad thing is some of these things were somewhat true maybe 200 years ago. It comes down to propaganda and dog whistle politics, Fear is the strongest emotion to create the desired effect or action. Fear of race, Gender, sexuality, religion and Government, throw in a little economic fear and you have the perfect control measures for blue/white caller white men. These people are no different than the KKK in the since of being controlled, by fear, which breeds hate, and selfishness. Not sure if a MAD scientists figured out this HUMAN CONDICTION centuries ago and continued to pass it down the generational ladder not much has changed IMO.

[Populist_Prole]

11. This blue collar white guy loathes conservatives

And their are plenty more like me.