He then ends up suggesting the reason they don’t like Harris is because she’s a woman -
“Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Obama is full of shit on this, and a person worth ~$150 million assuming black men’s political motivations are so superficial is pretty upsetting to read regardless of his race. The issue isn’t gender, at least not primarily, but rather the Democrats’ growing disconnect with working-class voters of color. Harris (a woman) is actually performing better than Biden (a man) did with Black voters, but that doesn’t change the broader trend: the Democratic Party is steadily losing support among people of color, particularly those without college degrees. Instead of addressing economic and social concerns that matter to these communities, Democrats seem to be pushing them away, allowing Republicans to gain ground. Obama implying black men are sexist if they don’t vote for Harris instead of recognizing this complexity feeds the trend of alienating core democratic constituencies.
This trend is most evident in the party’s shift toward becoming the choice of wealthy, college-educated white voters. As polarization based on education deepens, Democrats are doing better with white voters who have college degrees, but they’re struggling to maintain their traditional base. Black, Hispanic, and working-class voters without degrees are feeling left behind.
What we’re seeing is a realignment where the Democrats are slowly becoming the party of affluent, educated white voters, while Republicans are making gains with working-class and nonwhite voters. The erosion of Democratic support among these key constituencies isn’t because voters don’t want to back a woman—it’s because the party has lost touch with the issues that matter to them. If this continues, the demographic foundations that have long been assumed to be Democratic strongholds could shift in the GOP’s favor.
Recent polling data, including surveys from sources like New York Times/Siena and NBC News/Telemundo, highlights these shifts in voter behavior and the growing educational divide within party support, and it has been covered by Nate Silver and the NYT in terms of racial-political depolarization, so this isn’t just me talking out of my ass.
Edit: It is deeply ironic to see all these anonymous downvotes for a person of color daring to call attention to the growing white affluence of the Democratic Party. It’s as if pointing this out is too much for some people to handle, which really speaks directly to the issue.
I imagine this situation would be even more dire if democrats weren’t running against a literal fascist. One can’t simply downvote away the reality that democrats are steadily losing the support of racialized minorities and the working class. Imagine how much that support will erode once the Republicans aren’t running Orange Jesus.
Except if your name is Elon Musk, or Peter Thiel, or David Sacks, or you’re an affluent educated white supporter of them…
Some of your points might well be supported by polling (I don’t know enough to say) but I’m sure there are plenty of affluent educated whites who support Trump.
Yes, obviously. The point is that the democratic party has consistently become more and more the party of white, affluent, and college educated people. That has not historically been the case, and democrats seem to get mad when people point out that their base is shifting.
And the super wealthy are like their own bizarro class. It’s quite easy to list off names of billionaire democratic supporters as well. I am talking more about Tesla owners (before Musk took the mask off) than the owner of Tesla, if that makes sense.
Here’s just one source but it shows the Dems’ lead over the GOP declining among white college grads between 2016 and 2020. But the Dems’ lead over the GOP among all college grads, of any race, increased between those elections.
Sure that’s only one source. Maybe there are polls supporting what you say, I dunno. I could be totally wrong with what I’m saying.
Thanks for sharing that source. While it shows a small decline in the Democrats’ lead among white college graduates, this is largely a blip compared to broader and longitudinal trends if you extend this further and bring it current. The rise of affluent, college-educated white voters in the Democratic base is well-documented, including in the sources I originally mentioned as well as Brookings, Politico, and Pew itself. This slight decline reflects specific dynamics in the 2020 election, such as a shift in voter focus toward economic issues and populist appeals. Overall, affluent, educated, and suburban whites continue to strengthen their role in the party, confirming the growing influence of white affluence in the Democratic coalition.
It’s strange to me that this fact is so upsetting to people. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a well-documented change emerging in the demographic base of democratic support.
Edit: look at non-college-graduate Hispanic support even in this small snapshot. It’s pretty wild, and it’s something democrats will have to contend with eventually. Ideally once Trump is out of the picture.
Fair enough, I guess there’s more than what I know, which is not much.
Hey, all else aside, I really appreciate you for constructively adding to the conversation and being so humble. In a post that took me a while to research and write that seemingly induced a lot of denialist-downvotes, it is refreshing to at least see someone willing to listen and think about it.
Well I’m just saying there’s certainly a lot of statistics I haven’t seen.
Also in the Pew polling I linked to, it shows the Democrat lead among black college grads increasing between the 2018 mid-terms and 2020. It’s only a 1 point difference but at least it hasn’t gone backwards.
Maybe the Dems are doing better with more educated voters, but not necessarily white ones. I dunno. I guess for these matters a person would have to see lots of data points to really understand the trends going on.
Just to be clear, saying you have humility was intended as a compliment.
College graduates, white people, suburban, and affluent people are four methods of categorizing people. One can belong to one, two, three, or all four of these groups. When we examine overall trends, it doesn’t make sense to only focus on a narrow time period, like two years from the past. Instead, if we want to understand trend projections, we need a longer range of data, ideally looking from 2014 to 2024. A smaller set of data can be misleading. For instance, if you looked at suicide rates between 1998 and 1999 in the U.S., you’d see a drop. But if you zoomed out from 1980 to the near-present, you’d see a clear and alarming upward trend. Focusing too narrowly risks missing the bigger picture. (The inverse is also true: if you looked at democrat’s base over 200 years, you’d be including when the were the party of slavers.)
Over the last decade, we’ve seen a notable shift in the Democratic base toward white, affluent, and college-educated voters. Traditionally, Democrats were the party of the working class and people of color. However, support among those groups has been slipping, while wealthy, suburban, and educated voters—especially in urban areas—have increasingly embraced the Democratic Party, particularly on cultural and social issues. This shift became more pronounced during and after Trump’s presidency, as many educated, affluent voters were turned off by his populist, anti-intellectual rhetoric.
Looking ahead, the trend seems to be one where Democrats rely more heavily on white, college-educated, and affluent voters, while their historical support from working-class voters and people of color continues to decline. Democrats will likely gain ground in cities and suburbs where these voters are concentrated, but struggle in rural and less affluent areas. This is a significant realignment for the party, which might face challenges reconciling the economic interests of these affluent voters with the needs of its traditional base, even as social and cultural issues increasingly become the glue holding this new coalition together.
Again, that’s not necessarily a problem in terms of the ability to get democrats elected. But it does present an unfortunate trend if you are concerned with your party representing those demographics. It also requires enough of the shifting composition to make up for the other declines in voters. Given how close almost all elections are these days, that’s no guarantee. And, as I noted, it also might create issues where democratic policies and platforms may need to prioritize one group of supporters over the other – though, arguably, that’s already been occurring, and seems like part of the reason for the shifting composition of the base.
One party is reactionary populism, the other is pinkwashed corporatism
Neither one is responsive to minority working-class interests, but they both support white and capitalist-class interests.
I’m frustrated by having to agree with you. 😁
Democrats just can’t help themselves when it comes to condescending to their constituents, it seems. Giving big 2016 Hillary vibes
I’ve read your posts before, bro. You’re a clown shoe. My post, this article, and Obama’s comments have nothing to do with you.
Well you are responding to the article I posted, so it does have something to do with me…?
Not sure what inspired the hostility, I was agreeing with you, but to each his own I guess.
edit: lmao, you must have a fan, because someone definitely is downvoting you immediately but it aint me
Congratulations. You pushed a button.
Alright, well good job all-around, I guess
We all did our part!
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Truth. To be clear, I’m not trying to dismiss that fact. But it’s important to realize this is a “men” problem, not exclusively or especially a “black men” problem. There’s more going on here in terms of political realignment.
To be clear, black voters still vote overwhelmingly democratic, but it’s continued to shift over the last eight years, with Trump continually picking up more and more POC votes. He doubled black support, and the Hispanic vote is the closest to even it’s ever been – Harris still leads by 14 points in that demographic, but that’s a big change that is part of a broader trend.
And yeah I do wish the Dems would speak more to the working class and uneducated
Newsflash: Democrats shouldn’t be taking minority votes for granted or dismissing their concerns as veiled misogyny
lol “we only have the good ones” fucking racist trope ass
Voters of colour, very funny.