Class Differences for Super Tuesday
It doesn't seem like there's much commentary about this at my usual watering holes, but I was really interested in the unusual distribution of wins in various states. Why did Clinton dominate in Massachusetts, but not in Delaware? Something not getting much attention at my various news watering-holes is this question of class. People with less education and lower incomes tended to vote for Clinton over Obama. And vice-versa: people with higher incomes and more money voted for Obama. To me that difference, combined with the tendency of working-class folks to vote Republican in some states, rather than Democrat, explains many of Obama's wins in places like North Dakota. At least to me.
But I wonder, too, if Obama and Clinton's basic messages are heard very differently based on a person's social location. One of the things I like about Obama is that he is focused on building a movement of people committed to service and working together to improve the United States. Clinton tends to speak in more "patronage" types of terms: elect me and I'll solve you problems. Which is not appealing to someone with a sense of their own agency, but might sound better to somebody who hasn't felt empowered in the political realm, as working-class people often are not.
A thought.
5 comments:
obama won de bc he showed up there for a rally; hillary only sent chelsea. de has historically supported the candidates who actually visit the state before the primary. obama also had some pretty high powered endorsements and organizations behind him in de. don't knwo how this affects your theory.
I agree that your idea is insightful and has been under-reported. It sounds like David Brooks had a very similar idea in his at Friday column.
What you said makes sense to me. I too am impressed with Obama's ability to inspire a grassroots movement, and I only hope the movement is more grounded in the issues than in Barack's charisma. A thought I had was that people who are most concerned with the issues pressing down on them would be less swayed by charisma, but maybe the fact is the blue collar folks just haven't had time to get to know Obama's stance on the issues in the first place. At any rate, I'm excited to watch the results come in tomorrow.
Update:
With the Potomac primaries, working-class folks have started supporting Obama. I heard one radio commentator suggest that these are the people with the least amount of time to give to politics. Because of that, it takes a lot longer for them to get to know new candidates. Clinton seems to be holding on to the older/white women vote, though.
PS Tortcaesar - can I have permission to read your blog? :)
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