Can The Republican Party Ever Win Another National Electon?

[septimus]

@Martin_Hyde

I could make a counterargument that a large part of the reason Obama got 95-98% of the black vote in some States is because he himself is black.

No need to argue, counter- or otherwise. I refer the honourable gentleman to a study previously cited in the forum:

@septimus

Anyone who denies that racism plays a huge role in American politics should read a recent article in The Atlantic.

… Stephens-Davidowitz ranked areas of the country according to how often people there typed racist search terms into Google… Then he compared Obama’s voting results in those areas with John Kerry’s four years earlier… In the Denver area, which had one of the nation’s lowest rates of racially charged Google searching, Obama received the predicted 57 percent. But in Wheeling [West Virginia], [where Kerry did exactly as well as in Denver in 2004, but] which had a high rate of racially charged Google searching, Obama’s share of the popular vote was only 48 percent. Of course, Obama also picked up some votes because he is black. But, aggregating his findings nationally, Stephens-Davidowitz has concluded that Obama lost between 3 and 5 [net] percentage points of the popular vote to racism.