In 2008, he might have won it by a tiny margin. Depends on how you define it. In most elections, Republicans win voters making over $50,000. Which as the NY Times shows, is 68% of the electorate.
adaher, We’ve discussed the ID thing in other threads, that’s not what this one is about.
Well sure, but voters over $50k includes everybody over the median. I have to think that a definition of “middle class” that doesn’t include the median is flawed.
ETA: You also did the math wrong by counting >$100k twice. The percent over $50k is 42%.
ETA2: NVM, I can’t read.
Ah, you’re right, but you made an arithmetic error as well. 52%, not 42%.
Actually, their numbers are all screwed. If you don’t count $100,000 twice, it’s 62%.
And I was including below the median, my starting point was $30,000. By that measure, the Democrats only won the middle class when they already had a landslide victory, such as in 1996 and 2008. Bush OWNED the middle class in 2000 and 2004. He nearly tied Gore and Kerry in the $30K-$50K demographic and ran up big margins above $50K.
I remember having this exact argument with someone ages ago about middle class voters. The gist of the matter is that the “middle class” stopped voting for Democrats a long time ago. If you see Democrats win “middle class” voters, as Jas purports in the above post, it’s because they win states where the population at large-- lower, middle and higher-- all vote Democrat. If you click on one of the links in the above post, you’ll see a chart of how each state would have voted if only low/middle/high income earners could affect the outcome. You see that only two states vote for the GOP regardless of income but about 15’ish states vote for Democrats regardless of income.
I also wish that exit polls would count those with jobs vs. those without. I believe Republicans probably clean up the working class vote. Especially if we count private sector workers separately from public sector workers.
Not to side track, but;
What? How? Lady Gaga is Italian-American and French-Canadian. Michell Obama had some white ancestors over a hundred years ago. In what way can Michelle possibly claim claim to be whiter?
I think a better analogy would be comparing BArack Obama to Mark Paul Gosselaar(Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell). Obama and Gosselaar are equally white.
Yeah! 'Cause those government jobs aren’t REAL jobs! We shouldn’t count the military either, parasitic fuckers.
Are public sector workers worth less to you?
Yeah, what?
What the heck are you talking about? The Democratic party was full of segregationists in the South. To the degree that they were allowed to vote southern blacks weren’t voting for Democrats. In the north, African Americans voted for Hoover over FDR. It wasn’t until the late 1930s that things changed in the north, and in the 60s the Southern Strategy essentially flipped the Democrat and Republican parties in the south.
They are real jobs, but they are dependent on private sector workers to pay their salaries and have a conflict of interest when it comes to their voting.
No, I just expect them to be more Democratic leaning due to the inherent conflict of interest of working for the government and being able to vote for people who will spend more on it.
Working people will naturally tend to favor the party that wants to tax them less. Unless they benefit from that taxation because it pays their salaries.
Really? This is what you think?
Black voters were trying to vote in the Democratic primary for NEW Democrats, to GET RID of the existing (usually racist) ones.
They were, essentially, voting for liberals instead of conservatives. That is the way to think about this. Parties are artificial institutions that people use as they need them, not ideologies.
The primary was the de facto election at the time. To twist that into saying blacks were all eager Democratic supporters is disingenuous. People vote strategically and take what they can get sometimes. They had no chance as Republicans; voting in the Democratic primary gave them a shot at power.
Everyone has interests. Rich people want tax cuts for themselves. Does that make it somehow a conflict of interest when they vote - their interests vs. that of the people at large?
Oh, really?
How would their salaries help them if they are taxed higher?
Congratulations, you discovered politics. It’s everywhere, not just in the government. People have interests and vote for them. So what?
In much the same way the private sector is dependent on the courts and constabulary to enforce contract.
It is comical at this point. It looks last ditch and poorly thought out because it is.
If Romney had established such a council months ago we wouldn’t even be talking about it. It makes perfect sense for Republicans to try and pick up a larger percentage of the black vote. It makes perfect sense for them to try and pick up any demographic really, but if your going to try and make in roads in a demographic traditionally opposed to your party, a day before ballots start being cast is some truly incompetent timing.
Then Romney picked people that are terrible choices for bring anyone in from the Democratic Party. You think Allen west or Tim Scott are going to do what they couldn’t even do for themselves for Romney? They are both perfect for mobilizing the angry white vote but that’s about all they got. As someone mentioned up thread why wasn’t someone like Micheal Steele considered? He at least has a history of trying to do exactly what the council aims to do.
I’m a unionized state employee. I have a position in a big book that describes my payscale. I get automatic raises each year and my union guarantees that I get that much. If tax revenues go up, my payscale DOES NOT. Right now people making over 30k are taking a 3-4% paycut in the state school system using furloughs. I don’t make over that so the paycut does not affect me. I vote democratic not because I “get more money” but because I believe in a social safety net and republicans do not. I believe corporations and the rich should pay the most for benefiting the most from our society, republicans do not. I believe the most powerful country in the history of the universe should be able to afford universal healthcare like the rest of the first world (and some third world) countries, republicans do not.
In other words, if public state college employees are voting for their paychecks right now, it’s to try to increase revenues so they can not get more CUTS to their paychecks, there is literally nobody who is a public employee who thinks they “get more money” by voting for somebody. The thought is, these people we vote for will stand by the contract our union fought for.
Just curious, what is Zack Morris’ background? Never heard this.