At 2:48 pm -0500 3/11/04, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>Once again, the rich whites who have college degrees turned out
>disproportionately and outvoted the poor -- many of whom are people
>of color -- who have no college degrees.
The whites went for Bush in droves -- true. Guess I'll never be able to look at a White USA'er in the same way again -- barring those from the Eastern and perhaps Western seaboard, and those in the large urban centres earning less than 50k...and suburban Texas!
People of colour -- a mixed bag. African-Americans went with Kerry. Latinos and Asians, to a lesser degree. In Texas, Afr-Am votes went up +11 for Bush, and Latinos +16.
Level of education was mixed, with those without HS going marginally for Kerry, and those with HS and College about the same going for Bush, and the post-grads going for Kerry by a wide margin. On the whole, those without college went for Bush 53/47, while those with college+ were evenly divided, with 1% going with Nader. The only lesson here is the old saying about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing -- those with "some college", making up almost 1/3 of the voters, went for Bush by the widest margin of all. Still Wojtek's point about region-to-region differences is valid, so that the vote by education characteristic varies regionally -- guess it's all those junky colleges in the south and mid-west? Must remember never to attack the elite universities again!
[So, Ohio is different -- with your college graduates and post-grads going for Bush. But also not going with you either -- you would've come up a real cropper with troops out now, etc. Terrorism and moral values, support for the war in Iraq -- that's what would have won you the place!]
But you know, reading these tables, why don't you come to the conclusion that the results were a defeat for the poor and the working class? That, like it or not, the poor and working class could see their way to the better of a bad choice. Any association with union meant going for Kerry by a wide margin. Those below the median income went with Kerry, the lower the higher the margin.
So, in fact, the working class and poor people didn't vote against their interests, not for the most part. If anything, it was the deluded middle class, whether believers in Bush, or wringing their hands about how terrible Kerry was.
Now, knowing these results, shouldn't you've been trying to get out the votes for Kerry, standing with the poor and working class on this ;)
But really, I think E Asia could do with your tremendous energy. Now, if we stop bankrolling the deficit, get rid of Koizumi, work up a regional alliance (minus Australia ;)), then with the help of the Bushites, we might just be able to roll back the imperial tide.
kj