Democrat Delusion
I am amazed. The Democrat party seems to think that they lost the election because a raft of low-IQ, unwashed, high-school dropout, crazy Christian couch-potato homophobes -- in short, their view of fly-over America -- turned out to support Chimpy McDeath because he's stupid like them.
Oddly, according to the LA Time's exit poll, nothing could be further from the truth:
- College-educated voters for Bush: 49%; non-college: 54%
- Under 30 years old for Bush: 43%; over 30: 53% (!)
- First-time voters for Bush: 43%; voted before: 53% (!!)
- Income under $40K for Bush: 47%, over $40K: 53%
Bush's share of educated votes wasn't much different from Kerry's, and the older and better off people got, the more likely they were to vote for Bush. Older and/or better off people are not stupider than average.
Where did the Democrats fail? What groups do they need to attract if they hope to recover?
- Marrieds for Bush: 58%, Singles: 38%
- Union households for Bush: 43%, non-union: 53%
- Catholics for Bush: 55% (against a Catholic opponent)
- Church-goers for Bush: 65%, others: 42%
A party that cannot attract married people is in real trouble. A party that attacks and belittles the 40% of Americans who regularly attend church is in way-serious trouble. And a working-class party that gets only half the working-class vote (either by union status or by income) is nearly bankrupt. This cannot be made up with the 20% of Americans who identify as "minorities", especially as even there the Democrat numbers were down.
What was the real issue? Of those who feel the country is at war, Kerry didn't pass muster. Coupled with his anti-war, anti-military history was a backdrop of al Qaeda apologists, professional America-haters and tie-dyed Hippy-wannabes. In the end, America found Kerry's attempts to claim national security credentials unconvincing. Of the 50% of voters who thought that removing Saddam was a good thing, and the price acceptable, Bush got 88%.
This decision was about the war, pure and simple. And the Democrat candidate lost because he wasn't the guy for the job.
Posted by Kevin Murphy at November 6, 2004 05:33 PM
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