Whites Take Flight on Election Day

Source: Wapo

Bad news for Michael S. Steele, the leading Maryland Republican candidate for Senate in November: The scuttling noise he hears on Election Day could be the sound of tens of thousands of white Republicans crossing over to vote for the Democrat.

In fact, white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University in a forthcoming article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. White independents are similarly inclined to vote for the white Democrat when there's a black Republican running, according to her study of congressional and gubernatorial voting patterns between 1982 and 2000, including five Senate races in which the Republican nominee was black.

Her analysis suggests that GOP "white flight" in the Maryland Senate race could mean at least an additional 1 or 2 percent of the vote goes to the Democrat, and perhaps more -- but only if the candidate is white. Together, independents who would otherwise vote for a white Republican plus GOP deserters may easily swamp any increase in black Democratic crossover to Steele.

But racially motivated crossover voting is not just a Republican phenomenon. Democrats also desert their party when its candidate is black, Washington found. In House races, white Democrats are 38 percentage points less likely to vote Democratic if their candidate is black.

And don't expect turnout to surge among either blacks or whites in Maryland this November. Washington found that white and black turnout swells when the Democratic candidate for Senate is African American but is not significantly affected when the office-seeker is a black Republican.

This is interesting, but what does it mean? it seems the implication in the article is that all white voters are racists. Is that true?

And remember lefties before you pat yourself on the back they said you were almost as likely to be racist as well. So what does it mean?

I have a thought. I have seen Michael Steele and I like him a lot. I believe if I lived in his district I might very well vote for him, but let me be perfectly frank. I think every black politician must first climb out of the deep trench cut by people like Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and all the other race hustlers who have poisened the waters racially in American politics.

When I see a black or Hispanic politician prepare to give remarks I tense inside because I assume I'm going to hear a litany revolving around how horrible America is, how racist I am, and how much the offender would like special privileges for whatever racial group the politician shills for.

This is wearisome to the soul.

Democrats charted this territory but Republicans are hardly without sin themselves. All ethnic politicians have created a climate where a majority of Americans, not just white Americans assume they will play the race card shamelessly and attempt to profit by dividing Americans against each other.

I genuinely hope we can reach a point where race no longer matters in politics, however the greatest strides to be taken lie with those ethnic race hustlers who set us all back with the pointless calls of racism and bigotry where none exist.

Those politicians who seek to keep "their" people down that they might act as a savior to the very problems they themselves created.

In short, the very racism that holds a good man like michael Steele back is being created by those politicians who most decry racism.

If these folks wish to work toward eliminating racism in America they would do well to look in a mirror.

***Update***

Upon dropping the crack pipe I just noticed the key/buried element of this story. You probably noticed it before I did, cuz I have such smart readers, but here's the contrast (I really don't know how I missed this)...

In fact, white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black,

Right, Rethuglicans are evil and all that, right? read on...

But racially motivated crossover voting is not just a Republican phenomenon. Democrats also desert their party when its candidate is black, Washington found. In House races, white Democrats are 38 percentage points less likely to vote Democratic if their candidate is black.

A solid heh!

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