[Dialogue] Wow! Who Were Those Voters? What Now?

[David L. Thomas]

Who Were Those Voters?

During the several months after the Democratic Convention, I could hardly believe the polls that continually showed Bush in the lead.  I was shocked that Bush and so many Republican senators and representatives were elected. For several weeks, my major concern has been, "Who are these voters-slightly over half of all who voted-that preferred candidates that care little about peace, corporate corruption, financial inequality, social programs, environment, science and other liberal concerns.

About half of the Republican supporters appear to be conservative Christians, located disproportionately in the South. But my many sources haven't clearly described the other half. They appear to be disproportionately rural and small town and white male. They dislike gun and other regulations, distrust government and care little for government programs. 

I hypothesize that they may be libertarians, who enjoy the image of the self-sufficient cowboy, the rogue policeman who violates his departmental bureaucracy, and the superhero warrior. They want to be unencumbered by regulations and taxes as they make it on their own. Their community hardly extends beyond their own family and neighbors like themselves. They patriotically place our country far above others. Such thinking runs deep within America. Even many of us liberals can appreciate many aspects of this simple image. 

These conservative Christian and libertarian cultural patterns are what separate us from Canada, Europe and East Asian industrialized countries. We are more accepting of war and financial inequality. We tax ourselves less, especially our wealthy and offer lower quality education, health and other social services, especially for our poor. The results show up in our lower standings on many education and health indicators, especially in many of the red states.

This explains why the Kerry Campaign's attempt to emphasize social issues never took hold. Nor did a nuanced approach to foreign policy. So what must liberals do, other than wishing they could join the blue states with Canada? Can we simply wait until Whites become a minority, or will the Hispanic and other minorities also become Christian conservatives or libertarians? Perhaps the difficulty of successfully extracting our military from Iraq, a collapse of our debt-ridden economy and increasing healthcare and retirement crises will reduce support for the Republicans. But long term changes in our electorate may be more important than short term electoral victories or losses, although the two are related.

I don't know the answers. It is difficult to wait, even when events seem beyond control. But watching and waiting may sometimes be better than hitting the wall harder. I would much enjoy receiving other insights concerning our electorate and our response. Dave Thomas