That’s question at the heart of this column (news article?) by Ivy Farguheson for the Muncie Star Press. The jury is out, and this election probably won’t provide conclusive evidence either. For decades, a lot of white blue collar males have voted against their economic self-interest (to the extent the Democrats represented it — the Republicans mostly did not; but that doesn’t necessarily make Democrats champions of the working class). Instead, cultural issues seem to have been more of a driving force.
There are plenty of working class types who are going to vote for the shit kickin’ cowboy and not for the egghead, white or black. The egghead is probably going to gay marry their gun during an abortion ceremony while sipping a latte in a Volvo; or something. And Barack Obama is a known eater of arugula; I hear.
Anyway, race plays into the culture wars, but it’s probably not definitive. And there are plenty of working class whites in Michigan, Iowa, Oregon, and other states tilting strongly for Obama. So, it’s not the skin color or the economic status that is determinative. I tend to think the culture of the Confederacy is stronger in Indiana — that culture probably makes a person less likely to vote for a black person, but it also probably makes a person less likely to vote for any Democrat simply because they aren’t as socially conservative. In Indiana, there are a fair number of folks who long for a return to the 50s (1950s in some cases, 1850s in others).
This is some pretty thin speculation here.
Probably. The most solid ground I’m on is that Indiana’s Presidential electoral record tracks pretty closely to that of the old Confederacy.
We must have a race problem in this country because so many people spend so much time categorizing who is racist and who isn’t.
I got great insight into racial views by living in France,where something as intimate as interrracial marriage had never been an issue with people in general. During most of my lifetime, a mixed race couple in the USA absolutely couldn’t live anywhere free from harassment except in very limited areas in big cities or in a multi-racial state like Hawaii.
Sadly in recent years France is having racial tensions.They stem from new cultural awareness,orginally religion-inspired by Muslims who want to forego French secular law,and set up Sharia law feifdoms in the Parisian suburbs,so tensions have spread also to blacks who are now living in more identifiable all-black neighborhoods.Many now want to live among their own culture at the expense of national identity. Secularism has been breaking down.Muslims seem to want especially to shield their women from secular ideas.
Thanks to the wonders of French socialism, France had long avoided racial strife by assigning anyone living in public housing where they would live and the government made sure all areas remained integrated.Nothing enhances racism like segregated housing (imo).
I lived during a period of time back in the 70s in an HLM ( French Public housing) and was amazed at the Arab,Black and White kids all playing together down below in the court yard.Also there were obvious inter-racial marriages.It was truly a ‘foreign experience’ That stability seems to have fallen through. Muslims just refused to co-operate,so then no one did. Now we have racism building.My French friends ( he’s a CEO and she works in Paris city hall tax office)take the metro to work from their upscale Parisian suburb,but out of fear will not even consider taking public transportation outside of rush hours.
So I guess the point is that world-wide racism is bundled in with religion,economics,and cultural awareness and any politician or agenda strategically pushing one button pushes them all.It’s so in the USA and it’s so in France.
I didn ‘t mention Muncie,but it is part of the world at large.
I don’t know that the “culture of the confederacy” is all that much stronger in Indiana, Doug. Unfortunately, one sees the flag of treason in rural Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan as well. I think the main difference is that those states are more urban than Indiana by percentage.
The part about Indiana tracking the old confederacy in presidential elections really isn’t true. It was true in 2000 and 2004. In 1992 and 1996 Clinton and Gore made some inroads in the south, mostly in their home states but also in Georgia, so it’s hard to say how “the confederacy” voted in that election. 1980, 1984, and 1988 were all electoral landslides. In 1976, Jimmy Carter swept the south, and Indiana was red along with the likes of California, New Jersey, and Illinois. 1972 was a 49 state landslide. In 1968, the deep south mostly went for Wallace. In 1964, Indiana last went Dem and Goldwater’s only stronghold was in Dixie. Before that, you literally have to go back to 1892 to find a non-landslide election in which Indiana was with the old confederacy. Indiana has been Republican for as long as there has been such a thing, and Dixie was solidly Democratic, and hasn’t been quite as monolithic since the 1960s as conventional wisdom holds.
Interesting. I wonder why Indiana stayed aligned with the Republican Party even as the Republicans shifted from a predominantly northern party to a predominantly southern party.
Thanks for the correction in any case.
For many years voters in Muncie regularly elected African-American Hurley Goodall to represent them in the Indiana Legislature…
Well, nothing like a little research. Check out the historical 1851 Indiana Constitution.
http://www.in.gov/history/5886.htm
I kinda dig the way the grinning face of Mitch Daniels looms over the stark text. Holy crap.
Wow – the text from that provision:
Makes me wonder what provisions we’re unthinkingly comfortable about today that will horrify our descendants.
Most of the crap aimed at gays and lesbians comes to mind.
Doug posted:
Makes me wonder what provisions we’re unthinkingly comfortable about today that will horrify our descendants.
Outlawing gay marriage based on a moral view is one of those issues. Common sense and constitutional law is on the side of equal treatment, including equally applicable laws for similar circumstances,but we probably have to wait til the two older generations are history,my own included… cultural biais is very strong.The concept of ‘separate but equal’ has already been disproven as unconstitutional by segregation/integration rulings.
I don’t have any law degree,but common sense is common sense,and the law hopefully will catch up with constitutional logic.
Common sense isn’t terribly common.
Ain’t that something?! I was stunned silent. I mean, my jaw literally dropped.
Got to be short – Article 13 I am supposed to be working! Illinois and Ohio had provisions similar to our Article 13. Having read the 1851 Debates, there was a lot of very ugly talk. A lot coming from a Petttit out of Tippecanoe County. My mother’s late sister complained that Indiana had been taken over for Southerners. I guess you could call it revenge for the Civil War . Muncie is no longer “Middletown”. Some serious racial and economic problems there. I do think that race is probably the unseen factor here. No pun intended. I think we have remained Republican because we have pretty much remained out of the mainstream and our Republicans were not always wingnuts. The more our Republicans become wingnuts, the more we move to Democratic side of things. Could rant some more but got to get a few pleadings done. I kind of brought Trifles out of hibernation these past 10 days because of the bailout. I noted this Muncie article. I also ran across a few other articles in other states showing the same concerns. IIRC, Florida and Missouri which is a bad coincidence – one was a Confederate and the other a border state.