Posted by
Armanius on Saturday, November 08, 2008 1:57:03 PM
"Forty years ago, Republicans under Richard Nixon decided that national success required breaking up the Democratic dominance in the South. They did so by employing a "Southern strategy" of appealing to white resentment over desegregation and later by highlighting liberal Democratic positions on social and welfare issues.
Today, conservative positions on gun rights, abortion and gay marriage are staples of the Republican platform, as well as a disdain for any tax increases and unyielding support for the war in Iraq.
But if these hard-line conservative positions sell in the Deep South, they appear to have alienated voters elsewhere, if the past two elections are any indication."
Note how the article associates "conservative positions" with "white resentment over desegregation." In other words, as one of my liberal coworkers likes to imply when we discuss politics, conservatism equates and breeds racists and bigots.
The article then goes on to conclude that the purported "conservative positions" alienated 52% of the American voters. The article forgets that even in an overwhelmingly blue state such as California, Californian voters voted for Proposition 8, which banned gay-marriage. 52.4% of Californians voted for Proposition 8, even though 61.1% of them voted for Obama, and 37.1% went for McCain.
What does this article show? First, the very much liberal AP sees conservativism as something negative and directly related to racism and bigotry.
Second, the AP is probably wrong that conservative positions alienated voters who are not in the Deep South. To make that connection, one would have to assume that the majority of the country holds "liberal" positions. In my opinion, the vote for Proposition 8 dispells that myth, especially because California is considered one of the more liberal states in the country. Yet, the vote for Proposition 8 shows that either 15.3% of Obama supporters are conservatives who chose not to vote for McCain, or 15.3% of Obama supporters are liberals who oppose gay marriage. I believe that the country still leans right. But most Americans, even the conservative ones, were so disillusioned with Republicans, whether rightfully or wrongfully, that they were willing to vote for Obama. Hence, I do not believe conservative positions is a lost proposition in national elections.