–
WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) – While the 2010 midterm elections have been dissected in every imaginable way to reflect poorly on President Barack Obama, there is one startling reality that has been largely overlooked. According to national exit polls for House races, broken down by race and gender, the Republican blowout was a phenomenon only among White voters. Blacks, Latinos and “all other races” went Democratic.
“Specifically, 63 percent of White men voted Republican as did 58 percent of White women,” Richard Prince reported in his online column “Journal-isms.” “Eighty-five percent of Black men voted Democratic, as did 93 percent of Black women, 60 percent of Latino men, 68 percent of Latino women and 55 percent of ‘all other races.’ ”
There is an historical precedent explaining why White voters in some of the most distressed areas of the country–those out of work and facing home foreclosures, for example–identified with and voted for wealthy White conservatives, some of whom spent millions of dollars of their own money to convince voters that they better represent the best interests of the poor.
›Until 1968 when Republican Richard Nixon took power utilizing his “Southern Strategy,” Christian, segregationist, White Democrats–so-called “Dixiecrats”–ruled the South convincing White voters (who were the only eligible voters until the late 1960s) of six myths. “1. the federal government’s a threat; 2. Federal courts don’t understand the Constitution; 3. Taxes are bad; 4. Unions need to be eliminated; 5. You have a lousy health system; 6. But at least you’re White,” this according to Craig Wilson of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
In 2010, Tea Party candidates changed the face of the already virtually lily White, conservative Republican Party with only a slight modification of those themes.
Just before the election, Les Payne, retired Newsday editor and columnist, reminded the Kansas City Branch of the NAACP that when President Obama was a candidate in 2008, he “could not convince the majority of White America to vote for him,” Lewis Diuguid of the Kansas City Star reported. Mr. Obama’s so-called drop in popularity “is about the same percentage of people in this country who could never accept a Black man in the Oval Office running the country,” Mr. Payne said, according to Mr. Diuguid’s account.
And while it may seem glib, or even amusing, there is a possible explanation of the dumb fear of White American voters, who in 2010 ignored a number of otherwise disqualifying flaws by several of the ultra-conservative Republican candidates who remained viable candidates for high elected offices–professing witchcraft, lying about their military service and heroism, infidelity, the distribution of pornography, and even violent attacks against journalists and supporters of their political opponents. That explanation of the White voter revolt: Mass Insanity.
“The diagnosis if you were to assign one would be a personality disorder-axis audited to DSM-4, and that would be histrionic personality disorder,” Dr. Darrel X, an assistant professor and a psychologist at Clark College in Atlanta told The Final Call. “Essentially, the basis for that diagnosis being that typical persons who exhibit these behaviors or characteristics, emotionally are more attention seeking.
“Histrionic, again is from the APA (American Psychiatric Association) which states that it is a personality disorder or access to. And it has the characteristics if you were to describe the characteristics of the disorder is: attention seeking; inappropriate seductiveness in the forms of a manipulation, abuse; false sense of self; dogmatic; willing to go to extremes to reinforce ones own self-induced ideology; and a lack of empathy for others who have a difference of opinion or ideology or philosophy,” Dr. Darrel said.
These phenomena and especially Black loyalty to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party cannot be explained away using a typical class analysis. During the 2010 election the idea of a “racial community” seems to have endured among Black voters, according to Mr. Prince. “There was not much difference along income lines. Republicans were favored by only 28 percent of non-Whites making more than $50,000; the figure was 17 percent for those making under $50,000.”
The notion of “angry White male voters” has been growing for some time. “There has been a de-sensitization of the population to gross acts of abuse and negligence that has been taking place for quite some time,” according to Dr. Darrel. “De-sensitization through social engineering, through media as well as other forms of entertainment.
“So you have another population which I speak about heavily, and that is those who are classified as ‘Generation X’ who are over-exposed in regards to acts of violence, less emphasis on empathy for others, and they call it the ‘Me Generation.’ These are adults now, and some of them are in positions of power and authority.
“What has happened, if you have a population which is reinforcing more histrionic behavior, then they feel more compelled to reinforce their own ideological and philosophical framework, and anyone who challenges them, because there is no sense of connection or bond to others in regards to empathy and feeling, they feel as though they can take those extreme measures.
“Again, we have population that’s been so desensitized through media and other outlets, we look at it as an isolated incident, but if we look at it collectively as a whole, there is a climate here that is causing a powder keg that I know–I keep saying this–it’s going to cause an explosion, and it’s going to cause a separation in regards to this population here,” said Dr. Darrel.
“Madness is all relative, depending on the context of what we perceive in this dispensation of time,” he continued. “What was considered madness 50 years ago has become a sense of normalcy now. I think that speaks larger to the issue of a culture of violence, and a culture of abuse, and culture of neglect, and a culture of a population that’s been dumbed down.”
What may be on the horizon, as a result of these developments, according to Dr. Darrel, is an approaching “police state.”
Related news:
Why Blue Collar Whites Vote Against Themselves (FCN, 05-14-2008)
›