Oct 21st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
White Solidarity
Ryan Powers observes that conservative talk radio host Michael Savage thinks that “the only people who don’t seem to vote based on race are whites of European origin.”
This is a pretty bizarre point of view. It’s quite common to see African-Americans voting in droves for a white politician. By contrast, you almost never see a black politician win a majority of the white vote. And for a long time southern whites oriented their partisan affiliations entirely around their goal maintaining a white monopoly on political power.
53 Responses to “White Solidarity”
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October 21st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
He’s nutty as they come, and everyone knows it. Who cares what he says? Slow night?
October 21st, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Indeed. A good recent example is Don Cazayoux, recently elected Congressman in Louisiana’s 6th District. Given the district is 1/3 African-American, blacks almost certainly comprise a majority of the Democratic electorate, but Cazayous (who’s white) beat Michael Jackson (who is black) in the primary.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:37 pm
“the only people who don’t seem to vote based on race are whites of European origin.”
It’s well known in my state that it’s a tremendous advantage, particularly in down-ticket, low profile races, to have an Irish last name. There are so many O’Brians, Kellys and Fitzgeralds in office that it makes your head spin. There’s a long, illustrious history in this country of ethnic politics among various subgroups of whites of European origin. So wtf is this holier-than-thou attitude toward blacks who vote for one of their own?
October 21st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Michael Jackson (who is black)
My god, the jokes write themselves, don’t they?
October 21st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Michael Savage is mentally ill–and I say that not as a term of abuse, because it shouldn’t be, but as the only possible conclusion one can reach after listening to him. He advocates a military coup against the possibility of a Democratic victory. He is a white supremacist. He is utterly paranoid. The fact that he’s on the radio every night, and that many millions of people listen to him, is an alarming symptom of social decomposition in our country.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Mr. Savage is working the POV that haoles are the default value, the photo next to the Webster’s definition of “American”. Everyone else is just a long term guest (Matt Damon’s character voiced this in “The Good Shepherd”). I myself have heard acquaintances over the years use language with this unspoken assumption, and were surprised at themselves when assumption was brought out into the open.
Whether Mr. Savage has thought this through, and cynically plays on it anyway, or is actually unaware of the assumption he’s using, I don’t know. Given the “live mic” incidents this season, and the writings of conservative foot soldiers who have retired from the field of battle, I suspect he knows exactly what he’s doing.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Huh.
Can he explain why Al Sharpton lost the black vote to Kerry AND Edwards in North Carolina? They each got more than TWICE the vote he did.
And don’t give me that “because he wasn’t viable” bullshit. Edwards won just as much of the black vote as Sharpton (6% and 8%) in Mississippi, long after it was clear the ‘04 race was over.
Oh, and Steve Fucking Cohen, TN-9. He’s a white Jewish guy who won his first seat wiht 60% of his support coming from African Americans, and who just won his seat AGAIN in a district that’s just 35% white (and 60% black). He CRUSHED his primary opponent, an African-American woman, who made MANY direct appeals to race, in a 70-19 win.
Percentagewise, I’ll be a lot more majority black congressional districts are represented by a white person than the other way around.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Um…Am I just stating the obvious here when I say that “whites of European origin” don’t just vote by race, they worked for decades (and are still working) to keep blacks from even voting?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I don’t recall black folks voting en masse for Michael Steele in his failed Maryland gubernatorial bid in 2006.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Honestly, if there were a black candidate running on a solidly conservative platform they would probably get more support from white voters than a similar white candidate would. And given all the accusation of racism hurled at republicans they would see this as an opportunity to prove their critics wrong (much like Thatcher and Palin did for sexism). This doesn’t mean white’s don’t care about race it’s just that whites care more about race whenever their are policy implication. Perhaps this is also true for minorities but polling data would suggest otherwise.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I know Savage gets good ratings, but is he really at the intellectual level that MattY needs to be concerned about his thoughts? Shouldn’t MattY restrict himself to other Harvard-level thinkers, like LiLo?
One of the real issues here is that expressed through these switcho-chango posts: link, link.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I guess the correct term is “LinLo”.
On a wider point, does anyone know how MattY managed to make it through Harvard? Does he skimp on the intellectual firepower here because he reserves it all for video games or something?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Well, Savage isn’t even worth commenting on. Still, as a counter-example, I was a supporter of Ron Kirk, who was popular across the board (meaning on both the south and north sides of town) here in Dallas.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:14 am
Does he skimp on the intellectual firepower here because he reserves it all for video games or something?
He’s just not in your caliber, lil blogwhore. Go wipe that gold spraypaint off your face, it’s embarassing.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 am
I’ve always gotten the sense from The Savage Wiener that it’s all an act, a schtick, a put-on, a play for the rubes, performance are for the lame at heart.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am
This is a pretty bizarre point of view
Have you ever heard of Michael Savage? The man is a complete crackpot — and that’s by the standards of crackpot rightwing radio. Next item: how interesting it is that pope espouses views in line with Roman Catholicism.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:44 am
Things are tough for the Republicans. Did you see that John McCain AGREED with Murtha that Western Pennsylvanians are Racist Rednecks?
Sounds like McCain is trying to appeal to two separate groups of Swing Voters in Pennsylvania: Racists and Cunning Linguists!
video
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 am
“oriented”
BWAHAHAHAH!
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 am
Why are we discussing the views of Michael Savage? What next, we disinter David Duke?
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:54 am
Matt: It’s quite common to see African-Americans voting in droves for a white politician.
Never when a black politician is running against him. The only example I can think of in recent memory is Steve Cohen and Nikki Tinker. Sharpton doesn’t count. Then there’s this fool:
Percentagewise, I’ll be a lot more majority black congressional districts are represented by a white person than the other way around.
Nope. Out of 25 MBD’s, 24 are represented by a black. In ‘02 and ‘04, blacks went a combined 50 for 50 in majority black districts. In 1996, 1998, and 2000, a combined 77 for 80. The three exceptions in that span are all the same district in Philly. Who represented it? The Chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, Bob Brady. He decided he wanted to be a Congressman and he’s too powerful for anyone to run against him.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 am
Never when a black politician is running against him. The only example I can think of in recent memory is Steve Cohen and Nikki Tinker. Sharpton doesn’t count.
That is not true. We have tree recent examples – Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania – there a black republican did ran against a white democrat. In all three cases the democrat gained the black vote as usual.
In other words: Black voters prefer black democrats to otherwise similar white democrats. In otger situations race doesn`t matter.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:52 am
In other words: Black voters prefer black democrats to otherwise similar white democrats. In otger situations race doesn`t matter.
This is true. But these “other situations” hardly ever come up because there are so few black Republicans. Probably if the Republican party wasn’t so firmly branded in the black consciousness as the party of whites – that is, maybe if there were more than a few notable black Republicans – you’d see the same voting patterns.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 am
Honestly, if there were a black candidate running on a solidly conservative platform they would probably get more support from white voters than a similar white candidate would. And given all the accusation of racism hurled at republicans they would see this as an opportunity to prove their critics wrong
Explaining the resounding success of Senator Alan Keyes (R-IL) against his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 am
Well, if I comment about Michael Savage, SLC will pop in with his rendition of how I “threatened” to throw Savage into traffic or some such nonsense I never said.
So I’ll just say I hope Savage gets efficiently killed by somebody one of these days. And if we’re lucky that somebody or some other somebody will go on to wipe out Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, Coulter, and the rest of the right wing freakazoids.
Death to morons. Including SLC.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Savage really hates America. He makes William Ayers look like Pee Wee Herman.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:26 am
Re Richard Steven Hack
Well, if I comment about Michael Savage, SLC will pop in with his rendition of how I “threatened” to throw Savage into traffic or some such nonsense I never said
Actually, Mr. Hack said that he would like to shove Mr. Savage off a street corner into traffic.
I would certainly agree with Mr. Hack that the world would not miss Savage (nee Weiner), Coulter, O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, and any of the other fascist fucktards who pollute the airwaves with their crap. By the way, has Mr. Yglesias noted that fuckface Glenn Beck is moving to the fascist news channel?
Incidentally, I get a certain satisfaction on being labeled a moron by Mr. Hack, the blogs favorite ex-con who was so smart that he got caught robbing a bank at gun point and spent 9 years in the slammer for his “inteligence.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am
It should be pointed out that black Americans didn’t seem to vote in large numbers for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann or Maryland gubernatorial candidate Michael Steele in 2006, both losers.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Michael Savage is right. European whites do not vote because of race. That is because most of the candidates are European whites and for most of the history in the US only whites were allowed to run for office.
Understand, folks, most people vote for people with whom they and have similar values or ethnic background. Most of us are most comfortable when we hang around with our own kind. We associate with outsiders when we do not feel threatened or sense we are losing power.
If white Europeans vote for black candidates, it is with the understanding that they still control the show. This is called the “Donny Briscoe” effect, and as Yogi Berra said, it could only happen in America.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
It’s cute how RSH & SLC can fight a lot but still remain very close.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
The amusing thing is that sometimes the GOP seems to buy its own spin on black solidarity by nominating a black candidate, thinking that will lead to increasing the Republican share among black voters. It doesn’t work.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Never when a black politician is running against him. The only example I can think of in recent memory is Steve Cohen and Nikki Tinker.
In addition to the already-cited counterexamples of Ben Cardin versus Michael Steele (2006 general election for Senate, Maryland), Ed Rendell versus Lynn Swann (2006 general election for Governor, Pennsylvania), Ted Strickland versus Ken Blackwell (2006 general election for Governor, Ohio), and Don Cazayoux versus Michael Jackson (2008 Democratic primary for Congress, Louisiana); I can add several more races off the top of my head: Rep. Gary Franks (R-CT) lost the black vote while losing his seat to white Democratic challenger James Maloney in 1996, and then lost it again in his unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. Chris Dodd in 1998. And in the nation’s capital, there are no fewer than three white Councilmembers representing majority-minority constituencies who won their 2006 Democratic primary races against black opponents. One, Tommy Wells, is a twofer, since he went on to beat a black Republican in the general election.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
heh, my grandma told my dad when he turned 18 to vote for the democrat, and if there was more than one democrat, then vote for the one with the Italian name, and failing that, vote for the one with the Irish name because at least you’d be getting a good catholic in there.
This was like… 35 years ago.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
huh? I don’t get the assumption.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
huh? I don’t get the assumption.
That Caucasians are post-racial, post-tribal, post-clan, post- however we used to group ourselves back in the old countries. That we see ourselves as Americans first, second, and last. This is easy to do when there aren’t many people around to challenge your sense of identity and belonging.
On the other hand, a black man in pre-civil rights days might typically have daily hints from whites that he wasn’t invited to the party.
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