Birds of a Feather

Citing an article by Salon's Joan Walsh won't be a frequent occurrence at COTTonLINE, she is firmly wedded to the left. Nevertheless, writing at Thanksgiving she identifies a key mistake she made in her writing ahead of the 2014 election.

For now, the Democrats’ oft-touted advantages with “women” – which should always be described as “all women except for white women” — are outweighed by their difficulties with whites.

Right now, for complicated historical, cultural and racial reasons, white women vote more like “whites” – mostly Republican, though less than white men – and less like other women. Single white women and college-educated white women defy that trend more than others, but any 2016 prognosticating that relies on white women as Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon shouldn’t be trusted unless there’s data behind it. And I haven’t seen any.