The Democratic Party has a "white people" problem. As
The New York Times' Thomas B. Edsall
writes, whites whose economic interests might be better served by Democratic policies nevertheless are voting Republican in growing numbers.
Does it result from ideological differences, racial animosity or a perception among many whites that they are excluded from a coalition of minorities, the poor, single women of all races, gays and other previously marginalized constituencies?
Edsall adds:
Arguably, the poor Democratic showing among whites does not represent naked race prejudice, as Obama’s election and re-election attest.
By way of explanation, Edsall looks at white resistance to Democratic policies, which resistance could arise from an ideological difference: dislike of wealth redistribution.
The opposition of whites to the Democratic Party is visible not only in voting behavior, but in general opposition to key Democratic policy initiatives, most tellingly in hostility toward the Affordable Care Act.
Obamacare shifts health care benefits and tax burdens from upper-income Americans to lower-income Americans, and from largely white constituencies to beneficiaries disproportionately made up of racial and ethnic minorities.
In other words, "You want me to support a bunch of free-loaders and illegal immigrants? No way." Although Edsall is an old lefty, his column has some merit.
