While Democrats have little to celebrate today, and Southern Democrats even less so (if you take the old Confederacy, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma - Democrats now hold only 4 of the 28 US Senate seats from the area), one bright spot for them is the election of State Sen. Kip Holden as mayor-president of Baton Rouge. Holden will be the first African-American leader of Baton Rouge. He defeated Republican incumbent Bobby Simpson.
[Is this a meager prize given last night's losses? Perhaps. But as a former resident, I'm interested, and obviously it's of some consequence to the hundreds of thousands who live there.]
Posted by armand at November 3, 2004 11:44 AM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsAs often as dear old CNN has been on the receiving end of our displeasure, they do have a good summary table here that shows just about all the divisions on the presidential vote possible. There are a few that I found particularly telling, though not totally surprising:
Vote by Race and Gender
Vote by Education
Vote by Religion
Most Important Issue
Most Important Quality
Crooked Timber has a nice summary of the religion aspect.
Posted by: binky at November 3, 2004 12:47 PM | PERMALINKthese numbers are appalling:
** 16% who felt that bush cares more about corporations than ordinary people voted for him anyway.
** the 9% of people who listed "cares about people" as their principal concern in a president voted 75/24/1 for kerry, but the 11% concerned with "honest/trustworthy" went 71/29/1 bush. then of course there are the 8% for whom religious faith was the end-all be-all, who went 91/8 for bush. i guess, then, that the religious aren't so concerned about having a president who cares about people.
** then of course there's the "most important issue" category, whereunder we find kerry with dominant ( > 70% ) leads among those who chose education, iraq, economy, and health care, yet those who chose "moral values" of course chose bush 80/18. how can i not conclude that moral values for these people concerns such ephemera as gay marriage and stem cell research but doesn't especially concern itself with the education of our children or providing safe, adequate health care for all of our citizens (although to be fair, i'd settle for a stable percentage of coverage now, seeing as the numbers actually get worse each year under bush).
additional notes:
* who are the 23% of gays who voted for bush?
* 71% of female voters answered "no" to the question whether they were working. did i step through a wormhole into the 1950's? that would explain a lot, in particular why this country would reelect another nixon (since those 50's cats still enjoyed the idealism that one would think nixon had wiped out forever).
* note to president, congress, future supreme court nominees: 55% of the electorate as sampled indicated that wanted abortion to be always or mostly legal. 60% favor gay marriage or same-sex civil unions.
* roughly speaking, the more people were concerned about the osama videotape, the more likely they were to vote for kerry.
* 41% of americans, a plurality, believe the bush tax cuts were good for the economy, even though 33% indicated that someone in his or her household had lost a job during the past 4 years (17% of respondents had him/herself lost a job -- maybe i should reevaluate my comments about the 70+% of women who indicated that they do not work).
there's more, but whatever.
as someone far funnier than i wrote in the classic movie, "Airplane!," "They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, 'Let 'em crash.'"
Posted by: joshua at November 3, 2004 02:35 PM | PERMALINKYes, but how do we know they won't crash on our heads.
Posted by: binky at November 3, 2004 04:59 PM | PERMALINKare you kidding? we're on the plane. that's the beauty of democracy.
Posted by: joshua at November 4, 2004 09:23 AM | PERMALINKAt the risk of confirming the worst fears of "the base" (Bush's) about "liberals," looking at all this election data, and listening to the commentary, leads me to the frustrating conclusion that I am not like the voting majority of people. As a radical democrat (small "d," as in pro-high turnout, pro-participation) I have always sought to emphasize the things that we all have in common, most importantly, faith in the system and a commitment to the principles of the U.S. democratic system. Did I pay too much attention in elementary school when they taught us that our national values were freedom and democracy? Because when I heard Bush talking about our highest values being "family and faith," I can't find anything within me resonating with that message. Family and faith can be consistent with any kind of political system. Shoot, the Taliban (and no, don't get your knickers in a twist, I am not calling George a Talib) tribalism was based on family and faith. Freedom, democratic process, majority rule and minority rights...these are the highest values in our political system. Even discarding the historical embellishments, from the Pilgrims to the Framers, to the great inclusionary movements of the 20th century, these are not foundations of US democracy on "faith and family." The whole point of democratic process is to let us have our "faith and family" the way we want them, in the private sphere, as opposed to the old Divine Right of Kings (and yes, I am remembering that discussion we had a few weeks ago about Pat Robertson) where the people got to be the religion of the king. And the GOP isn't alone in buying into thise strategy...look at all Kerry's practicing Catholic stuff that came out as the race went on. Like it or not, the framing of the political process seem to have been set, and both sides are buying it. So, if my core political values are not "faith and family," where do I go?
Posted by: binky at November 4, 2004 10:04 AM | PERMALINKHah. Europe is pretty religious, you know. In fact, in Germany, a portion ofyour tax dollars go to the state support of religion. That's part of the reason why the Scientologists are so honked off about being labeled a "cult" in Germany: they don't get the tax dollars. That's why the whole godless-liberal-Europe thing is so crazy to me. Oh wait, that's right, there I go thinkinglike a member of the reality-based community again.
Posted by: binky at November 4, 2004 10:37 AM | PERMALINK