Conservative pundits and many whites who voted for Mitt Romney last Tuesday, in fear of the “black Socialist from Kenya”, love to say that Barack Obama is the “racial” candidate, elected because of those “damned” minorities, and that is the only reason, they say, that he won a second term.
That is a MASSIVE LIE, as actually Mitt Romney was, CLEARLY, the “racial candidate”!
“How can you say that?” is the retort.
Well, here are the FACTS, not myths!
Whites were about 72 percent of the voters, and Romney received about 88 percent of his votes from whites!
Barack Obama received 39 percent of the white votes, including from working class voters in the Midwest, who appreciated his saving the auto industry, which meant their jobs. They did not care that he was black, while many Republican voters were openly racist!
Now, the facts are that, of course, Obama could not have won without black, Hispanic-Latino, and Asian American voters! So what, as ideally, any candidate should win from a diverse coalition of voters?
So Obama won 93 percent of the black vote; 71 percent of the Hispanic-Latino vote; 73 percent of the Asian American vote; 60 percent of voters 18-29; 52 percent of voters 30-44; and 55 percent of the female vote; 56 percent of single men; 67 percent of single women; and 50 percent of college graduates. This is a diverse coalition, which is to be saluted!
But also realize that without the 39 percent white vote, Obama would not have won, as two thirds of 72 (the total white percentage of the national vote), is about 28 percent, and Obama won with 51 percent of the total vote, which means the “minorities” were about 23 percent, and whites 28 percent of that 51 percent.
So white support gave Obama his victory!
I think it would be interesting to compare the percentage of voters that Clinton got to the ones Obama got to see just how much of the white vote we could really attribute as going to Romney not because of support for him but out of racism towards President Obama.
That is a very interesting thought, and I am sure someone, or many, are working on it as we communicate! LOL