This Is Not Your Fathers Democratic Party
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. No this isnt your grandfathers (or even your fathers) Democratic Party. And while that was an asset in 2006 and 2008
it very definitely looks like a problem in 2012. Democratic strategists seem to acknowledge that their party has lost downscale white voters particularly those in rural areas for 2012.
For anyone old enough to remember Bucky Dents memorable home run in the 1978 Yankees-Red Sox playoff the current makeup and political strategy of the Democratic Party has to seem very odd.
Just four or five decades ago Democratic strategists could count on an army of working-class voters and union members to turn out to support the partys nominees tapping on a deep party loyalty that developed out of the Great Depression. While WASPs and the rich hated President Franklin Roosevelt that animosity didnt drive American politics.
But over the past few decades the New Deal generation passed away President Ronald Reagan transformed our politics the union movement shrunk noticeably white voters as a percentage of the total electorate dropped significantly and both economic and social issues evolved.
How those changes have affected our politics becomes stunningly clear after talking to Democratic operatives and strategists who see their best opportunities in 2012 as centering on states and Congressional districts populated by Hispanics African-Americans upscale white liberals suburban voters and the young.
President Barack Obama of course did relatively poorly with those voters in the 2008 Democratic primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton and he continued to underperform with those same voters in the general election.
As a terrific New York Times graphic showed after the 2008 elections the GOP presidential vote increased by more than 20 percent from 2004 to 2008 in a swath of counties stretching roughly from southwestern Pennsylvania down through West Virginia eastern Kentucky much of Tennessee Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma all the way to northeast Texas.
The same pattern showed up in northeast Alabama northwest Florida and parts of Georgia. Its probably no accident that the Democrats best chances of winning GOP-held Senate seats are in Massachusetts and Nevada while the
GOPs best chances are in states such as Missouri and Montana swing states with substantial rural voters. Both states have been moving toward Republicans in recent decades.
The Democrats problem with downscale whites is even more apparent in the presidential race. If states such as Pennsylvania Wisconsin and Michigan really are in play as many now believe it is because it is precisely those voters who are likely to defect from the Democratic ticket next year.
After years of talking about the partys opportunities in the South (and crowing about victories in 2006 and 2008) Democratic insiders now appear lukewarm to the partys prospects in a huge swath of the Southeast beginning just south of Virginias Washington D.C. suburbs through the Carolinas and Georgia to Alabama and Mississippi. Tennessee Kentucky and Louisiana also fall into that category. Even Arkansas remains a question mark.
Instead Democratic insiders suggest that the fight for the House will rest in suburban districts including Republican-held seats in the Philadelphia Chicago and New York suburbs where the president may be more popular and a wide range of issues may benefit Democratic candidates.
Its true of course that suburban voters once a GOP bulwark have become more independent recently and in some areas even reliably Democratic.
Montgomery County Maryland and Montgomery County Pennsylvania two upscale suburbs (one Washington D.C. the other Philadelphia) went easily for Reagan in 1980. Reagan won the Maryland suburban county by more than 7 points while he was losing statewide by 3 points and he won Pennsylvanias Montgomery County by 26 points while he was winning statewide by just 7 points.
Fast forward to 2004 and the change is stunning.
Republican George W. Bush lost Montgomery County Maryland by 33 points at the same time that he was losing statewide by 13 points. Similarly he lost Pennsylvanias Montgomery County by more than 11 points at the same time that he was losing statewide by a less than 3 points.
Of course not all suburbs flipped as much as the two Montgomery counties and some newer suburbs (and many exurbs) show Republican tendencies.
Still its reasonable to wonder whether suburbs will somehow be immune to dissatisfaction with the president and to voter angst about jobs and the economy.
There is nothing about the suburbs that makes things better for us" observed one smart Democratic strategist adding that strong Democratic candidates certainly can beat weaker Republicans even if the political environment is difficult.
But even if upscale suburban voters care more about womens and environmental issues and gay rights and are willing to pay higher taxes than
are more rural downscale or exurban voters its far from clear that suburbanites will show the Democratic bent in 2012 that they did in 2008.
They too may punish the president for the economy.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey lost Philadelphias four large suburban counties (Montgomery Delaware Chester and Bucks) by about 22000 votes in his 2010 race compared with Obamas margin in the four counties of about 203000 votes. And that suggests that last years national Republican wave was not without an effect even in suburbia.
