An old article from Slate

I wrote about this at the time of the election, but I didn't see a lot of coverage of it then. It was too much of a kumbaya moment, I guess. But I somehow missed this article in Slate, demonstrating not only that Obama won while losing a majority of the white vote, but also noting that, since Johnson--and the passage of the Civil Rights Act--NO democrat has won a majority of the White vote.

Can it really be that simple? Can the real reason the republicans have stayed in power all these years and dominated politics in America for so long have been that the Republicans are the party of white people and the Democrats are the party of black people? Maybe: after all, from the civil war onward, wasn't exactly the opposite true?

But then what does it say about us as a people? Is it that whites live in the suburbs and blacks in the cities? Is it that democrats have bought off the black vote with Welfare and affirmative action? Is it that Republicans have alientated blacks and atracted whites through racist policies or subtle racist statements? Does it really just come down to the fact that the progressive agenda favors black people and not whites (when you boost one group of people up you must out of necessity take things away from another). Is it that white America really is racist? It's not an easy question to ask, let alone answer. I don't think, for instance, that the tea party movement is racist per se, but these statistics make me wonder. When they say they want to take back their country, fro whom do they wish to take it back? Demographics show that whether or not it is their intent to say it, they would be taking it back from black people, and I don't just mean the president. I mean the 96%of the black electorate that voted for him.