Obama Voters: by Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley

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3rd Ward City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley

Obama Voters

After President Obama won re-election, Ted Nugent tweeted that his supporters were “pimps, whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters.” He went on to ask “what subhuman varmint believes others must pay for their obesity booze cellphones birthcontrol abortions & lives.” Bill O’Reilly called them the people who “want stuff,” while Ann Coulter referred to them as the “takers” of our society. Peter Morrison, the Republican Party Treasurer in Hardin County, Texas, achieved national headlines with his Facebook rant that supporters of President Obama were “maggots” and “baby-murdering, tax raising socialists.” Across the conservative blogosphere and via social media outlets, the President’s supporters have been accused of everything from stupidity to solely voting along ethnic lines.

So who are these people really? Are President Obama’s supporters made up of welfare recipients, people lacking a religious affiliation and those without a formal education- essentially the great unwashed masses? The answer is a resounding no.

Let’s look at welfare recipients first. There is a common belief among conservatives that President Obama owes his second term to entitlement programs and those who benefit from them. This is not true. People living in poverty ($15,000 a year or less) don’t make up any greater portion of the electorate than those with an income of over $200,000 a year. Both groups equate to about 6% of voters. Although there are certainly more poor people than those making over $200,000 a year, the groups vote at very different rates. It’s simply a misconception that poor people vote. Most do not. Although the poor tend to vote Democrat when they do vote, so do people making over $200,000 per year. President Obama also received 73% of the Asian American vote, and this group earns more per capita than anyone else. As to those receiving Medicare and Social Security (over 65), 56% voted for Mitt Romney.

There is also a belief among conservatives that those without a religious affiliation (i.e. the soulless baby-murderers) are to thank for President Obama’s victory. This is also not true. African Americans voted for President Obama at the rate of 93%, and Latinos at the rate of 71%. Both groups report a higher church attendance than any others. Catholics voted at a rate of 50% to 48% for President Obama, while Jewish people went with President Obama to the tune of 69%. Those voters who did not list a religious affiliation voted overwhelming for President Obama (70%) but make up less than 20% of the electorate.

The final myth is that President Obama’s supporters lack an education. The exact opposite is actually true. A majority of those with a post graduate degree voted for President Obama. Republicans and Democrats are fairly even with those having only a high school education trending Republican. As voters gain formal education they tend to vote Democrat. This is a phenomenon that has been occurring since the 1980s when those with a college degree used to vote overwhelmingly for Republicans.

Other groups who supported President Obama are young people and women. Voters from 18 to 29 voted 60% for him and voters from 30-39 voted 55% for him. Women, who make up 53% of the electorate, went with President Obama 55% of the time. Single women, who account for 23% of all voters, supported him overwhelmingly at 67%. The only groups won by Mitt Romney were white voters, who make up 72% of the electorate, but continue to shrink in numbers, and Protestants.

So, to answer the question succinctly as to who are the supporters of President Obama- it’s everybody else. And there is no relief in sight for the primarily white Republican Party. 50,000 Latinos will turn 18 every month for the next 2 decades, while women, young people and African Americans continue to turn out in record numbers.

With President Obama being so vulnerable this time, it begs the question of whether he actually won or if the policies of the Republican Party were rejected. Exit polls revealed that voters found Democrat policies more favorable to the middle class, Latinos, women and youth, and also that President Obama cared more about people like themselves. Most voters also blamed Republican policies for the current economic condition.

While Republican soul-search this week, they should look at not just the lack of inclusiveness of the party itself, but also of its policies. The United States isn’t just changing, it’s changed. Good Republican ideas have been squelched by concepts like “self-deportation” and “legitimate rape.” Responsible fiscal conservatism is just what this country needs, but the social agenda baggage needs to be checked at the door. It’s time to say good-bye to the Tea Party and hello to demographics and math.

Sources Include:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/ted-nugent-on-obama-election-twitter-rant-economic-spiritual-suicide_n_2094490.html
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-oreilly-white-establishment-is-now-the-minority-people-support-obama-because-they-want-things/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/demoralized-ann-coulter-laura-ingraham-over-hope_n_2089678.html
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/09/texas_gop_official_maggots_re_elected_obama/singleton/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/17/rush-limbaugh-says-welfare-recipients-turn-out-to-vote-in-force-they-really-dont/
http://www.asian-nation.org/model-minority.shtml
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-election-20121111,0,2275455.story
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2012-exit-poll
http://www.gallup.com/poll/125999/mississippians-go-church-most-vermonters-least.aspx
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/75.5.pdf
http://www.governing.com/blogs/politics/gov-political-demographic-trends-brighter-for-democrats.html

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43 COMMENTS

  1. What the GOP has failed and most likely will continue to fail to realize is this country is no longer the province of old, white, protestant men. Factor in the fact that there are two more presidential elections until the next census reapportions electoral college delegates and the likelihood of the GOP failing to recognize their messasge has failed, it is highly possible the Democrats could hold on to the White House at least until 2024. The product they are currently offering the voting public on a national scale is about as valued as shirtwaists.

  2. That is a pretty good run down of the Obama voters Mrs. Riley. I hope someone does an similar article on Romney voters. The big group that overwhelmingly went for Romney were the business owners. This is the very group that the job growth will depend on cooperation from. Thus far they are cooperating by initiating layoffs, putting their companies up for sale, and cutting back hours to avoid Obamacare. Without the business owners on board Obama Part 2 will fail miserably. Hopefully the moochers union that voted Obama back in have the brain cells to realize that and dampens old Barry’s re-distribution ambitions. When the job creators go the country will follow and no amount of taxation will solve that problem.

  4. Good article!

    The reason Turd Nutbag, Ann Coldheart, Rash Lamebaugh, Muck Huckster, and the rest of that troop of tripe say the awful things they say is that they staked out their punditry on the losing side of history. Sour grapes don’t make very good whine.

    • Maybe it’s equal on both sides, but when I hear comments like the one’s from Nugent, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc… as well as some of my friends on Facebook and some commenters here, I don’t want anything to do with the hate that come out of their/your mouths.
      In my opinion, Obama did not deserve to be re-elected. I feel like the reason why he won was because Romney was such a poor candidate. Anyone that ran against Obama should have been able to win easily with the state that the country is currently in. Romney headed up a company that borrowed large sums of money to buy controlling interest in American companies, then saddled those companies with repaying the loan and charged them huge fees for Bain’s “management fees”. All they managed to do was cause the companies they bought to ship jobs overseas or go bankrupt. Add this to his flip-flopping on every major issue depending on which way the wind was blowing made him someone that you couldn’t know or trust what he stood for.

  5. I see no hope for the republican party, ever. I lived in Greece for 3 months and was able to veiw first hand how they got in their situation and have little doubt we are headed in the same direction. A great sense of security stifles motivation. When there’s no need to prepare for your future, there’s no need to save and defer gradification. Learn to live in and for the moment, let tomorrow go. Close the business early, we have enough for today

  6. OK, about that you being a good choice for mayor thing, I changed my mind. I only hope those old under-educated white men tea-party religious types have the courage to not stand in the way of what a little over half of America thinks they wanted.

    • You did know she was a Democrat, right? Be grateful she’s fiscally conservative and a voice of reason on City Council. It took courage to support Obama on this website. I don’t think she’s interested in your vote. She strikes me as honest and not particularly concerned with the consequences. There’s something to be said for that – it’s refreshing.

      • Yes I do know that she is a democrat, and for a time I felt she might be a democrat I could support. But I see no difference in her stereotyping than the stereotyping she refuted. There are many fiscal conservatives, but we need a mayor who will be everyone’s mayor.

        You said it yourself, that you don’t think she is interested in my vote, but isn’t that the crux of her criticism against Republicans, that they are not concerned about the votes of minorities and women? I think she is interested in this old under-educated religious tea-party whites man’s vote, and my vote is important even if you or her don’t value it. Perhaps my honesty might help her to consider people more than party.

        • I do think your vote is important. I agree with the article. There are plenty of good ideas from the right that have just been over-shadowed by an exclusive social agenda. There is middle ground. And we must find it. You will need to compromise the same as me. My point when I said she wasn’t interested in your vote was that I personally don’t think she’s running for mayor. That’s not what I hear anyway.

          • I was hoping she would run for mayor. I read that her name had been floated as a possibility.

            I think part of the problem is that there is no middle ground on an issue like abortion. One can’t be a little pregnant or a little dead. We can however understand one another’s views and correctly represent them.

        • I enjoyed the article for the facts it presented with regard to voters. I assume Steph got that data from reliable exit polling.

          Perhaps you are oversensitive to the only two opinions she stated in the article: “Responsible fiscal conservatism is just what this country needs, but the social agenda baggage needs to be checked at the door. It’s time to say good-bye to the Tea Party and hello to demographics and math.” Personally, I took those to be gracious offerings of sound advice to old school Republicans … and neo-cons, if they’re wise enough to accept it without getting their panties all in a bunch.

          • I don’t question her data. I question her assumptions of what conservatives believe and her conclusions.

            When she and others see Tea Party core values as the problem, I do not see that as a gracious offering. What is being offered? What “social baggage” needs to be checked at the door, religion? right to life values, opposing illegal immigration?

            What have we come to when the math of demographics is to be held with higher regard than the values held by those demographics? For now many have parked their “social baggage” because they for some reason believe voting for Obama was in the best interest of their fiscal and social concerns. If republicans allow the fiscal agenda of the far left to have its full impact, then perhaps the more reasonable will return to a more balanced approach.

            BTW, “Neo-con” is a term popularized by the Socialist leader Michael Harrington as a pejorative.

          • You’re right, I think “neo-con” is a bit nondescript… Let’s just call a spade a spade. They are warmongers and shills for the military industrial complex. Whatever you call them, this group and their schemes have led the Republican Party down the path to ruin.

          • Brad, If we are going to call a spade a spade, then we would recognize that one extremist calling another an extremist equals two extremist. Dividing that by three, Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian, does not change the result.

          • If the libertarian perspective is extremist, then Thomas Jefferson was an extremist.

            By today’s definition, he would be considered a domestic terrorist. Don’t believe me? Read the Declaration of Independence again and tell me that wasn’t “extreme”. The very idea of Liberty IS extreme when you consider that thousands of years of human history is riddled with Empires, Caesars, Kings and despots. Liberty was an experiment that happened in a tiny window of human history. That experiment is rapidly coming to an end.

          • Brad, there are many things I like about the libertarian party, but they are just another party and will produce their own extremist. That was the point I was trying to make. I wish we could just eliminate political parties. I personally have a vast difference of opinion on libertarian views concerning abortion.

          • Libertarians aren’t monolithic in their positions on abortion. Some believe in no government intervention whatsoever in any case, some believe in a compromise and legality within limits and some believe in the sanctity of life at conception.

            Most Liberarians will agree that it should not be the purview of the Federal Government, but should be a matter left to the States.

            As for “extremism”… That’s just a convenient label we place on the things that frighten us so we don’t have to deal with them in any meaningful way or make dissonant facts jive with our present worldview. “Extremism” is whatever you say it is and whatever you say it isn’t. In this way, EVERYONE and and EVERY BELIEF is “extreme” to someone. Just calling something “extreme” shouldn’t provide you with an excuse to dismiss it out of hand.

  7. As I have previously pointed out, the Republican party in 1964 nominated a candidate, namely Barry Goldwater, who was NOT one of the Republicans that crossed over in the Senate to support the Civil Rights legislation. May I add, without Republican support the legislation was dead on arrival (DOA) do to the southern democrats which tried desperately, to block. Up to and including the 1960 election, African-Americans voted in the majority for the Republican. So, by not selecting Rubio coupled with Romney’s comment during the primary concerning “self-deportation” the Republican party has repeated history and will never regain, unless they seriously revamp their party, rejecting, what seems to be extreme views, at least with the electorate (majority). All of the millions of dollars spent in the last election did nothing to move the dial. From now on, demographics will determine the leaders. So, maybe name calling, will do nothing but promote associations within those demographics, especially with 60% single women, 93% African-American, 71% Latino, while 35% of the total electorate considers themselves conservative, 41% moderate, and 24% liberal. So, rejecting Senator Lugar for an individual who believes conception due to rape is God’s will and the challenger to the Senator from Missouri believes that legit rape will cause the female reproductive system to reject conception, maybe a little over the top. Reflection may be in order for the Republican party?

    • Look at the states that pushed Obama over for the win. This really tells the story. I agree with her asssessment of the republican disaster. I can’t agree with a fix. Almost 5 million federal employees feel threatened by the republicans plus all the ones Stephanie mentioned is a recipe for for future failures. I mentioned the Greeks earlier and the problems they are encountering, ours will be greater because of diversity. The Greeks are over 90% homogenous and they like each other. I think the republicans need to lay back and let economics take their course. Not a pretty picture. I appreciate Mr Romney thinking he could save us.

    • Are you seriously comparing Mitt Romney to Barry Goldwater?

      Goldwater stood against the Civil Rights Act because it imposed an unconstitutional mandate on private business owners to refuse service to whomever they chose. As disgusting as doing something like that is because of the color of someone’s skin, that should be the right of any and all property owners, include black ones who don’t want to serve white people.

      This is a fine example of the best intentions being used in the wrong way, and the good people who tried to warn of the slippery slope being demonized because people were too thick headed too understand it. Goldwater was the freedom candidate, the anti-war candidate. He was NOTHING like Mitt Romney. Your analogy doesn’t hold up.

      • One more thing… Losing an election doesn’t equate to “wrongness”. Haven’t you ever heard the adage “what’s right is not always popular”?

        The lesson of 1964 isn’t that Goldwater was wrong, it’s that the majority of the electorate fell for the leftist propaganda.

  8. What this looks like to me is that the moochers and moocher sympathizers went for Obama, the doers or wannabe doers voted for Romney, and the majority who don’t see themselves as moochers or doers just stayed home. It is a sad day in America when a plurality choose none of the above or are just to lazy or stupid to care.

  10. Does Ms. Brinkerhoff-Riley realize that she represents a great number of Republicans and many may have voted for her in the past?

    I guess she can have this attitude as long as the Dems have a grip on the council, but if that changes, will she be happy with the same attitude towards her?

  11. This video explains a lot.

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/8thgrade-health-class-squirms-throughout-entire-sc,30316/

    Other than that, I hope everyone enjoys the coming days under the second Obama administration.

    Everyone should do their part in outing any money grubbing capitalist that starts a business and hires people to work there.

    Don’t worry, the Federal Reserve will gladly enact taxes that would cause revolt among the masses if they had an idea of how things work.

    Remember the curse “May you live in interesting times”.

  13. Why is it that maintaining a morality that was present from the founding of this nation is now considered extreme? The reason more people with college degrees vote democrat is because Higher Education is saturated with Liberal Professors indoctrinating the next generation to their views. I wonder if that is what is happening to those extreme right views such as abstinence until marriage, marriage until death do you part, working for a living, you know the drill.

  14. After the next city elections I want Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley to tell us just how wonderful life in Evansville is in Obama’s second term. I want her to tell us how many more people are employed in Evansville versus November 12, 2012. I want her to tell us how many new manufacturing companies have located here under her sterling leadership. I want her to tell us how profitable the Ford Center is. Under the hobnailed boots of Obama I can assure you that we will all be much, much worse off than we are today.

  15. It certainly did not hurt Obama’s campaign that most of the major cities where the democrats have been in charge for decades are teetering on the edge of Bankruptcy.

    Those cities, having delivered the vote for Obama, will now be looking to his administration to bail them out of the mess they have created. They will seek revenue from everyone in the country who pays federal taxes to pay for their local political misbehavior.

    That is why Obama got reelected, and yes it is all about redistribution of income from those who have been more responsible to those who have been less responsible with the public’s money!

    ___

  16. Obama won by default, the repub’s didn’t run their best candidate. Huntsman was a common scense person who had never failed to deliver to the public, working under both Bush’s, Clinton, and the state of Utah. He could have swept, but was swept under the rug, no one’s fault but the Republicans. Face it there wasn’t much to pick from.

    • Huntsman was a media darling the establishment attempted to thrust upon us. The only two men worthy of any serious consideration on the Republican stage was Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. The rest only wanted to expand the “Empire”.

  17. Mrs. Riley, why do you insist on breaking everything up into demographics rather than simply seeing people as individuals? You are only playing right into all the same divisions you are decrying.

    That said, truth be told, anyone who voted for Barack Obama is just as deluded in my book as anybody who voted for Mitt Romney.

    Barack Obama was supposed to end the wars…he has expanded them. He was supposed to end Guantanamo, reinstate habeas corpus, and stop torturing people, he has continued it. He was supposed to repeal the Patriot Act, he signed it again. He has expanded the assault on civil liberties that Bush began. He has assassinated AMERICAN CITIZENS using drone attacks, including a 16-year-old boy in Yemen.

    Where did the anti-war left go? They were shut up because now they’re too busy making excuses for their President.

    This President is a failure, whether you’re a tolerant person or a disgusting racist, whether you’re a man or a woman, the reason this man is still our President has less to do with his success as Commander in Chief and more to do with the Republican Party’s repugnant and thoroughly watered down nominee who himself would have continued all of the above.

    This “team spirit” crap has got to go. I find it sickening. Frankly, I find the whole business of national politics and what it does to people sickening. The Sean Hannitys, Bill O’Reilleys, and Rachel Maddows of the world need to suck a tailpipe. Why does anyone still listen to these people? They aren’t there to report the news. They are there to foment resentment and hatred and divide the country along the most trivial of lines.

    I agree with you about one thing, social conservatism needs to die. It is a cancer that only buys into the statist idea that morality is a thing that should be regulated by government.

    There was one man in this election who deserved to be President. His name was Ron Paul. The masters on the right were scared of him. The masters on the left were scared of him. The Federal Reserve was certainly scared of him. Now, because he was not elected, nothing will get done to change the direction of this country, and that’s the ugly truth.

  18. Is there a group out there that actively claims we should support white men and that Black men, brown men, lesbians and gays and women are the problem with the country. Not one. There are numerous groups that actively demonize white hetrosexual males and get good media support. This is hard to combat. Sometimes you have to play to win or get out of the game. Getting out of the game at a national level may be an option. Also I think Republican candidates need to be taught to lie better or to just lie. The democrats have lying down to an art, such as, I’m a fiscal conservative.

    • “Is there a group out there that actively claims we should support white men and that Black men, brown men, lesbians and gays and women are the problem with the country.”

      Yes. It’s called the Libertarian Party. http://www.lp.org/

      They want equal protection under Constitutional Law…for EVERYONE, not just the people you happen to like. Problem is, most of the knuckle-dragging cattle calling themselves “human beings” aren’t ready for their message. I would say they’ve lost the plot, but they never had had it.

      By the way, I found your admonition to the Republican Party to “learn how to lie” amusing.

      • I found pov’s admonition to the Republicans to “learn how to lie” ironic since I’ve never in my life seen both the presidential and vice presidental candidates on the same ticket tell so many whopping huge lies, one right after the other. Apparently, Nixon and Agnew’s old political tactic of “the bigger the lie, the more likely they are to believe it” doesn’t pan out any longer. Because Romney and Ryan sure cooked up some monsters this time.

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