Dangerous Disaffection (The GOP can’t afford to lose blue-collar whites)

National Review Online ^ | June 28, 2011 | Henry Olsen

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[Snip]

Research shows that blue-collar whites take the political positions they do because of their self-perception. They know they are less skilled than others; this makes them friendlier to protection from competition, whether the competition comes from trade abroad or immigrant workers at home. They depend more on public services to provide public order (which is why they support police so much) and economic stability (which is what middle-class entitlements support). Above all, they are risk-averse and proud. They fear the future as much as or more than they welcome it; one misstep and their whole world can collapse. This means they are wary of sudden change, whether it comes from the left or the right. And their dignity and pride mean they resist attempts to tell them what to do or treat them like pawns in someone else’s game, whether those attempts come from big business, big government, or big anything.

[snip]

Ronald Reagan understood all of this decades ago. Even after the Goldwater debacle of 1964, he knew that Americans had voted against Goldwater because he had been cast as a radical. Reagan told the readers of National Review that “human nature resists change and goes over backward to avoid radical change,” and advised: “Time now for the soft sell to prove that our radicalism was an optical illusion.” He spent his entire political career showing how American conservative principles were not scary, but rather the simple, proven ideas that make Americans unique.

Reagan’s rhetoric always made the typical American feel valued and special.....

His vision of a new Republican party included the educated and the uneducated, the working class as well as the upper class......

...Blue-collar whites believe the president and the Democrats do not have their best interests at heart....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...Blue-collar whites believe the president and the Democrats do not have their best interests at heart....

However they are afraid and vulnerable, so....

Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, Unions and the MSM are going to do everything they can to make the word "conservatism" scare nervous voters away from the GOP; the Left is already saying our candidates are nuts, mean-spirited, racists, rich, selfish people; that Republicans across the country are blocking tax increases and demanding cuts in entitlements and services and hurting the economy on purpose to make Obama look bad. AND THEY ARE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE -- GIVING SAME TALKING POINTS. They have not dropped the ridiculous charge--drumbeat--that the Tea Party is extreme and hateful and racist.

So, what do we do to counter this 24/7 attack on good Americans who love their country and want what is best for everyone?

I hope on this thread, we can compile a lot of good ideas and offer good suggestions (ON ALL THE CANDIDATES). If you have a lot of information PLEASE LINK to it and not flood this thread. PLEASE avoid posting photographs just this time. Thank you! I am really looking forward to reading your thoughts.

*********

I will begin with a suggestion (Please offer yours and not attack mine).

Rick Perry has been giving a talk on the 10th Amendment, explaining how when Federal controls are loosened on states, those state economies take off as businesses gear up, that jobs will come and the teachers will be paid and the roads will be built, etc.

Rick Perry's common sense 10th Amendment - power back to the states solution to take our country back - state by state: "Don't spend all the money! -- Have a fair and predictable tax and regulatory policy! -- Have a legal system that does not allow for over suing and makes [lawsuit] loser pay!"

I think this is a perfect appeal to the country -- to an electorate who does not follow this as closely as we do. Of course Perry's ideas are broader than this but that is the essence (and an essence is like a sound-bite).

As Rick Perry says (in the link) "Texas has led but it’s been a hell of a struggle against Washington D.C. – Government must trust the people but this administration does not trust the people."

[nascarnation]

I think “blue collar whites” are a lock for any R except Mitty, other than the unionized ones.

[I see my hands]

"blue collar whites"

If they got to get got then I don't want 'em.

[Biggirl]

I sense we are in a period of a conservative surge. People are starting to see Obama and the Democrats for who they really are.

[pallis]

If blue collar workers allow themselves to be scammed by the frauds in the White House and the DNC, including the unions, they will deserve the poverty it brings them. I think most blue collar Americans are smarter than that. Another four years of this lunacy, and blue collar Americans will moving down to the permanently unemployed, welfare Americans status. Their bankers will make out like bandits though.

[Sola Veritas]

“Texas has led but it’s been a hell of a struggle against Washington D.C. – Government must trust the people but this administration does not trust the people.”

He only says that because he is currently a governor. Were he to be POTUS, he would see the world through different eyes. NO ONE that is really a big States Rights person would be interested in being POTUS. If the 10th was followed the POTUS would be a lame office with little power.

People don’t seek high office to destroy the power the office gives. I know this is a cynical view.

[ex-snook]

Blue collar whites vote their pocketbook. When they are doing good, they voted for Reagan. [Reagan Democrats] When they were doing bad, they voted for Obama. Are they better off since Reagan, hardly, too many jobs exported and too few jobs happening.

[ansel12]

This guy sure is a condescending little prig, I think I prefer to be identified as balls to the wall, wild rednecks, of God, Guns, & Guts, than this guys description, which makes me think more of suburbanite office people and mid management.

I’m pretty sure that I have read that no one is more Republican than the white working class male.

[NoLibZone]

If blue-collar whites are dumb enough to believe the gravy train has no end, then they deserves what’s coming to them and their children.

[bert]

-——blue-collar whites ——
Do they exist?

[bert]

-——blue-collar whites ——
Do they exist?

[RobRoy]

>>Dangerous Disaffection (The GOP can’t afford to lose blue-collar whites)<<

I assume they mean the non-union ones. The union ones are either already democrat and will stay that way, or they have a head on their shoulders and hold their noses just to pay union dues - and are as strongly against democrats as a lot of the rest of us are. BTW, I’m sorta between the two groups. I usually wear a Hawaiian shirt to work so I guess that makes me a “non gay colorful collar” worker.

[Will88]

—blue-collar whites ——

Do they exist?

Yes, three of them spent a couple of hours at my house doing some electrical work this morning. It's not just manufacturing employees who fit that description.

[jacknhoo]

The working men and women are sick and tired of elitists, no matter what their political leaning.

If the Republican party thinks they can slip in a big government Republican, they are surely mistaken.

People are downright mad about being played for fools and they're as mad at the GOP socialists as they are at the Democratic Party socialists, if not more.

They see what's going on in congress today and just how weak the big government RINOs are against the Democratic Party...the little game of footsie they're playing under the table makes them sick to their stomachs. What this shows them is just how aligned and sold out the RINOs are with and to the Democratic Party and they want no part of it.

It is wholly disgusting and they look forward to seeing many of the RINOs voted out. They're not playing games any more. The time for playful strategy is over. People are now serious and are demanding real conservative action and punishment for the weak sell-outs.

[infowarrior]

Research shows that blue-collar whites take the political positions they do because of their self-perception. They know they are less skilled than others; this makes them friendlier to protection from competition, whether the competition comes from trade abroad or immigrant workers at home. They depend more on public services to provide public order (which is why they support police so much) and economic stability (which is what middle-class entitlements support). Above all, they are risk-averse and proud. They fear the future as much as or more than they welcome it; one misstep and their whole world can collapse.

Spoken like a true 'ivory tower elite'. Me less skilled than either these 'researchers' or the 'journalist' who spouts their swill? I think not!

Listen Henry Olsen, and listen well. I am most emphatically *NOT* impressed at where it happened to be that went to be indoctrinated into 'Marxism 101' and how long it took you to achieve said indoctrination. I own all as my equal, under God, but nobody as my better, and that definitely includes you, poseur...

the infowarrior

[Steamburg]

It is pretty clear that someone is concerned enough about the current candidates to cause them to start with the “you must not offend this group, you know they would really prefer to be libtard voters”. For the life of me, I can’t decide which is more despicable, the looney left or the elitist RINO’s.

Candidates have to work behind the scenes. They have to make it mandatory that the networks air interviews with their surrogates to get the candidate interview. (i.e. The Carvel, Begalla, Ploof, Axelrod shows). Shape the message and feed the media only what you want them to have. The media and the administration have overplayed their hand and can’t help but make it easier to pick them off as the election approaches. They need to be challenged in the trenches. Personalize the campaign. Campaign surrogates need to be out there asking “What happened to our money, our freedom, our retirement, our property”? What foreign Governments did Obama prop up with our money? Answer questions with accusations. Keep conversations on our parameters, not theirs. Make Obama deny being a criminal and an enemy of America. (so what if you have to fire a few surrogates to appear reasonable, the accusation is out there and they have to deny it.) Is this underhanded, look who is in the White House.

[Will88]

They know they are less skilled than others; this makes them friendlier to protection from competition, whether the competition comes from trade abroad or immigrant workers at home.

Good points in your post, and what the blue collar whites are coming to really understand is that are not less skilled, but that they are the ones who have been put into competition with some of the world's cheapest labor (at various skill levels) while most elites and others are protecting themselves and their livelihood from such competition.

[Cincinatus]

Take a page from Reagan's playbook. Simple question on the stump:

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Obama will be toast.

[ansel12]

I have been looking for a good post-able graph of the white, blue collar, male vote and haven’t found one, but so far I have found several things which seem to identify them as the most conservative of all voters.

[Jim Scott]

I don't quite see low-income Americans in the same light as Henry Olsen does in his NRO article. The Democrats usually get the votes of low-income folks with entitlements and scare tactics i.e. "the Republicans want to destroy Medicare! Yes, the 'blue collar' voters like their entitlements and that must be recognized by Republican candidates so bashing entitlements is a non-starter. The attempt by Democrats to label Republicans, especially conservatives, as 'radical' is going to lose a lot of steam because of the very obviously radial - and destructive - policies of Obama that are hurting the 'blue collar' voter. The simple fact has be stated, over and over, that if we don't reform entitlements (Social Security, Medicare) they will eventually disappear - and not in some far-off time, either. Pound home the message that the Democrats will allow the most relied on entitlements to simply go broke rather than address the fact they they are unsustainable, even in the (relatively) short term.

The Democrats love taxes and they can always be pounded on that. Reagan did it, very successfully. With so many 'blue collar' Americans suffering under Obama I don't see Republicans losing to him in 2012 based on the votes of 'blue collar' Americans striving to get ahead - or stay afloat, as the case may be. The successful Republican candidate will make it crystal clear that helping the business community create jobs (because government can't do it) by lowering taxes and recalling some onerous regulations enacted under the Obama regime will be their major priority. Most feel that Black voters are impossible to pry from Obama and he may get the majority of Latino votes, again. The hard-core left has nowhere else to go but to Obama, so he has them, too, but all these groups (not all actually vote) are still a minority, albeit a large one (about 35%). The 2012 Republican candidate will need to grab a majority of the 'blue collar' vote discussed in the NRO piece, that is fairly obvious. I believe that he or she will get that vote, as much due to Obama's killing of the economy as the fact that any Republican challenger can point to the economic success of other Republican administrations and that while Democrats always want to raise your taxes (pretending they only want to tax the rich), Republicans will lower your taxes.

In the interest of honesty, I have to state that I support Sarah Palin as the 2012 GOP presidential candidate. However, this thread isn't about individual candidates but an overall strategy to defeat the socialist Democrat party as they prepare to try and lie their way into another term for the Kenyan Marxist, Barack Hussein Obama. As we all agree, they must be defeated.