This has shown up this year among Latinos in California and Texas and among white males in southern or low income demographics and is very disturbing.

What a blessing that that a man like Obama can seemingly break through this barrier based on the vast majority of sensible voters.

You’re officially talking out of both sides of your mouth, now:
“I also can’t ignore the fact that there are more racists in southern Ohio than in the rest of the state.”

Then:
“I have no doubt that most Appalachian voters are not racist.”

These are not contradictory statements. There are more African-Americans in Cuyahoga County than in Licking County, but that doesn’t mean most citizens of Cuyahoga County are African-American.

Are you saying that racism, and not Strickland’s support and the fact that the Clinton campaign invested a lot of the time in a region that Obama largely ignored, was the real reason Clinton did so well in SEO or not?

I’m saying I believe it was a factor. We know it was a factor at a statewide level - I think it may have been more of a factor in southern Ohio than other parts of Ohio, but I don’t have enough data to say for certain.

That doesn’t mean it’s the only factor, and you’ve presented an excellent argument that the racism might have been less concentrated (ie, spread more evenly across the entire state) by pointing out Strickland’s organizational support on-the-ground in southern Ohio; something I discounted in my original post because I was projecting my biases about the value of said local organization. IOW, I never really considered it because it doesn’t really influence my voting patterns in elections for national office.

Are you kidding me?

Democratic politics are nothing but “identity politics”. The whole purpose of being a democrat is to align yourself with some “victim” group identity. The whole party apparatus is about taking from the victimizer to give to the victim….

Black v. White
Worker v. Management
Women v. Men
Gay v. Straight
Nature v. Humans

And now you are surprised that some voters in Appalachia might decide that they might get more out of The Billary than Obamamania and actully vote in a manner consistent with that.

Please……….

It was so easy when your victimizers were so neatly republican. the democratic party has spent the better part of two generations writing that narrative. Now your seeing competing victims groups fighting over the same pie and you’re surprised?

You’re officially talking out of both sides of your mouth, now:
“I also can’t ignore the fact that there are more racists in southern Ohio than in the rest of the state.”

Then:
“I have no doubt that most Appalachian voters are not racist.”

Your entire premise of this post has been that racism was a factor in why Clinton did so much better in SEO than Obama. You can’t make that claim without also suggesting that most Appalachian voters are racists.

People didn’t vote for Clinton because of her local organization as much as it helped turned out the vote.

You’ve hemmed and hawed so much in the comments now, I’m not sure what exactly you’re claiming anymore.

Are you saying that racism, and not Strickland’s support and the fact that the Clinton campaign invested a lot of the time in a region that Obama largely ignored, was the real reason Clinton did so well in SEO or not?

It saddens me that the numbers show Ohio to be more racist then states in the deep south.

There is a non-racial explanation for that which I have provided and you have completely ignored in your responses.

Not so - in comment 13 I admitted that the racist vote might well be evenly distributed across the state. I certainly won’t (and can’t!) deny that there are racists everywhere. I see plenty of it in my neck of the woods.

But I also can’t ignore the fact that there are more racists in southern Ohio than in the rest of the state. Neo-Nazi organizations are more active there. Does that translate to more racist voters in a Democratic primary than in, say, Licking County? I don’t know, but I would suspect so.

It certainly wasn’t my intent to defame Appalachian voters in general. I know they face their own discriminatory issues. I have no doubt that most Appalachian voters are not racist.

As for black voters voting for Obama… if they are doing it because he’s black, I’m not too happy about that. If it’s because they feel he’s addressing the needs of their communities better in his policy positions, then I’ve got no issue with that. (Ditto for women and Clinton.) Unfortunately, I don’t really have data that shows what percentage of black voters are voting for Obama because of his race - I just have overall data, which indicates that Clinton is gaining more from racism and/or identity politics than Obama is. Even if identity politics is a bigger problem in the black community than racism is in the white community, there are so many more white voters that the racism ends up having a bigger impact.

I will concede that Strickland’s support could have had a big impact in the vote percentage differences. I might be projecting the fact that someone’s local organization doesn’t really sway my voting choices much, especially in voting for national offices on to others.

I would like to see county crosstabs for exit polls. I suspect it would confirm my guess, but you are correct - I do not have enough data to say for sure that the “racist vote” was more concentrated in one place or another, only that it had a major impact at the state-wide level.

I most certainly am not intending to imply that your support, or Strickland’s, or any other individual’s support of Clinton is racially motivated. If that is what you took away from my post, I apologize without reservation for my poor writing skills.

Workers v. Management; Blacks v White; Gays v. Straight; Women v. Men; the whole party is made up of perceived victims looking for something from their oppressors and now you’re surprised when people vote cosistent with that.

The democratic party has been building up these victim/victimizer narratives for two generations but now you’re upset because it’s happening “within the family”.

Please.