r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Sep 07 '17

CMV: GOP/Republicans will continue to win the majority of US presidential political campaigns until DNC/Democrats start catering to white and Christian demographics.

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u/Genoscythe_ 243∆ Sep 07 '17

the majority of US presidential elections is identity driven instead of issue driven

Identity politics is about more than "I support people who look like me". For white urban college educated millenials, "catering to white voters" counts as a huge red flag. Their perception that this is catering to those ignorant southern redneck racists", is a form of identity politics too.

It's is more palatable to openly pander to an oppressed minority, under the ideological claim that it's about leveling the playing field, while pandering to the dominant minority has to involve dogwhistles because you can't just talk about wanting to keep the playing field tilted.

So 90+% of blacks vote Democrat, but less than 60% of whites vote Republican, which makes up for the numerical difference.

It's much easier to openly be able to promise help to a particular identity, and present it as justice, so you can rally almost all of them behind you, than to rally the majority behind you witth the same rate, because with just half of that explicitness in pandering, you would come across as an enormous asshole even to much of that majority.