Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Political Demography - Feb 28, 2018



White people are 62 percent of the population (and falling).

White people constituted 71 percent of all voters in the 2016 General Election (partly from turnout, partly from voter suppression)

White voters favored Trump over Clinton 57 to 37 (most 3rd Party votes were for Libertarians, with a few for Greens).

Latin@s were 18 percent of the population and 10 percent of voters. CLOSING THIS GAP WOULD HELP.

Latin@s favored Clinton over Trump 67-28, with concentration of Trump-Latin@s among Floridian Cuban Americans. Obama won Latin@s with 71 percent, four points ahead of Clinton.

African Americans were 14 percent of the population and 13 percent of voters.

African Americans favored Clinton over Trump 88 to 8, with some young black voters drifting to the Greens. Obama received 93 percent of the black vote in 2012, five points ahead of Clinton.

Asian Americans were 5 percent of the population and between 3-4 percent of voters. Asian Americans favored Clinton over Trump at 65 to 27. 73 percent Asian Americans voted for Obama in 2012, a difference of eight points.

Other non-white voters constituted 2-3 percent.

Since 2006, the Democratic Party has steadily lost electoral shares in every general and off-year elections, in every single group.

In the 2016 GE, Clinton received 55 percent of the 18-29 year-old vote, with Trump receiving 37 percent.

Clinton received 50 percent of the 30-44 year-old category, with Trump at 37.

Clinton received 44 percent of 45-64 year-olds, with Trump winning 53 percent.

Clinton and Trump's shares were 45-53 respectively among voters 65 and up.

During the Democratic Primaries in 2016, ages 18-44 went for Sanders, with 60 percent for Sanders among whites and 49 percent of non-whites for Sanders. Clinton ran slightly ahead among white voters 45 and over, but the biggest gap was non-white voters over 45 years-old, which Clinton won by more than 40 percent.

The 45 years-old and up category turns out at around 70 percent.

30-44 turns out at about 60 percent.

18-29 turns out at about 45 percent. RAISING THIS BY TEN WOULD BE A GAME CHANGER.

By 2032, whites will lose their majority status and become a dominant plurality.

Here are the median ages for each state.

Here are the median ages for each county.

Here is a racial diversity map for each county.

More cool maps.

African American population by county map.

Latin@ population by county.

I contend that Sanders would have beaten Trump, but we'll never know, will we?

But what I will say is that by 2020, the demographics favor Sandercrats in electoral challenges within the Democratic Party; and they will be well-positioned (IF YOUTH IS MOBILIZED) to defeat Republicans en masse.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

ALL MASCULINITY IS TOXIC IN TEN EASY STEPS


(1) Masculinity is a set of behaviors, attitudes, language, clothing, comportment, associations, and tools that are associated with and expected of MEN. A pseudo-essence for men.

(2) Femininity is a corresponding and "complementary" set of behaviors, attitudes, language, clothing, comportment, associations, and tools that are associated with and expected of WOMEN. A pseudo-essence for women.

(3) An individual virtue, for example courage, or an individual vice, for example cowardice, is courage or cowardice whether enacted by a MAN, WOMAN, OR OTHER.

(4) Masculinity-femininity are not "simply" natural and not "simply" cultural. They are cultural codes imposed on biological men and women (which exclude and-or demonize the intersexed, LGBT, et al, because they are an abjection of the cultural code. They disrupt the symbolic universe of gendered power.

(5) Masculinity-femininity constitute a system of gender--here defined not expressively or individually, but gender as the organized and systematized domination of men-as-men over women-as-women. A system of power with an attendant division of labor (or vice-versa).

(6) Calling an action, attitude, or behavior "masculine" or "feminine" is participating in that code and reinforcing that power. It is not the action, attitude, or behavior on its own that is "gendered" male or female by the masculine-feminine code; it is the EXISTENCE of masculinity-femininity and its arbitrary divisions of labor-culture-power between men and women (and its marginalization and demonization of sexual "minorities") that has led to the association of (material) violence with "masculinilty" (the pseudo-essence for which violence and other "masculine" phenomena become probative).

(7) There is no "good" masculinity and "bad" masculinity, one benign and one toxic, but standards of common decency, which if applied fairly are applicable to anyone, regardless of sex or sexuality.

(8) The only reason, then, for promoting "non-toxic" masculinity is to preserve the masculine-feminine code.

(9) If gender (defined as above) is a system of unequal power, then the continued division of practices and attitudes into masculine-feminine--even if we are promoting "non-toxic" versions of either--is an attempt to preserve the dipole.

(10) All masculinity is toxic.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Where Dwells the Christian? Guns, Masculinity, and Whiteness

  

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.”

― Matthew 26:52

Beware, my body and my soul, beware above all of crossing your arms and assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of griefs is not a proscenium, and a man who wails is not a dancing bear.

― Aimé Césaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land


Stupid is is stupid does

Monday, February 19, 2018

Binding the Strong Man: Youth have the NRA in the Crosshairs

About thirty of us stood in the frigid Michigan breeze in February 18th here in my small town of about 24,000 souls. We had homemade signs protesting gun violence, gun culture, and gun industry/culture lobbying. We were in front of the Historic Courthouse along Main Street. This is the commercial center for an agricultural region, and I’d SWAG that around sixty percent of all passing vehicles were one model or another of pickup truck. Lots of honks in solidarity. One fool that rode around the block with a bullhorn out the driver’s window blaring that we were “liberal fags.” Many blank faces, because a lot of people here don’t get out much and they are preoccupied with their own rat-races for survival. Trucks passed with NRA stickers, and every truck with one was occupied by white people. Several sported both NRA stickers and Marine Corps globe-and-anchors, which look a lot alike in a way. One truck went past with a dead buck in the back, antlers displayed by the proud hunter above the bed panels.