Women voters, African American voters, and younger voters almost always vote mostly Democratic. It doesn't matter if it was Reagan or Bush or Obama, those voting blocs tend to be Democratic. This is well documented and of no surprise.
However, recently, there has been an attempt by liberals to make it seem that if someone is a conservative or a member of the Republican Party, that the person should be considered either homophobic, racist, sexist or bigoted. This is due to the overwhelming facts about why certain voting blocs vote a certain way.
Applying the Moral Foundations model, I would say that on the whole most liberal Democrats are more focused on notions of fairness and minimizing harm compared to most socially conservative Republicans, who themselves embrace a relatively even-handed array of moral principles such as non-harm, fairness, respect for legitimate authority, in-group loyalty, and a concern for purity. It is perhaps easy for liberals to consider socons prejudicial because, from their perspective, the socon appears to oftentimes defend their leaders, traditions, and members of their in-groups even when they have hurt others or are perpetuating one sort of "social injustice" or another, when in reality they are often just trying to reconcile a more balanced set of sometimes conflicting considerations.
To quote a film line from Sean Connery, the ultra tough-guy male, James Bond himself, "Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen!" It's true that for the most part men could care less about emotion when it comes to voting. That's why so many men (a majority) voted for John McCain the same day virtually the entire world was gasping over the election of the first black President of the United States. They weren't voting based on race. They're not racist. They weren't voting based on the eccentricity of the moment or emotion. They voted on the issues. Women tend to vote on emotion.
And yet, to carry on here with my alternative take on the matter, caring about whether or not Obama has "tried" seems to be a fairness-oriented statement - maybe speaking to a mindset of something along the lines of, "He didn't get all the results I wanted but that can in large part be attributed to others' actions. If the President is competent, overall, and making the best of a bad situation it really makes no sense for me to take out my frustration on him."
Think of the general way dating is perceived. If a woman tells another girl that a guy just got out of jail, and he's a perceived "Bad Boy", chances are she will look at that as a positive. It's a turn on. It's dangerous.
Really? I figured it was just a phase and that eventually the nice guy is desirable because he is less of a douche-bag and can actually be relied on for stability and a healthy home environment; I always thought of this as a question of emotional maturity. Maybe it's not? I actually don't know.
If a man tells another man, "That girl just got out of jail, she's a bad girl, ect" chances are the guys will say, "Keep me the hell away from that crazy girl".
Eh... maybe I'm drifting off point with this but that seems to me like an emotional response as well. Wouldn't the strictly logical approach be to identify what one is looking for in a girl, get a hold of as much pertinent information as possible, and reach a carefully-considered conclusion based on weighing the advantages and disadvantages of associating with such a gal relative to all of the alternative options? A knee-jerk response would be overly superficial and intuitive.
Then you end up with having many women think they can change the way a man is. Or they try and ameliorate and rectify a negative situation. "He only hits me because he loves me". That real emotion driven, "We may have 8% unemployment, but he's trying". Men on the other hand are more likely to say, "I want results!"
While I would rather avoid getting bogged down in discussing the portrayal of the sexes here I would mention that liberals strike me as being more pragmatic and utilitarian (i.e. willing to ditch or compromise on their principles to obtain the greatest net good or modest, strategic gains) than social conservatives, who in general I consider relatively stubborn about getting what they want and less prone to betraying their duties to advance a higher cause or be true to their core ideas.
That's why we have such a huge gender gap. Emotion. Democrats LOVE to drive voter emotion. I'll never forget my grandmother near tears because she read some pamphlet in the mail that said if George Bush is elected President in 2000, her social security would be gone on day 1 of his administration. Of course, George Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000, and my grandmother still has her social security. It's the politics of fear. Often Democrats say Republicans are the party of fear, but it's actually the other way around.
They both use it opportunistically. The Democrats oftentimes make use of fear in campaigns. My experiences suggest the GOP has been far more effective in wielding it with great efficacy. All of the parties make rational and emotional appeals as means to achieve self-interested electoral ends.
I think it has less to do about race and gender than it does about whether or not you're conservative or liberal.
As far as young people tending to vote Democratic, this again does also go back to the liberalism cause. Emotions, gut reactions, all play into the hands of Democrats.
On the other hand, I would propose that the young are less enamored with tradition than the old and at least initially are willing to experiment with new and potentially better ways of doing things. Idealism often takes on an emotional tone but in fact has an underlying rationale of its own that merely doesn't coincide with the realist's acceptance of or stake in conventional ways and thinking.
To assume conservatives are racists, bigots or sexists is false. These voting blocs have stayed the same throughout many years, but the liberals are attempting to woo voters by trying to make it seem as though there is a "War on women" and that conservatives are racist. Conservatives big problem is that they're so blunt and honest, that it can often seem insensitive, an emotion that plays right into the hands of Democrats. Don't buy into it.
I do not consider conservatism synonymous with bigotry just as I do not consider traditionalism synonymous with intolerance. The "war on women" rhetoric is embarrassingly ignorant of the right's actual intentions, which in fact tend not to be sinister. The trouble is, when many a liberal looks at some of these issues they struggle to comprehend why a bloke would think it is rational to embrace the socially conservative position. In lieu of understanding, maybe a great many of them perceive the socon "threat" to values of non-harm and fairness as evidence of an appalling lack of conservative interest in assisting traditionally subordinate social groups, at which point an illusion can develop that you guys only care about rich, white, Protestant males... which is a ridiculous but nonetheless widespread attitude in at least some circles. The Democratic Party helps start the fire.
