Politico: Obama will have no mandate because he will lose white men!

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Didn't  Clinton lose white men also  both times?

So did Obama in 2008.

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If you think Obama is a Muslim, a terrorist or any other assortment of nasty opinions the white uneducated class holds, then you are an idiot who's opinion should not matter. If you find it to be classist, that is fine with me, but the truth remains the these people are incapable of thinking logically and should not be taken seriously.

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Isn't it ironic that some of the people who just love to play the enlightened card almost always come out as the most shockingly bigoted people?

Don't you live in Oklahoma? Then you should know exactly the type of people who come across as the most "shockingly bigoted". You know, the type of people who will go up to black people in service jobs and tell them Obama is a Muslim and that all blacks will riot if he doesn't win, just to get a rise out of them and then complain and get them fired. That is pretty shockingly bigoted. Please spare me the faux outrage about classism in this thread. Let's deal with something real out there, racism.

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Betrayed about what? Please explain to me how these people have been betrayed (and by whom).

I guess what boggles my mind, living in and having grown up in a large, multicultural, polyglot city, is that while being low-income is certainly not easy or pleasant, it's not somehow harder to be a low-income white person than a low-income non-white. If anything, it ought to be slightly easier because low-income whites don't have to deal with the subconscious kinds of racism that are projected onto minority groups. (A blue-collar white guy can walk past a woman on the street without her instinctively grabbing hold of her purse; a black man will often face this. White people, rich or poor, never have to deal with being perceived as "foreign" or possibly "illegal" in the way that Hispanics and Asians do even if they were born in this country).

Yes, income inequality has widened over the past thirty years. Yes, wages for unskilled jobs have been depressed. But part of the reason the archetypal good ole boy could go from high school to the factory floor and support a stay-at-home wife and three kids on his salary is because the prevailing system denied blacks and immigrants and women the opportunities for those jobs. It's kind of hard to deny that the relative prosperity that working-class whites enjoyed in the mid-20th century was had at the expense of a minority underclass. In that sense, it was arguably "undeserved."

I live in a minority-majority city in a minority-majority state. And part of the reason there is such a flurry of activity here is that there are so many minorities and immigrants who, while relatively poor, are optimistic about their future and are trying to pursue opportunities as they come. They feel like after decades of discrimination, the playing field - while certainly not level - is more level than it has been before. I look at the underemployed white Joe the Plumbers of the hinterlands and it's hard for me not to view them as bitter that they can't tilt the playing field in their favor the way their fathers and grandfathers did.

Excellent post.

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Isn't it ironic that some of the people who just love to play the enlightened card almost always come out as the most shockingly bigoted people?

Don't you live in Oklahoma? Then you should know exactly the type of people who come across as the most "shockingly bigoted". You know, the type of people who will go up to black people in service jobs and tell them Obama is a Muslim and that all blacks will riot if he doesn't win, just to get a rise out of them and then complain and get them fired. That is pretty shockingly bigoted. Please spare me the faux outrage about classism in this thread. Let's deal with something real out there, racism.

Oh yes nice way to avoid my points by pointing out where I live.
Yes, there is bigotry here like the Sharia Law ban that was passed a couple of years ago.  Sure, there are people who believe that Obama is a Muslim and I bet there are even people who think the black will riot if he wins (in the countryside anyways).  That still doesn't take away from my original point that a lot of you guys are hypocritical BIGOTS whose views, once properly spelled out, are quite shocking.  The views of a number of Oklamans isn't that shocking, frankly, because I never hear any of them raising the pretend card of enlightenment while they are making the claims they do.  You, and other two-faced "progressives", do it on an almost daily basis on here and you guys have been lucky that until now no one has called you out on it.
Well, that time is over.  And good riddance too.
I never seen such people in all my years, who preach tolerance while out of their mouths they say the most intolerant spiel about whole demographics.  Since you brought up Oklahoma and you think we are all bigots, I should point out that some of the damn best people I've ever known are Oklahomans.  People who don't harbor ill-feelings for every non-white non-christian person they meet.  People who have gay friends.  People who are gay.  People who, well you get the point.
But of course, to some people on here, who prefer the position of sitting in their little corners of America (or wherever else), in their little so-called zones of Enlightenment, it doesn't matter.  Instead, they prefer to bring out the very stereotypasaurus that they oft accuse the people they criticize for using on "unwanteds".  They prefer to sit in their little corners and judge, instead of giving a damn.  To me that's beyond pathetic.  If counselors took the same approach to alcoholism and drug addiction that some of the so-called "progressives" take towards the white male working class, our society would be in a shitty shape.  Needless to say, AA would stand for something else besides "Alcoholics Anonymous".
So no, let's not divert the conversation.  You guys like to pontificate, but not act, on your words.  It's about time the rest of us held you accountable.

PS: the idea that white working class is incapable of thinking logically reeks of the very thing you rally against, racism.

I don't see how you took my post as being directed towards all of Oklahoma. I live in Tennessee, and I have seen overt racism (which you do not see in California, but it exists), but I have also seen that most people are decent. Still, this does not mean that the views of those bigots should be taken seriously. They blame their problems on others instead of taking personal responsibility...and at the same time accuse others of doing the same.

I am not stereotyping anyone, and you better not accuse me of that again. Racists are racists are racists. It's as simple as that. There is more of it in the south, and it is certainly more overt. Those are also facts. It is also a fact that most people in the south are not racist. When I go off on racist people, I am only talking about those people. In the north they tend to be well hidden, in the south you see them speaking more truthfully, which is why I brought up your state. But yeah, thanks for showing your insecurity about your state.

I frankly don't care to "understand" why they think Obama is a muslim or a terrorist. They need to be ignored by the rest of the populace as far as I am concerned. Does that come off as bigoted to you? If it does, I frankly don't care. But if you think I am stereotyping whole states, you don't know what the hell you are talking about. I voluntarily moved to Tennessee from California, you moron. And I do not regret it at all.

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Please spare me the faux outrage about classism in this thread. Let's deal with something real out there, racism.

The correlation between Tennessee avatars and braindeath is a curiously strong one.

It is not classist to point out that overt racists come from a certain background. Not to say racism doesn't exist in the upper classes, but of course that is more or less classism. The bigotry of SOME working class whites is of a different quality.

Oh, and thanks for upholding your reputation of being the biggest douche on this forum.

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I'm a rural white man. Just living in a big city, though. So shut up, guys.

Are you a racist? If you were born poor, do you blame that on blacks and mexicans? If not, this thread is irrelevant to you.

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Can you elitist pricks go and read What's the Matter With Kansas? Then come back.

I doubt I will learn in there why people think Obama is a muslim or hold racist views in general.

I do think I will learn about the cultural reasons for why they vote Republican, which is very different from the more insidious reasons. I don't relate with people who hold such views, but I do not consider them to be bad people. Not at all! Racists on the other hand.....