Why did Little River County, AR swung so hard to the Republicans in 2008?

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Cases like this where so much of the swing happened at once and against the national shift in the process essentially disprove the hypothesis that these areas swung hard due to generational replacement.

[RINO Tom]

Cases like this where so much of the swing happened at once and against the national shift in the process essentially disprove the hypothesis that these areas swung hard due to generational replacement.

Few people claim generational displacement can ever be responsible for a rapid swing in one or two elections.  However, it is relevant to increasing the swing, and all too often we see people talking about counties and states as if they are exactly the same as they have always been (i.e., therefore the same subset of voters must have all switched their minds).

[OSR stands with Israel]

LMAO @ Red Avs saying racism. Do you people ever get tired of bringing race into everything?

People don’t vote for what they want. They vote for who they are.

And who they are, are yellow dogs finally waking up to the democratic party being too socially liberal for their interests. Race was not in these peoples heads at the voting booth.

This is delusional. John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama and he did pretty well with yellow dogs. keep in mind he was also painted as a "Massachusetts liberal", a "coastal elitist" and so on. as I said before, there are very few logical explanations for why so many voters would switch from Kerry to McCain other than racism.

You are missing the point. Sure, Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama, but it's all about the time and how long of a time trends take place over. 2000-2004 R swings were just as strong in these areas. It's not about race, it's about policy realignment.

Sure, it's just a coincidence that polls showed Hillary winning states like West Virginia and Arkansas vs McCain in 2008, and then they overwhelmingly rejected a black man - but surely not because he was black and had a scary sounding name.

LMAO, did you even pay attention to 90s and early 00s politics? Hillary was seen as similar to Bill on the issues which made southern dems more comfortable. Obama was different and was unarguably more socially liberal than Clinton was.

Except Obama and Hillary were virtually the same on every issue...

Thats true but voters then just believed she would be Bill's third term. So it was in a way more of a Bill Clinton(Albeit with far less charisma) vs Obama race more than Hillary vs Obama. In 2016 it in a way was more of an Obama (Albeit again with far less charisma) vs Bernie race.

[Frenchrepublican]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran, Obama in the other hand was a big city dweller who mocked rural people who cling to their guns, Obama was really out of touch for rural southern communities

[darklordoftech]

John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama

How?

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama

How?

He supported gay marijuana before Obama did.

[darklordoftech]

John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama

How?

He supported gay marijuana before Obama did.

gay marijuana?

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama

How?

He supported gay marijuana before Obama did.

gay marijuana?

Gay marriage, stupid autocorrect

[Perlen vor den Schweinen]

LMAO @ Red Avs saying racism. Do you people ever get tired of bringing race into everything?

People don’t vote for what they want. They vote for who they are.

And who they are, are yellow dogs finally waking up to the democratic party being too socially liberal for their interests. Race was not in these peoples heads at the voting booth.

This is delusional. John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama and he did pretty well with yellow dogs. keep in mind he was also painted as a "Massachusetts liberal", a "coastal elitist" and so on. as I said before, there are very few logical explanations for why so many voters would switch from Kerry to McCain other than racism.

You are missing the point. Sure, Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama, but it's all about the time and how long of a time trends take place over. 2000-2004 R swings were just as strong in these areas. It's not about race, it's about policy realignment.

Sure, it's just a coincidence that polls showed Hillary winning states like West Virginia and Arkansas vs McCain in 2008, and then they overwhelmingly rejected a black man - but surely not because he was black and had a scary sounding name.

LMAO, did you even pay attention to 90s and early 00s politics? Hillary was seen as similar to Bill on the issues which made southern dems more comfortable. Obama was different and was unarguably more socially liberal than Clinton was.

Except Obama and Hillary were virtually the same on every issue...

Hillary was less socially liberal, or at least she presented herself that way.

Obama was more socially liberal than Clinton in that he was black and she was white.

[darklordoftech]

John Kerry was more socially liberal than Obama

How?

He supported gay marijuana before Obama did.

gay marijuana?

Gay marriage, stupid autocorrect

Makes sense. When did Kerry come out in support of gay marriage?

[R.P. McM]

Huh. I didn't even realize there was such a large bloc of Kerry-McCain voters. I thought that the financial meltdown would have prevented any WWC erosion in 2008, but I guess I was wrong.

WWC voters in less racist parts of the country did the predicable thing — swung hard against the incumbent party. But in more racist parts of the country — the South, Appalachia — they preferred Kerry to Obama for reasons of "economic anxiety." In the midst of the worst downturn since the Depression, mind you. Yeah, there's just no denying it — they're racist white trash . It's a cancer that Lincoln and Grant and Sherman should've eradicated, but now we're stuck with it, sadly.

I'm so glad the forum is still JUST classy enough that we don't have users saying things like "Black trash" about poor areas of Detroit or "Latino trash" about poor Hispanic communities in Texas.

Stay classy!

What are you going to do, elect me president? Suck it up, snowflake.

[R.P. McM]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran

Ah yes, conservative Southern whites have deep respect for soldiers, veterans, and decorated war heroes, including John Kerry /s.

[RINO Tom]

Huh. I didn't even realize there was such a large bloc of Kerry-McCain voters. I thought that the financial meltdown would have prevented any WWC erosion in 2008, but I guess I was wrong.

WWC voters in less racist parts of the country did the predicable thing — swung hard against the incumbent party. But in more racist parts of the country — the South, Appalachia — they preferred Kerry to Obama for reasons of "economic anxiety." In the midst of the worst downturn since the Depression, mind you. Yeah, there's just no denying it — they're racist white trash . It's a cancer that Lincoln and Grant and Sherman should've eradicated, but now we're stuck with it, sadly.

I'm so glad the forum is still JUST classy enough that we don't have users saying things like "Black trash" about poor areas of Detroit or "Latino trash" about poor Hispanic communities in Texas.

Stay classy!

What are you going to do, elect me president? Suck it up, snowflake.

Just don't claim to be overly tolerant, which I'm sure you do.  Lol.  You are yet another WONDERFUL, edgy addition to the forum.

[Frenchrepublican]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran

Ah yes, conservative Southern whites have deep respect for soldiers, veterans, and decorated war heroes, including John Kerry /s.

Yeah, it's why dems tend to nominate veterans in tough southern/appalachian districts (Conor Lamb, Amy McBath, Dan McCready, Spanberger, Ojeda)

[Skunk]

I'm sure they had very logical reasons for shifting heavily towards the Republican Party in the midst of a financial crisis and an environment where Obama was winning by 7 points in the national popular vote. It couldn't POSSIBLY be racism playing a factor, nope, I'm sure they would have voted for Alan Keyes against a white Democrat because of gay marriage or whatever.

[RINO Tom]

I'm sure they had very logical reasons for shifting heavily towards the Republican Party in the midst of a financial crisis and an environment where Obama was winning by 7 points in the national popular vote. It couldn't POSSIBLY be racism playing a factor, nope, I'm sure they would have voted for Alan Keyes against a white Democrat because of gay marriage or whatever.

Why do people feel a need to pick one reason constantly and lump everyone together?  Sure, I bet there were some racist Democrats who refused to support a Black nominee ... I'm also sure a non-insignificant number of Yellow Dogs continued to die since 2004 ... I'm also sure some conservative-leaning independents who voted for Kerry because their grandpappy was a Democrat saw Obama's comments about "clinging to guns" as pretty damn insulting and said they'd never vote for another Democrat again ... I'm also sure that there were some plssed off Clinton voters who were never going to vote for Obama.

The ENTIRE shift cannot be explained with just one of those.

[R.P. McM]

Huh. I didn't even realize there was such a large bloc of Kerry-McCain voters. I thought that the financial meltdown would have prevented any WWC erosion in 2008, but I guess I was wrong.

WWC voters in less racist parts of the country did the predicable thing — swung hard against the incumbent party. But in more racist parts of the country — the South, Appalachia — they preferred Kerry to Obama for reasons of "economic anxiety." In the midst of the worst downturn since the Depression, mind you. Yeah, there's just no denying it — they're racist white trash . It's a cancer that Lincoln and Grant and Sherman should've eradicated, but now we're stuck with it, sadly.

I'm so glad the forum is still JUST classy enough that we don't have users saying things like "Black trash" about poor areas of Detroit or "Latino trash" about poor Hispanic communities in Texas.

Stay classy!

What are you going to do, elect me president? Suck it up, snowflake.

Just don't claim to be overly tolerant, which I'm sure you do.

I have never claimed to be tolerant of racists, authoritarians, morons, or sexual predators. Rhetorically, I drop the hammer. And should we ever find ourselves in such a situation in which peaceful coexistence becomes impossible, yes, I'll pull the trigger . Am I an extremist? No, no more so than the 101st Airborne's conduct toward the Waffen-SS was "extreme."

[R.P. McM]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran

Ah yes, conservative Southern whites have deep respect for soldiers, veterans, and decorated war heroes, including John Kerry /s.

Yeah, it's why dems tend to nominate veterans in tough southern/appalachian districts (Conor Lamb, Amy McBath, Dan McCready, Spanberger, Ojeda)

Maybe it helps, but Republicans have no qualms about smearing veterans, including Kerry, McCain, and Spanberger, so who knows. Amoral, authoritarian animals, FTW!!!

[darklordoftech]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran

Ah yes, conservative Southern whites have deep respect for soldiers, veterans, and decorated war heroes, including John Kerry /s.

Yeah, it's why dems tend to nominate veterans in tough southern/appalachian districts (Conor Lamb, Amy McBath, Dan McCready, Spanberger, Ojeda)

Maybe it helps, but Republicans have no qualms about smearing veterans, including Kerry, McCain, and Spanberger, so who knows. Amoral, authoritarian animals, FTW! 

Trump wasn’t even the first to smear McCain in that regard. Bush II had someone speaking at his South Carolina rallies who said, “McCain grew tired of the veterens.”

[R.P. McM]

I'm sure they had very logical reasons for shifting heavily towards the Republican Party in the midst of a financial crisis and an environment where Obama was winning by 7 points in the national popular vote. It couldn't POSSIBLY be racism playing a factor, nope, I'm sure they would have voted for Alan Keyes against a white Democrat because of gay marriage or whatever.

Why do people feel a need to pick one reason constantly and lump everyone together?

Because 90% of your party supports Trump, and you aren't the One True Scotsman, hombre.

Sure, I bet there were some racist Democrats who refused to support a Black nominee ... I'm also sure a non-insignificant number of Yellow Dogs continued to die since 2004 ... I'm also sure some conservative-leaning independents who voted for Kerry because their grandpappy was a Democrat saw Obama's comments about "clinging to guns" as pretty damn insulting and said they'd never vote for another Democrat again

What about Mitt Romney's comments about guns? Or Donald Trump's? This BS is just getting too ludicrous to even entertain. Yes, a sizable subset of the Republican base is racist, including an immense number of white Southerners. Sorry, deal with it.

[R.P. McM]

Racism + more yellow dogs dying off + Hillary supporters angry that she lost the primary would be my guess.

Mostly this

Now, I don’t think racism is a such big factor, it’s more a cultural thing, Kerry was fairly liberal but he was also a veteran

Ah yes, conservative Southern whites have deep respect for soldiers, veterans, and decorated war heroes, including John Kerry /s.

Yeah, it's why dems tend to nominate veterans in tough southern/appalachian districts (Conor Lamb, Amy McBath, Dan McCready, Spanberger, Ojeda)

Maybe it helps, but Republicans have no qualms about smearing veterans, including Kerry, McCain, and Spanberger, so who knows. Amoral, authoritarian animals, FTW!  

Trump wasn’t even the first to smear McCain in that regard. Bush II had someone speaking at his South Carolina rallies who said, “McCain grew tired of the veterens.”

Oh, yes, I remember. It was disgusting, but quite frankly, many of these folks are anti-American and quite disgusting. They booed a gay soldier serving in a combat zone! Yeah, they're trash, and I'm done trying to make nice.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mmFPyDK_8

[RINO Tom]

I'm sure they had very logical reasons for shifting heavily towards the Republican Party in the midst of a financial crisis and an environment where Obama was winning by 7 points in the national popular vote. It couldn't POSSIBLY be racism playing a factor, nope, I'm sure they would have voted for Alan Keyes against a white Democrat because of gay marriage or whatever.

Why do people feel a need to pick one reason constantly and lump everyone together?

Because 90% of your party supports Trump, and you aren't the One True Scotsman, hombre.

Sure, I bet there were some racist Democrats who refused to support a Black nominee ... I'm also sure a non-insignificant number of Yellow Dogs continued to die since 2004 ... I'm also sure some conservative-leaning independents who voted for Kerry because their grandpappy was a Democrat saw Obama's comments about "clinging to guns" as pretty damn insulting and said they'd never vote for another Democrat again

What about Mitt Romney's comments about guns? Or Donald Trump's? This BS is just getting too ludicrous to even entertain. Yes, a sizable subset of the Republican base is racist, including an immense number of white Southerners. Sorry, deal with it.

When you're making statements like the bolded in response to a thread about the 2008 election and, specifically, why formerly DEMOCRATIC voters might have left the party a full eight years before Trump was elected ... maybe it's time to listen to Mom and actually go to bed so you aren't tired at school tomorrow.

There are very *unbecoming* elements in a "sizable subset" of the Democratic base, rife with sexism, crime and what some incredibly insecure and angry people might call "trashy" attributes.  They just happen to be non-White, so you ... forget about them?  Accuse anyone of retorting your blatant bigotry with being a bigot himself?  Walk through a poor area of Chicago, and ask yourself how enlightened ALL of your voters are.  Of course, you have the built-in triggered response of claiming anyone who calls these folks "trashy" is a racist, while Republicans are just supposed to sit back and shut up as you literally dehumanize their voters, but the point is good people don't judge entire groups of people by their anecdotal experiences and stereotype them all.  When my friend got mugged by a Black man in Milwaukee, I didn't assume something negative about all Black men everywhere and - since they vote about 90% Democratic - reshape my entire view of the Democratic Party and anyone who has the nerve to associate with it ... when you see one news story about a neo-Nazi rally, you apparently see it fit to craft a view of all White Southerners?  LMAO. 

I'm sure you'll turn into a decent enough poster when you age, but have some respect for the site, at least.  We don't need bratty little teenage partisans filling threads with heated projections about "THE OTHER PARTY."  This site isn't about that.  Take that BS to a forum dedicated to being a Democratic circle jerk; there are plenty.  There are several liberal, Democratic posters here who might even share your razor sharp views, but notice they carry themselves better ... we all go through a shltposting phase on this site, but yours is especially loud.  This site is not going to be a very effective platform to convince everyone that you are a better person - by being morally superior, educationally superior, more cosmopolitan or whatever other accolade you think is bestowed upon anyone who rejects the Republican Party - than anyone with differing views, so I would gain some nuance, newbie.

[TDAS04]

It's a heavily white rural county in Arkansas.  Arkansas is like West Virginia, but with more PUMAs.

[ElectionsGuy]

In this type of county, yes, Obama was the reason it swung so hard Republican in 2008 (and not much after). That's not to say it's entirely racism, but they realized when Obama got the nomination the type of Democratic party that they supported for their entire lives was over and a more progressive direction would ensue. It does seem racial when they stuck around to support even John Kerry but swung hard against Obama and then stayed relatively consistent afterward (or just got a little more Republican). Little Dixie in Oklahoma and East Texas also behaved like this, so I'm hesitant to say its just racism instead of a regional explained pattern. In places where economic hardships explained hard Republican trends, they continued trending hard Republican through 2016 (Appalachia). Not here.

[Xing]

Shhhh, we're not allowed to call people racists. That counts as a personal attack against white men, who have suffered enough as the most persecuted minority in the history of Western Civilization against the fascist tyranny of "SJWs", or "PC Culture", or something like that.