White Anger Surfaces Again

Kevin MacDonald: Today’s LA Times op-ed by David Paul Kuhn (“Revenge of the White Men“) is yet another indication of the increasing  racial polarization of American politics. “Among whites, only 35% of men and 43% of women say they will back Democrats in the fall election. Women’s preferences have remained steady since July 2009. But over that same period, white men’s support for a Democratic Congress has fallen eight points, according to Gallup.”

By any standards, this is a landslide and a good indication that identity politics has trumped social class for Whites, especially White males.

Blue collar White men are not turning to the Democratic Party despite the fact that they have been hit hardest by the recession. “Blue-collar men have suffered 57% of the job losses. And blue-collar white men, who make up only 11% of the workforce, constitute 36% of those who have lost jobs. In total, nearly half of the recession’s casualties are white men, having held 46% of all jobs lost.”

According to Kuhn, the fact that working class White men are not voting Democrat is understandable: “Think about the average working man. He has already witnessed financial bailouts for the rich folks above him. Now he sees a healthcare bailout for the poor folks below him. Big government represents lots of costs and little gain. Meanwhile, like many women, these men are simply trying to push ahead without being pushed under. Some of them once believed in Obama. Now they feel forgotten.”

As Sam Francis noted some time ago, American politics is an alliance between elites and the non-White underclass, with the White middle and working class left to pay the price even as they are increasingly dispossessed politically and culturally. Kuhn would seem to agree with Francis, although he doesn’t paint the class structure in the starkly racial terms that Francis does.

Kuhn ends his essay by suggesting that the Democrats should think about why they have lost the support of the White working class. But the strength of the Democratic Party is its coalition of  non-Whites — an alliance that includes a large Black and Latino underclass, as well as middle class and elite non-Whites, most importantly a large contingent of wealthy Jews and Jews with influence on the media. In the long run, it’s a winning strategy as they lobby to import millions more non-Whites and as Whites continue to sink to minority status. In the looming struggle on immigration reform, the racial fault lines will be obvious to everyone.

Kuhn points out that the theme of the angry White male dates from 1994 when there was a Republican landslide in the Congressional elections. But all of that anger so far hasn’t really changed things for the White working and middle class — a testimony to the corruption of Republican Party which has thus far managed to benefit from their votes without supporting their interests. The question is how this anger will play out politically in the next few elections as Whites see their power slipping away. At some point, they have to realize that this Democrat and Republican thing isn’t working for them at all.