The Voter in My Head

There's been so much in the media about "that white male working class voter" lately. Will he go for Hillary, or will he go for Barack? Will he go for McCain over Hillary, or Barack over McCain, or not show up to the polls at all depending on who is on the ballot?

More importantly, who IS he, and is he real? Meaning, is he truly a group of he's that can be categorized in a block?

We're all being categorized and chopped up into voter blocs like never before (or, perhaps, like always before, but much more evident now) based on income, education, location, consumer habits, race, gender, age, etc. I even find myself trying to guess, based on some combination of appearance and observed behavior, who someone is going to vote for -- strangers, friends, acquaintances alike.

What is hopeful about this year's Democratic race is that people seem more open and fluid in their voting decisions. If democracy is about having an informed and active voting public - as opposed to a predictably self-serving / not-in-my-backyard voting public - then the voting patterns themselves will be interesting to observe. I will certainly be disappointed if Obama is not the Democratic nominee; but I will be exponentially more disappointed if he loses as a result of predictable voting patterns, i.e. people voting out of a kind of pre-determined fear and self-preservation factor (which I believe Hillary is exploiting to the utmost). If Hillary wins, I at least hope to be surprised by the how and why of it; I doubt it, though.

I will be interested to see how Wayne County, PA districts vote on April 22. We have a moderate Democrat as Congressional Rep. -- Chris Carney. Wikipedia says the following:

Carney is a somewhat conservative Democrat, which is not surprising given the nature of the district. For example, while opposing proposals to privatize Social Security, he said he is open to the idea of adding private accounts in addition to (not at the expense of) traditional defined benefits. He supports federal investment in stem cell research, and is an advocate of universal healthcare. He supports gun rights, does not favor abortion (but supports family planning and "comprehensive reproductive healthcare"), and opposes gay marriage. He supports estate tax reduction.

During the campaign, Carney raised money with a wide-variety of supporters including Sen. Barack Obama, Sen Joe Biden, Rep. Jay Inslee, Rep. Jack Murtha, and Richard Perle, a leading Bush Administration advocate of war with Iraq who more recently has criticized the decision to go to war Douglas Feith, another Pentagon hawk, congratulated Carney on Election Night.