Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Rick Santorum and the Republican Primary Voter

by Brian Witt


On Saturday, Rick Santorum said that President Barack Obama is a "snob," who is encouraging young people to go to college in in order to "indoctrinate" them and that decent, hardworking people didn't need "leftist" college professors to be successful.


This struck most observers as profoundly odd, as the U.S. has long differentiated itself from its Western European counterparts by succesfully encouraging a much larger percentage of its students to go on to attain a post-secondary degree. Thus Santorum's statement that more people should be content to "work with their hands" instead of obtaining an "elitist" degree sounds much more like the typical European welfare state than America.

Republicans have won college educated voters in every election since the 1960s, although Democrats do somewhat better with voters who display post-graduate degrees, most of whom tend to be concentrated in academia and the government.  Republican presidential candidates have also consistently won voters who earn more than $100,000 a year, the lion's share of those being college educated.
Hm...

In other words, if Republicans are the party pf college educated, higher income Americans, why would a candidate for the GOP nomination set out to dismiss higher education and align so closely with the traditionally Democratic working class?   Because Santorum knows his voter base and indeed the growing base of the Republican Party in general.


Despite the trouble caused by his poor debate performance and recent verbal gaffes, there is a real chance that Santorum can win Michigan today and will be very competitive in several of the Super Tuesday states.  He has remained competitive against Romney by appealing to the growing number of Republican primary voters motivated by cultural instead of economic arguments. These voters care far more about sex education than marginal tax rates, and they see Romney's business experience as suspect not inspiring.
Some just aren't getting the joke...


They see the boogeyman of "elite snobs" everywhere, encouraged by a conservative media echo-chamber which devotes far more time to conspiracy theories about the New Black Panther Party and sharia law than actually trying to impact public policy. Where once the local Republican Party would be dominated by CEOs and doctors, the local business community motivated by civic spirit and sound economics, it has been taken over by marginally employed and education Tea Party activists, spouting what they think is Austrian economics while relying on an interpretation of the Constitution derived from a tearful radio host.

Rick Santorum, like Newt Gingrich before him, has attacked Romney by appealing to the basest instincts of the Republican Party's new working class voter base. He may well end up costing Romney the nomination, but the damage he and his fellow demagogues have done to the GOP will last far longer than this election cycle.
How about another four years from now?

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