Assess the significance of race, gender and religion as factors influencing US voting behaviour.

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Liam Simmonds

“Assess the significance of race, gender and religion as factors influencing US voting behaviour.” – (30 Marks)

The volatile nature of voting behaviour in the US and the nature of how and what issues are salient at the time of election leads to many factors influencing US voting behaviour. Short-term factors, such as leadership, issues and candidate appeals and campaigns, can be as significant as longer-term factors such as social class, age, gender, ethnicity and geography. However, by the very nature that these factors are ‘long-term’ is a tribute to their constant importance within the American political scene.

The ideologies found at the root of the parties tend to lend themselves to certain, typical voter stereotypes: The broadly liberal Democrat Party tend to cater to minorities based on laxer immigration policies and greater provision for the poor and needy. Watts notes that the Democrats repeatedly receive “overwhelming support from black voters, it could for this reason that black candidates such as Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama have received such a high profile within the party and within the minds of the electorate. In 2008, 95% of the African American electorate voted for Obama, with 88% voting for fellow Democrat Kerry in the 2004 election, proving that it is the Democrat Party and their policies which convince ethnic voters to support them and not the solely the candidate. The policies of the Democratic Party have been visibly shaped because of the overwhelming support that they receive from the ethnic vote; civil rights and racial justice through the appointment of black judges and affirmative action within policies. On the other hand, the Republican Party typically accommodates those who ‘help themselves’, with policies that reflect a narrower, yet numerically large portion of the electorate. In the 1976 presidential election, 47% of white males voted Democrat; however, in 2004 this was only 37%. Despite the Democrats being seen as the party of the poor, Ashbee notes that “in 2004, many white men in the lowest income groupings voted to re-elect President Bush.” This suggests that race is more of an important factor when deciding what party to vote for, than income. Ashbee identifies multiple reasons for why this could be; he recognises that those with fewer or no educational qualifications “have the most conservative attitudes”. He also states that “Reaganism had a particular appeal to white men”, possibly in the way that Regan spoke in a masculine language about confronting America’s enemies and tackling crime.  Policy of the Republicans is a factor which is beginning to draw in higher-income minorities; their fiscal policies and lax taxation is a universal draw for those on high incomes, regardless of ethnicity. This presents two different segments of voters within the Republican Party on the basis of the race, note that both are affected and determined by income.  

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Race, as a factor in voting behaviour, is one that is increasing in importance for the two main parties, especially the Republicans. The Republican party have typically have not needed to tap in to the voter base of ethnic minorities in order to win office at the highest level, in fact, quite the opposite; their staple voter is a white, Anglo-Saxon protestant. In the 2008 presidential election, 55% of whites of both genders voted for McCain, the Republican nominee. In 2004 this figure was even higher, at 58%. As polarisation of the parties increases, Younge suggests that an “already ...

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