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NASCAR Dads Fuel Strategies for Bush in '04
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Ced |
| Last Edited | Ced Oct 09, 2003 08:27am |
| Category | Analysis |
| News Date | Oct 09, 2003 12:00am |
| Description | "....This strategy is now being retooled by President Bush and his advisors, who hope to make the Republican Party appealing to a new generation of blue-collar voters. Such voters are still a crucial segment of the electorate. As Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers note in their book, "America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters," voters without college degrees (some 55% of the total electorate) are the real swing vote in America. "Their loyalties shift the most from election to election and in so doing determine the winners in American politics." Known by the nickname "NASCAR Dads," these new targeted voters tend to be "lower- or middle-class men who once voted Democratic but who now favor Republicans." Many live in rural areas and are racing car fans (hence the nickname). And many of them voted for Bush in 2000.
As Nixon did, Bush is appealing to the emotions of male blue-collar voters while doing little for them. He has tossed them a few bones, like tax breaks on pensions and tariffs on imported steel. Bush wants them, of course. But why would they want him? Since Bush took office in 2000, the United States has had a net loss of 2.7 million jobs, the vast majority of them in manufacturing. Though this cannot be blamed entirely on Bush, his bleed-'em-dry approach to the non-Pentagon parts of the government has meant he's offered little in the way of help to blue-collar workers wanting to learn new trades or find affordable housing."
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