Even more shocking is that my grandmother, a rock-ribbed Republican who to my knowlege has never voted Democratic and will not let a bad word be spoken about George W. Bush in her hearing . . . that GOP-lovin’ granny almost voted for Obama. At the last minute, she decided that since she lives in Western New York, and there’s no chance of Obama losing the state, she could safely support her party. But that she even thought about voting for the Democrat augers dire things for the McCain campaign.
I would dismiss this anecdote accept that I have seen the same thing. For example, I know a firm supporter of the Republican Party whose opinion of African Americans would put him in the raciest working class white man category. He told me that for the first time in his life he has thought about voting for the democratic ticket.
Of course, I know firm McCain supporters. But it does not seem good that McCain is struggling to keep the support of people who voted for Bush two elections in a row and every other republican candidate previous to that.
A lot of lower income white males who are die hard republicans could support the war in Iraq as long as it was about killing people. But when it became about rebuilding the country it was harder for them to support it. There is too much stuff around them that needs to be rebuilt for them to be happy with hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent on a country that they feel will just turn against them in the end. Throw a trillion or so in bailouts for the banking industry when the manufacturing firms were allowed to go under, and you have the makings for some serious class resentment.
People in my area still miss those manufacturing jobs and they don’t understand why they left.