How times have changed? In 1960, one of the great questions of the election was whether or not people would hold John F. Kennedy's Catholic faith against him when they went to vote. Would anti-Catholic prejudice be expressed through a vote against JFK?
As it turned out, the number who did so was negligible. It was only after the election that people asked the question of whether or not Catholics themselves voted for Kennedy because he was Catholic, which they did, incidentally, in quite strong numbers.
This headline asks: "Do black people support Obama because he's black?" The story then quickly appeared at major newsites, and many minor ones, all across the country.
To answer the question, probably a handful or so. Since Lyndon Johnson, black people have voted Democratic at the 90-95% level. President Obama got 95% of them last time, so, yes, it appears that 1-2% of black people may be voting for President Obama because he's black.
Or not: Are we ruling out the possibility that those 1-2% have been converted to the Democrats on the basis of the issues?
You wonder what number of white people might be supporting Mitt Romney because he's white. I don't have any particular yardstick for measuring what that number might be, but I'll bet it's something, perhaps even more than 2%.
Will we see similar articles that ask similar questions about other constituencies? Will there be an exploration, for example, of the voting patterns of Mormons, to wit: "Are Mormons voting for Mitt Romney because he's Mormon?"
Perhaps the nation might also like to know how rich people have voted historically, and their likely voting preferences in this election, to wit: "Are rich people supporting Mitt Romney because he's rich?"
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