In contrast to the “Tea Party” minority, data shows that black, low-income, and youth voters want a government that does more, not less.
Today
Project Vote released What Happened to Hope and
Change? A Poll of 2008 Voters, a new report summarizing the results of a
telephone survey of 1,947 Americans who cast ballots in 2008, analyzing their
views on the role of government, government spending, and the budget. The poll is unique in that it not only surveys the
historic 2008 electorate, but also includes special samples of black voters,
low-income voters, and youth voters, and compares these groups both to a
national sample and to self-identified “Tea Party” sympathizers.
“We
wanted to learn more about the views of the black, youth, and low-income voters
who overwhelmingly participated in 2008 election,” said Lorraine C. Minnite,
director of research for Project Vote. “These voters represent roughly a third
of the electorate, they will play an increasingly important role in American
politics, and they fundamentally believe in a government that does more, not less. Yet their voices are largely
ignored, and their views are not being represented.”
Instead,
the new report says, over the past two years the opinions and values of these
populations have been drowned out by the anti-government rhetoric of more
affluent, older, and mostly white Americans who have organized under the “Tea
Party” banner.
“The winning coalition in
2008 included an unprecedented number of young voters, who were more racially
diverse than any cohort in the history of American politics and more
progressive than any young voters since the 1960s,” said Peter Levine, Director
of Research and Director of CIRCLE
(Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning &
Engagement). “The new poll from
Project Vote provides essential information about these young people’s hopes
and beliefs in 2010.”
Project
Vote’s analysis reveals that black voters, low-income voters, and young voters
have starkly different views about the role of government, federal spending
priorities, and the budget deficit than “Tea Party” sympathizers, and in fact
are far closer to the views of the 2008 electorate as a whole. Key findings
include:
- Majorities of black voters, young voters, and
low-income voters support increasing taxes on investment income, increasing
social security taxes on incomes greater than $107,000 and ending combat
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a means to reduce the deficit. - Strong majorities of black voters, young voters, and
low-income voters support spending money on infrastructure, as do two-thirds of
all 2008 voters. - Majorities of black voters, young voters, and
low-income voters, as well as a majority of all voters, support spending the
same or more on income support programs such as Food Stamps for less well-off
Americans. Two-thirds of Tea Party sympathizers support spending less. - Tea Party sympathizers, while almost universally
dissatisfied with the way the country is going, report they themselves are
doing very well: more than three out of four say their personal economic
situation is fairly good or very good. - Meanwhile, one in five young voters,
and nearly two out of five black voters and low-income voters, reported that
there were times in the past twelve months when they did not have enough money
to buy food for their families. Just over one in twenty Tea Party supporters
said the same. - Strong majorities of black voters, young voters, and
low-income voters agree that government should work to provide for the needs of
all citizens. Half of all voters agreed with that sentiment, while only one in
five Tea Party sympathizers agreed. - Together, the three “surge” groups represent a larger
portion of the electorate than those who self-identify with the Tea Party.
“The Project Vote poll of
2008 voters casts an extraordinarily bright and hopeful light on the
future of American electoral politics,” said Frances Fox Piven, Project Vote
board member and Distinguished Professor
of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University
Center, CUNY.
“The composition of the electorate is changing, and the constituencies that
support a government role in regulating market forces
and protecting people from market vicissitudes are growing.
This is big news, and good news for America.”
Poll
participant Christopher Ferreira, 25, an
analyst from Philadelphia, described his view on government responsibility.
“The government needs to get more involved across the board on the issues
that matter to Americans: creating a good education system, making sure people
have health care, and investing in industry and infrastructure,” he said. “The government should be the advocate
for the American people, not just the corporations.”
The
poll finds that the policy preferences
of these three voting constituencies are far more closely aligned with the
views of average Americans—represented by the poll’s national sample—than the
minority views of the self-identified Tea Party sympathizers.
“What
Project Vote’s poll shows is that the views on government held by progressives
represent the majority,” said James Rucker, executive director and co-founder
of Color of Change. “We shouldn’t let Tea Party activists convince us that we,
and not they, are the minority.”
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