By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
If the post-election analyses show anything regarding what “groupings” (as defined by the pollsters) voted for whom, what’s left is the discussion of the ‘why’ a certain group acted as they did when they entered the polling booth.
I read an article which triggered this column and that is the exit data is indicating that White women did not vote in the expected numbers that we were ‘polled’ to believe. They voted fifty-three (53) percent for Trump!
And especially so in the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Three vitally important states that could have led to a victory for Kamala Harris.
The mystery to discern is that why would White women vote against their own interest by voting for Trump? Or…did they in fact vote contrary to their own interest?
One would think that any semblance of “sisterhood” with Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Latina women would be strong enough on this single voting issue of saying no to Trump and his rampant misogyny.
But. That did not happen. What did happen, I believe, is that White women, when it came down to brass tacks, had a change of heart when they entered the polling booth and pulled the lever for Trump.
Why would a White woman or women of color intentionally vote for a man who has shown utter disregard and disrespect for all women with his vulgar comments and also expressed via his misogynistic spokespeople?
To me, it is telling that too many White women and some women of color (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Latino, Mexican, etc.) talked a good game of taking down Trump but choose otherwise when it was time to “put up…or shut up!”
To be frank, I raise the theory that some White women and some women of color chose white male dominance or so closely identified with the ingrained white male hierarchy in America that they simply succumbed and became obedient to voting for “one of their own”….color, that is.
After the repeated verbal drubbings Trump doled out to White women and how he literally talked trash about other women of color, you would think that any self-respecting woman, would be more than willing to vote against such a pariah as Trump.
But not enough White women and other women of color have the moral spine to reject Trumpisms but simply folded themselves into their collective cocoon of safe whiteness, or that some women of color wanted to identify as being “honorary” white folks and voted accordingly.
If the polling was accurate and properly identified a true pattern of voting based upon ethnic backgrounds (and the polled people gave honest answers) and White women were asked pointed questions, maybe, just maybe, Kamala Harris could have adjusted her outreach message to be more articulate as to why White women should vote for her and in their best interest to do so.
Yes, there were campaigns of “Republican Women for Harris” and a campaign of “White Women for Harris,” but those campaigns were short lived and did not produce the needed turn out numbers to get Kamala into the White House.
Bottom line is that too many White women flamed out and could not bring themselves to vote for a woman that society identifies as a Black woman.
The womanhood vote was lightweight in voting for the Democrats and with the presence of Kamala Harris heading up the ticket, it was not a foregone conclusion that many White women voters were, “not all that much into her.”
What does this bode for future political alliances between people of color and White women in particular? Not good since the charge may be that the White Woman had a chance to exert her political independence by a vote for Kamala but out of fear or backlash (real or imagined), went for Trump.
Even though Trump is a proven convicted felon, an adjudicated a sexual abuser (not taking into account the dozens of other women who complained of being his victim); and paying money to a porn star, seemingly not enough White women had the courage or principle to stand up to him and voted for Kamala Harris.
Is this akin to the charge that during the South when a Black man was caught in a consensual romantic affair with a White woman; and as opposed to admitting the affair, the White woman, in order to maintain her status of being White and chaste, would yell rape and thus was exonerated and invited back into her white skin/class privileges?
Question: Did any White woman who initially was in favor of a woman being President, did that potential White voter yell words of gender support from the polling booth that said she was going for Harris, but nevertheless her vote was cast otherwise for fear of being “caught?”
In a race and class-conscious society such as in America, if you are striving to obtain favorable status as a Hispanic or a Latino, refuting or renouncing Black people can be a game ploy that can pay benefits when Trump sees such voters trending towards him…despite his “garbage” and “vermin” classifications of such people.
Using the age-old tactics of fear and anger, Trump, with no conscience, gladly uttered foul and divisive language if it meant that he could both get the White House and avoid facing his current legal trials of inciting a riot and stealing classified documents. Kamala Harris got “played” by too many phony White women.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com