Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are bringing to the fore the neglected demographic in more than half a century of empowerment of minorities.
In trying to explain why the surge for Obama failed to become a tidal wave on Super Tuesday, pundits are honing in on the behavior of the largest silent segment of society–white men.
In parsing the results, Adam Nagourney of the New York Times concludes that 2008 has “cleaved the party neatly in two: the Clinton Democrats and the Obama Democrats. Age, race and gender have become the dividing lines; nothing comes close to mattering as much.
“The Obama Democratic Party is made up of younger voters (under 44), blacks, white men (to a more limited extent) and independents…The Clinton Democratic Party is the party of women, older voters, Hispanics and also some white men.”
From this point of view, of all the demographic armies marching in lockstep, only white men have failed to jump into the ranks on one side or another and stay there.