On HBO's Real Time Friday, New York magazine's John Heilemann trotted out the same old tired and completely false cliches about the GOP that Americans are going to hear ad nauseum for the next eight months.
"The Republican Party is becoming just truly is becoming a whiter, more blue collar, more populist, less well-educated party" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JOHN HEILEMANN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Yeah, and look, I mean, I think it's an amazing thing in the sense that, you know, James and I were talking about this before. The Republican Party is becoming just truly is becoming a whiter, more blue collar, more populist, less well-educated party, and more and more a religious party. And they cater to that base and just in a systematic way are making it impossible for them to win national elections. They are, you know, driving first Hispanics out of the party. They're driving women increasingly out of the party. And they find these places where they think they can get narrow advantage and then they go too far. And this is one of the instances that I think is, there's a logic to it, but it’s a faulty logic.
Do facts actually bear this out?
Let's start with gender, as the recent media meme is that Republicans are driving women away.
In 2008, according to exit polls, 56 percent of women voted for Obama, and 43 percent went for McCain.
Yet two years later in the 2010 midterm elections, 49 percent of women voted for a Republican in the House versus 48 percent for a Democrat. As such, contrary to Heilemann's view, Republicans gained female support in 2010.
As for "becoming whiter," four percent of African-Americans, 31 percent of Latinos, and 35 percent of Asians voted for McCain in 2008. In 2010, these numbers jumped to nine percent, 38 percent, and 40 percent for House Republicans respectively. As such, contrary to Heilemann's view, Republicans gained minority support in 2010.
As for "more blue collar," McCain got 49 percent of folks making $50k or more and 49 percent of people making $100k or more. In 2010, House Republicans got 55 percent and 58 percent respectively. As such, contrary to Heilemann's view, Republicans became less blue collar in 2010.
Finally, as for education, let's be clear: in 2010 much as in 2008, the overwhelming percentage of folks without high school diplomas went Democrat. In 2008, 63 percent of high school dropouts voted for Obama. This number was 57 percent for House Democrats in 2010.
No matter how folks like Heilemann want to spin it, the least educated in this country virtually always vote for Democrats. Period!
As for the most-educated - meaning post-graduate degrees - Republicans improved on this number in 2010 garnering 45 percent of their vote versus McCain's 40 percent.
Across every other education level, Republicans improved their numbers from 2008 getting 52 percent of high school graduates, 53 percent of folks with some college, and 58 percent of college graduates.
Add it all up, and Heilemann was wrong on all counts. Yet this man is a revered contributor to MSNBC.
Tells you a lot about that farce of a so-called "news" network, doesn't it?
