I’m finished with the Reagan Democrats of Macomb County in suburban Detroit after making a career of spotlighting their middle-class anger and frustrations about race and Democratic politicians. …
For more than 20 years, the non-college-educated white voters in Macomb County have been considered a “national political barometer.” … After Ronald Reagan won the county by a 2-to-1 margin in 1984, … I conducted focus groups that “found that these working-class whites interpreted Democratic calls for economic fairness as code for transfer payments to African-Americans.” So what do we think when Barack Obama, an African-American Democrat, wins Macomb County by eight points? …
Before the Democratic convention, barely 40 percent of Macomb County voters were “comfortable” with the idea of Mr. Obama as president, far below the number who were comfortable with a nameless Democrat. But on Election Day, nearly 60 percent said they were “comfortable” with Mr. Obama. About the same number said Mr. Obama “shares your values” and “has what it takes to be president.”
Given Macomb’s history, this story helps illustrate America’s evolving relationship with race. … But focusing on the ways that Macomb County has become normal and uninteresting misses the extraordinary changes taking place next door in Oakland County — a place that played a bigger role in Mr. Obama’s success and perhaps in an emerging national Democratic ascendancy.
While Macomb County is home to the white middle class that America’s auto industry made possible, Oakland County is home to the affluent, business-oriented suburbanites of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, some of the richest townships in America. Just a quarter of Macomb County residents have college degrees, but more than 40 percent do in Oakland. …
Oakland County has formed part of the Republican heartland in Michigan and the country. … Over the past two decades, Oakland County began to change, as an influx of teachers, lawyers and high-tech professionals began to outnumber the county’s business owners and managers. Macomb has been slow to welcome racial diversity, but almost a quarter of Oakland’s residents are members of various racial minorities.
These changes have produced a more tolerant and culturally liberal population, uncomfortable with today’s Republican Party. … On Tuesday, Oakland County voters gave Mr. Obama a 57 percent to 42 percent victory over John McCain. … That helped form one of the most important new national changes in the electorate: Mr. Obama built up striking dominance in the country’s growing, more diverse and well-educated suburbs.
So, good riddance, my Macomb barometer. Four years from now, I trust we will see the candidates rush from their conventions to Oakland County, to see the new America.
(end of excerpts)
Here is the letter I sent to the NY Times.
I have lived in Oakland County, Michigan, for the past thirty years and have witnessed first-hand the changes Stanley Greenberg refers to. I have also been aware of the bellwether status of neighboring Macomb County, which, starting in 1972, has voted for the popular vote winner in all but two Presidential elections.
Greenberg ends his column with the statement “So, good riddance, my Macomb barometer. Four years from now, I trust we will see the candidates rush from their conventions to Oakland County, to see the new America.”
Why the need to trash Macomb County, after, as he puts it, “making a career of spotlighting their [Reagan Democrats’] middle-class anger and frustrations about race and Democratic politicians”? Greenberg prefers the political atmosphere in Oakland County, so does that entitle him to conclude that we are the “New America”?
Stanley Greenberg seems to have forgotten what begat the “Reagan Democrats” in the first place. Remember, we’re all supposed to be under “one big tent” now. Macomb County “gets it,”, but I’m not so sure Greenberg does.
(end of letter.)
To which I can only add: Good riddance to you, Stanley Greenberg. What a snob!
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