Democrats need ethnic voters
In this Novembers mid-term elections, the Democratic Party will be focussed on winning back the governorships and legislatures in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Democrats lost decisively in these important states in 2010, giving Republicans the opportunity to institute far-reaching changes in programmes, benefits and regulations that, for generations, had provided economic security for the middle class.
As Democrats are currently debating their 2014 electoral strategies, not a week passes without an article in the major media arguing what the party must do to regain lost ground in these critical battleground states. Some Democrats make the case for doubling down on increasing voter turnout among those constituencies that have become the new core vote of the party: youth, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and professional/educated women. They make the case that this approach worked for President Obama in 2008 and 2012, and so if these same groups can be energised again in the mid-term contests, Democrats can win in 2014. But although Obama won these same states in 2008 and 2012, it doesnt convey that Democrats will automatically win them in a non-presidential election year. National contests mobilise different voters than local races, and so it cannot be assumed that those who voted for President Obama will vote for a Democrat or even vote at all in more localised contests.
What is missing from this strategy is that it gives short shrift to substantial groups of voters that Democrats have ignored for decades.
According to the 2010 Census, over one-third of all residents in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants from European and Mediterranean countries. Many retain a strong attachment to their heritage, belong to ethnic organisations and churches, and remain connected through their ethnic media. Many of them also have deep roots in the labour movement and in the Democratic Party.
A decade ago, based on polling conducted by my brother, John Zogby, I wrote What Ethic Americans Really Think. What we found was that these ethnic voters embrace values that are at once progressive and traditional. They are progressive on the role of government in public education, healthcare, social security, and protecting the minimum wage and labour standards. At the same time, they are traditional in their attachment to their families and their communities.
These ethnic voters were once core constituents of the Democratic Party, but along the way, the party stopped talking to them and directing its message to them. As a result, Democrats lost their support.
This disconnect came through quite clearly for me one night in 1984 at an event I have often spoken of in the intervening years. It was the National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington, DC, featuring speeches by Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan.
Mondale spoke first. His speech had nine applause lines most came when he mentioned the name of his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro. The rest of the speech was a litany of issues and pledges, as in: Im for the teachers... and Im for unions...
Ronald Reagan came next and after a pause began something like this:
My grandmother, like yours, came to this country with nothing but her hopes and dreams. She worked her fingers to the bone, believing in the promise of America that someday one of her own could run for president of this great country. I stand before you the beneficiary of her hard work, the fulfilment of her dreams.