The Ephemeral "Wal-Mart Republican"
You’ve heard of the Sam’s Club Republican. Maybe you’ve heard of the Whole Foods Republican. But behold the “Wal-Mart Republican.” Polls indicate that Wal-Mart Republicans are actually a subset of Democrats who may be voting for change, come November.
Pollster Neil Newhouse said the [Wal-Mart] moms identified themselves mostly as middle class (38 percent) and lower middle class (55 percent). They are slightly less white and more African-American and Hispanic than the country at large. And they are more moderate (46 percent) than conservative (34 percent), approve of Obama’s job performance (53 percent), and favor more government action to help people (60 percent).
But while they identify more with Democrats (43 percent) than Republicans (39 percent), they’re inclined vote for Republicans (40 percent) over Democrats (37 percent) for Congress in November. And the reason is quite simple: their finances are perilous -- and not improving.
However, the fact that 60% of these voters “favor more government action to help people,” points to the likelihood that these Wal-Mart moms will only be lending their support to the GOP for a season.
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May '10
Re: The Ephemeral "Wal-Mart Republican"
Interesting study, but I have two observations:
First, there isn't a good control group to use as a reference. The sample consisted of all women, while it is known that men and women as groups give different statistics than the public as a whole.
Second, with a sample size of only 380, most of the numbers in the study appear to be within the margin of error (although the summary doesn't say exactly what the margin of error is).
May '10
Re: The Ephemeral "Wal-Mart Republican"
Hey you just can't trust girls I'd use a Cosi fan tutte reference, but that is way too highbrow for someone who does most of his shopping at Walmart. In fact, the only excuse for not shopping at Walmart is living in a city that bans them. Or not having a car, but that usually only happens if you live in cities that ban Walmart.
Sure, more women than men tend to be in favor of nanny-statism, but the whole Tea Party deal is dependent on the womanly instinct that some people have spent way too much (call me, irresponsible). I don't see that being fixed anytime soon, alas. On the positive side, it means we've got a decent percentage of the female vote until we solve the problem. Security moms have turned into frugal moms.