Joblessness & Obama\u2019s loss of white votes (August MAN column)
\nBy Phil Kent<\/p>\n
Unemployment rose a shocking 9.2 percent in June, translating into 14 million Americans who can\u2019t find jobs along with millions more who are underemployed.
\nAdding to the malaise is a federal government that is doing little to address the 12 to 15 million illegal aliens stealing jobs in every sector, with teenagers especially hurt. By the way, just 4 percent of these jobs are in agriculture– perhaps the only sector where legal foreign guest workers are needed.
\nTake heart, though, with some good news that helps American workers.
\nOver 260,000 businesses are using the online e-verify system for employee identification, and thousands more are voluntarily enrolling every week. This feature allows an employer to log onto the Department of Homeland Security website to ascertain the legal status of a new hire using federal data bases. Louisiana is the latest state to require the mandatory use of e-verify for most businesses, and many of the 15 e-verify states have passed laws establishing stiff fines and jail time for public contractors and private employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.
\nE-verify is more effective when coupled with another system \u2013 a Social Security No-Match Program\u2014that identifies illegal workers who have committed identity fraud or theft. Both these programs can help put millions of Americans back to work soon. Under the No-match program if the Social Security number provided by the would-be employee is bogus or stolen, the illegal worker is arrested and jailed.
\nAmericans want action in light of high unemployment. The Obama \u201cjobs stimulus\u201d spending didn\u2019t work. What few jobs were created were at the expense of the private sector in order to expand government. That why many workers\u2014to be blunt, most white workers\u2014 have soured on President Barack Obama. Remember \u201cJoe the Plumber\u201d from the 2008 campaign? He was worried about his wealth being \u201credistributed\u201d via socialistic policies. His fear came true.
\nLet\u2019s analyze \u201cthe white vote.\u201d In 2008 Obama received substantial votes from mainly two white groups\u2014 young people and white women with at least a four-year college education. Figures published in the National Journal provided by Pew Research indicate that Obama\u2019s support has dropped among young white voters, especially since they realize they are now paying higher taxes, higher gas prices, etc. There\u2019s also some erosion among white women and white \u201cindependents.\u201d
\nObama won\u2019t be able to attain the 43 percent support from white voters he received in 2008. In the 2010 mid-term election\u2014 highlighted by revulsion against high tax-and-spend policies, the stimulus bill and Obamacare– just 37 percent of whites backed Democrats in House of Representatives races. Sixty percent supported Republicans– the highest share of the white vote the GOP has received in modern times. Obama\u2019s approval rating among whites, as this is written, hovers at an anemic 38 percent.
\nWith more whites out of jobs, and considering Obama\u2019s vindictive lawsuit against Arizona\u2019s immigration control law and his overall failure to address border security with Mexico, the president\u2019s re-election campaign is crafting an interesting alliance. It mainly consists of big unions, liberal college groups, leftist homosexual activists and radical Latino organizations tasked to pump up his vote. But will this strategy be enough to attain the necessary 270 electoral votes next year? If the white vote goes heavily Republican as in 2010, if enough Jewish voters peel away in states like Florida and Ohio because of the administration\u2019s pro-Muslim tilt, and if unemployment is between 7 and 9 percent by next November, it\u2019s hard to see how Obama can win re-election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Appeared in the August 2011 Middle American News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":75,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-242","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242\/revisions\/378"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philkentconsulting.com\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}