Beware of angry, jobless men [View All]

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=679&e=4&u=/usatoday/11814798

By Alan M. Webber

Summer came and went and it didn't feel much like summer. There may be a lesson in that, because the recession came and went and this doesn't feel much like a recovery. That's because jobs are still disappearing.


Labor Secretary Elaine Chao points to statistics that say the economy grew by 3.1% in the second quarter.


But there are other statistics, gloomier and more telling: The country has lost 3 million jobs over the past three years, 2.5 million of them in manufacturing. One survey found that 18% of American workers reported being laid off in the past three years. And this summer the average length of unemployment jumped to 19 weeks, the highest level in 20 years.


The statistics tell a discouraging story, and that growing sense of discouragement is exactly the point: Beyond the numbers are two critically important groups of American workers whose emotions, beliefs and attitudes will have an enormous influence over the direction of American politics as the presidential election heats up. For President Bush (news - web sites), the key to the intersection of jobs and voting patterns is not women, who lean more toward Democrats. It is men, predominately white, who tend to be in the Republican camp.


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