Reply #31: One thing that isn't always clear [View All]

[Jed Dilligan]

is the benefit voters who vote their identity expect to receive. I don't think it makes any difference on the policy level. Obama will pursue policies that help women, and Clinton will pursue policies that help black people, not due to identity but because these groups are major components of the party base.

Sociologically, having a role model of your, shall we say, phenotype in the top job may have a positive effect on the aspirations of your group. This effect will be much stronger on black males if Obama is president than it will be on females if Clinton is president. The reason? Women are already the aspirers of the next generation, with a majority in college enrollment that is even greater if we look at minorities separately (black college enrollment is close to 70% female). Black males have the same innate abilities as any other group, and there is no question that the idea of always playing second fiddle to a white boss is a major source of their lack of educational motivation. A black president has the chance to turn around those attitudes in a significant number of cases, and this is one of the reasons why black voters are supporting Obama in such record numbers.

Meanwhile, females will likely continue their well-established trend of outstripping males in educational attainment regardless of who becomes president. Part of the reason for this is, of course, institutional sexism. Women realize they will need to be more qualified to make the same pay as males, and many of them are serving as heads of household (single working mothers) for whom salary is the major determinant of quality of life for themselves and their children.