Exit polling indicates that John McCain got about 27 percent of the GLBT vote this year. George Bush got 23 percent in his reelection bid in 2004. Barack Obama got 70% of our community's vote, down from John Kerry's 77% in 2004.
In the overall scheme of things it didn't matter, of course. But what accounts for the change? From what I could tell, Obama's outreach in the GLBT community was more consistent than Kerry's. One factor may be the Log Cabin Republican endorsement. Another element may be the disgust factor. There was far more outrage against President Bush than there was with McCain. There was also likely a segment of GLBT voters who backed Hillary Clinton and wouldn't make the switch to Obama.
Or maybe: 1) There's a growing recognition that Democrats are not better for gays than Republicans. They're pretty happy to take our money and take us for granted, but that's about it. Or 2) an increasing number of gays and lesbians recognize that there are a large number of issues facing our nation that do not have to do with gay rights. They recognize that those issues are just as important, if not more important to the nation as a whole and they decide not to vote entirely selfishly.
ReplyDelete