Much has been made recently over the fact that people are more inclined to say they will vote for Barack in polls or caucuses then they are to vote for him in a secret ballot. The supposed explanation of this is that people are reluctant to admit their racist biases to pollsters or in caucuses but in the privacy of the voting both they can’t bring themselves to vote a black man. The ‘evidence’ for this is merely the fact that other studies have revealed that people are reluctant to admit their racism to pollsters.

Now in a nation of 300 million obviously this description will describe at least one person but this theory seems more motivated by the desire of Barack voters to feel good about themselves and outraged at those who won’t vote for him than than by serious thought. It would be silly to deny that race cuts both ways in this election (i.e. Barack loses as well as gains votes because of his race) but is it reasonable to think that voters who view themselves as race blind but aren’t would tell pollsters they are voting for Barack? It seems more plausible these voters would simply say they are voting for Hillary and give some other explanation. After all we don’t see online daters telling lies about who they want to date. They just offer non-racial explanations for what can be shown to be strongly race motivated behavior.

A much more plausible explanation for the majority of this effect is the symbolism of voting for Hillary as opposed to Barack. As I’ve observed in conversations around campus and discussions at IDS (debate club) even the Hillary supporters view her as a cynical, conniving politician who is represents the standard wheeling and dealing approach to politics. Now I think it’s rank stupidity to fall into this emotional trap where we assume that campaign donations, realpolitik, experience in washington are bad things just because they are in tension with apple pie and some idealized view of our republic we learned in third grade but given the preconceptions of most Americans this makes a vote for Hillary a cynical pessimistic vote. Many people undoubtedly think that the imperfect real world requires a cynical, well-connected politician like Hillary but feel bad about it. While saying you are voting for Hillary doesn’t project the idea that you are racist it does project the idea that you cynically reject the message of hope and change that Barack seems to stand for in the popular imagination.

Anyway having said this I should add that I’ve started to warm up to Obama a fair bit recently. Some of his campaign proposals encouraged me to go download his audiobook and away from the stupid idealism of his public persona I’m starting to have more confidence he would be an excellent president. Given the tone of his book, his constant anthropological relationship to myths and symbolism and clear understanding of the harsh dog eat dog nature of the world I’m starting to think he is a very smart man who is extremely skilled at projecting a certain mythic status and symbolic role for himself but isn’t the sort of idealistic antidote to realpolitik that his supporters take him to be.

What particularly swayed me towards Obama is the trajectory of his religious belief. More or less it seems (though I haven’t gotten here in the book yet) that for much of his life he was curious about religion but was unwilling to actually believe in it until he was a political figure who really needed a ‘faith’ to connect with the community. As it is I’m now sorta unsure who I prefer (leaning vaguely Obama) but if I knew he had really joined his church for political expediency I would support him in an instant.