Daily Beast: Obamacare Spawning White Flight, Could Cost Dems Senate

The “Reagan Democrats” of the 80s may soon give way to the “Obamacare Republicans” of today, an outcome that could spell trouble for Senate Democrats seeking reelection as disaffected white voters increasingly reject Obamacare and its redistributive design. 

That is the conclusion the Daily Beast’s Lloyd Green reached on Wednesday after examining some startling statistics. Specifically, Green noted that while whites make up 64.3% of the overall population, they represent just 45.5% of America’s uninsured and “have an uninsurance rate of little more than 11 percent.”

Green points out that Obamacare’s redistribution scheme is likely to spark angst among white middle class voters: 

Further, Obamacare is redistributive, as Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic and Tom Edsall at the New York Times acknowledge. So, enter Obama’s false promise that “If you like your health plan, you can keep it.” But instead of Obamacare simply being a wealth transfer to the lower income precincts of the president’s base–as intended and as understood–it has also shown itself to be inept and disruptive, with the middle class getting gored too. 

While white voters’ electoral influence in presidential elections has been blunted due to the nation’s rapidly evolving racial composition, Green says midterm elections tend to see lower voter turnout among minority voters, thereby increasing the importance of white voter turnout in midterm elections. 

“In 2010, whites comprised 77 percent of the electorate and went Republican by better than three-to-two. As a result, the GOP captured the House,” writes Green. 

Americans of varied races are increasingly negative toward Obamacare. The RealClearPolitics poll average shows just 38% of Americans support Obamacare.

Still, as a Quinnipiac poll demonstrates, Americans continue to see President Barack Obama’s performance through vastly different racial lenses; while just 29% of whites approve of Obama’s performance, 85% of black Americans rate Obama’s job approval positively. 

“White voters may be feeling as if they are Obamacare’s victims more than its beneficiaries,” said Green.