Hilzoy talks about this article by Linda Hirschman (as well as the egregiously stupid one by Charlotte Allen, which is getting slammed all over the blogosphere -- even Andrew Sullivan took a swipe at it. Here's a link if you want to read her post (I do recommend it), but one thing stuck out at me:
And there we have one of the most puzzling conundrums of the 2008 Democratic contests. Black voters of all socioeconomic classes are voting for the black candidate. Men are voting for the male candidate regardless of race or class. But even though this is also a year with the first major female presidential candidate, women are split every way they can be. They're the only voting bloc not voting their bloc.
I don't know whether to take this as just another example of the arrogance of the villagers or a blind spot in analysis: what is "their bloc"?
It seems to me to be a fundamental flaw in election coverage (although I suspect it's a matter of the way we think overall) to try to lump people into a single category.
Question: I'm white, male, over 40, gay, poor, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, well educated (2 college degrees) and relatively well informed. What's my "bloc"?
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