The Muddled Meaning of the 2000 Election.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: Voting patterns - Brief Article

A LOOK AT THE EXIT POLLS from the 2000 election shows continuous and deep fault fines within the American electorate. A gender gap of about 11% persists, with men strongly Republican and women clearly Democratic. Looking deeper into that gap, one finds that the division between married women and men is relatively slight. It becomes yawning when one compares married men who voted 58% for George Bush to single women who voted 63% for Al Gore. The gender gap is also pronounced among college-educated men and women. College-educated women voted 57-40% for Gore, while their male counterparts went 57-39% for Bush. The racial gap is even more startling. A record 90% of the black vote went to Gore, exceeding the margins of Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, who had connections at least as strong as Gore's to the black community. Conversely, the white vote went strongly for Bush, 54-42%.

The electoral map also portrays a geographic split in the nation that is largely emblematic of a deep cultural division. The middle of the country was strongly Republican, even in areas that had been historically Democratic. For example, Bush carried Clinton's home state of Arkansas and Gore's home state of Tennessee, along with the usually stalwart Democratic state of West Virginia. The only states Gore carried in the interior of the country were in the more-liberal Upper Midwest (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan). The remainder of Gore's states came from the Northeast and the Pacific Coast. People from small towns and rural areas voted 59% for Bush, and those from the large and small cities voted about 60% for Gore. Those who identify themselves as conservative Christians voted 80% for Bush, as did those who claim to attend religious services at least once a week. By contrast, those who admitted to either rarely or never attending religious services voted close to 60% for Gore. Gays and lesbians voted 70% for Gore, while straight voters tipped slightly to Bush, 50-47%.

The gap over culture, geography, race, and gender is far deeper than that over income or education. Those with a family income under $30,000 a year supported Gore by more than 55%; Bush did better with those voters than any Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984. On the other hand, Gore did better with voters making over $75,000 than any previous Democrat, including Clinton in 1996. Among the income groups ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 a year, there was an even...