2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumScots Irish Jim Webb thinks he can beat Hillary on white vote in 2016
<Unlike Hillary, he opposed the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan which looks pretty smart in retrospect. But it is on the Scots Irish and white alienation issue that he will really seek to run.
A decorated former Marine and one term senator from Virginia, Webb defines himself strongly as Scots Irish. He recently did a Smithsonian Channel special tracing his lineage and that of millions of Americans from Scotland to Northern Ireland to the US.
His book "Born Fighting; How the Scots Irish shaped America " was a cry from the heart to recognize what the mainly southern Americans of Irish heritage from Andrew Jackson and Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett on down have done to shape this country.
These days Scots Irish are the poor and working class whites who are deeply alienated from the Democratic party and who have turned the south almost all red Republican.>
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/Scots-Irish-Jim-Webb-thinks-he-can-beat-Hillary-on-white-vote-in-2016.html
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)He seems to be appealing to a very limited audience. If he hopes to win back all those white working class people who defected to the Republican Party, good luck with that.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)But I guess it's not MY vote that he wants. That's cool though. He won't beat Hillary or Bernie or Martin on the white vote.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)ten years ago. I know the real Scots from Scotland came around in this century and corrected us. Scots are people. Scotch is a drink. Etc..etc. But historically it's inaccurate and I prefer the way my grandmother and other relatives described themselves as Scotch Irish. I doubt if I will respect a politician who calls himself Scots Irish to be politically correct. He doesn't know who he is.
msongs
(67,496 posts)BlueMTexpat
(15,374 posts)The only way Webb will get my (part-Irish) vote is if he is the last Dem standing.
Then - and only then.
TSIAS
(14,689 posts)The "Reagan Democrats" he's relying on have either died or turned into the actual Republicans they always were.
Hillary has proven that she is the authentic voice of the rural, white, disillusioned Democrat. I never expected it to happen, but in 2008 she was beloved by the voters of Appalachia against Obama.