In Praise of Straight White Males

A popular narrative is that a Biden presidency would be “better” than Trump for people of color, women, and LGBT voters. If that is true, and if people vote for their own self interest, you would expect self-interested whites, men, and heterosexuals to vote more for Trump than for Biden (which turns out to be mostly true). Likewise, you would expect self-interested people of color, women, and LGBT voters to vote more for Biden than for Trump (which turns out to be fully true).

Maybe it’s true that people do vote for their own self interest. But let’s look more closely at the exit-poll numbers.

Gender: Males favored Trump by 1% (49 to 48), while females favored Biden by 13% (56 to 43). I.E. women voted their self-interest 12% more often than men.

Race/Ethnicity: Whites favored Trump by 15%. Non-whites favored Biden by 48%. I.E. POCs voted their self-interest 33% more often than whites.

Sexual Orientation: Hets dis-favored Trump by 2%, while LGBT favored Biden by 33%. I.E. LGBTs voted their self-interest 35% more often than heterosexuals.

Gosh, it appears that those who least vote their own self interest are the whites, the males, and the heterosexuals. Could it be that white, male, heterosexuals are just more compassionate, care more about “the other” . . . are white, male, heterosexuals just better people?

Or could there be something wrong or too simplistic about our assumptions about demographics, identity, and voting priorities?

Nah, as a white, male, heterosexual, I’m sure it’s the “straight white males are better people” thing.