I’ve loved electoral politics since the third grade when my siblings and I were forced to watch Peter Jennings, and each of the presidential debates. And, for me, politics has a cyclical relationship with math – because my understanding of math feeds my political intrigue, and my political calculations are steeped in percentages, equations, and marginal benefits. (all of which sowed the seeds for economics later in school)

And, this morning I overheard two numerical biggies:

** that 43% of the early voters in Nevada are “infrequent” or “first-time” voters: Until Obama came along as a legitimate candidate, both of the entrenched political parties had written these classes of voters off. They are very much class-defined: the under-class, the working-poor, African-American and other class strata. For example, young people voted at a measly 10%, that is until Dubya came upon the Oval Office. This figure from CIRCLE is shocking:

“Youth voting surged by 11 percentage points in 2004. In presidential election years between 1972 and 2000, the turnout rate had declined by 16 percentage points among young citizens before rebounding by 11 percentage points in the 2004 election.”

** there have only been TWO upsets in presidential elections since 1952 according to this article from Charles Blow.

Math, Class and Politics. Class factors into all of this. Class is always a demographic, thought demographic doesn’t always mean class. But, we’ve had Soccer Moms, NASCAR Dads and now Hockey Moms. That’s coded language to talk about varying segments of white America – not to oversimplify, but these categories of sporting parents or parents with specific sporting interests vary by income level, and region of the country. And it is these

When was the last time you heard a political pundit talk about “white America.” We hear about Asian-Americans, Latinos, and Black Americans ... but we only get Joe Six-Pack and the AYSO Mom.
Ahh, the invisibility – one of the many privileges – of whiteness.

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