Saturday, April 08, 2006

Golf and Conservatism

Sports Illustrated: An SI poll found that almost 90 percent of Tour players saidinvading Iraq was a good idea, and zero had seen Brokeback Mountain.Is there something beyond socioeconomics going on? Something aboutgolf that suits a conservative temperament?

Jim Nantz (Masters broadcaster): I don't think golf gives you a political bent.

SI: Is it about control? Focus? Discipline?

JN: Golf is an individual sport. You have to be disciplined. Not thatI'm saying liberals are undisciplined. I'll give you my politicalleanings when I run for office in a couple of years. But do Isubstitute the word discipline for conservative? Maybe. Guys in golfaren't hanging out in bars late at night, by and large, or trying tofind the great nightclub at this week's Tour stop. If you do, youwon't succeed. So it's a regimented group. You need discipline to getto the Tour in the first place. You need discipline to hit balls, totrain. Nobody's going to cover for you out there -- it's just you.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

not to point out the painfully obvious here, but 100% of pro golfers are "more than finacially solvent," and more than 90% of them are white. Don't forget to plug that into your rugged individualism formula there.

Doug Fields said...

Actually, your belief that Republicans are the party of the wealthy is a bit outdated. Soros, Buffett, Gates, the Google guys, et al are all leftists. Second, because someone is lilly white and privileged doesn't make them a Republican. Just look in the mirror.

Doug Fields said...

From the WaPo:

As recently as the 1988 contest between Michael S. Dukakis and George Bush, voters making more than $50,000 a year voted for the Republican by a 25 percentage point margin, 62 percent to 37 percent. By the 2000 election, the spread in the $50,000-plus bracket fell to 7 percentage points, 53 percent Republican to 46 percent Democratic, and to 11 percentage points -- 54 percent to 43 percent -- among the richest voters, those making more than $100,000.

In the process, some of the nation's best educated and highest income communities have become Democratic bastions, and some of the nation's poorest white counties -- especially in southern border states -- have turned into GOP strongholds.

In 2000, the voters in 17 out of 25 of the nation's most affluent counties -- all with high percentages of people with advanced degrees -- cast majorities for Al Gore, sometimes by more than 70 percent.

In nine out of the 10 poorest counties in Kentucky, for example, places where the Democratic Party of Harry S. Truman ran roughshod over Republican adversaries, George W. Bush won, frequently by margins the mirror image of Gore's in the nation's richest and best educated counties.

Now, would you like to rethink your hypothesis? Or, is it easier to adhere to your political dogma and not think it through?

Anonymous said...

Nice try, but I didn't move out of the confines of your original post. I stuck with the "pro golfer" demographic, and I stand by what I said. Pro golfers are well paid, and they'll vote for the candidate who can promise they won't have to pay any taxes. Speaking of Brokeback Mountain, why didn't SI ask Jim Nantz why he isn't married?

And actually, the book I loaned you back in '04, Thomas Frank's "What's the matter with Kansas?" articulates the economic and cultural flip-flop better than the WaPo article. I don't deny it exists. The best educated always vote progressive. The trick was however the GOP was able to sucker the rural vote into thinking they actually gave a damn about them. How are all those cultural causes working out for them? Abortion is still legal. Gays getting married everywhere. A Saracen lurking under very bed. Meanwhile the poor towns who voted Bush get poorer, no jobs around but to start a meth lab. Hope you are happy with the deal you made with Mammon. Rich white guy gets his tax cut, when are you going to get your prayer in public schools?

Doug Fields said...

This is interesting: "Pro golfers are well paid, and they'll vote for the candidate who can promise they won't have to pay any taxes." First, how do you know this? Second, the data doesn't back this up. The rich white guys are voting Democratic more and more.

Then this: "Speaking of Brokeback Mountain, why didn't SI ask Jim Nantz why he isn't married?" Fred Phelps couldn't have put it better himself.

Anonymous said...

Re: 1.If you get to generalize (ex. Bill Gates is leftist), then so do I. That one was was the best. Giving away your money to eradicate disease in Africa is leftist. I love it.


re: 2. Just trying to be more like you and your boy Fred. ;)

Doug Fields said...

Giving money to poor Africans isn't leftist...Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell do that. Giving to Planned Parenthood and such groups is (which Billy does). As far as generalizing, I was just giving you some prominent examples of very wealthy whitie leftists, not claiming that all wealthy whities are leftists.