NASCAR dads, a new demographic?

Dan Hanson / Columnist

So, President Bush goes down to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the Daytona 500 and immediately the press latches on that he is trying to court the NASCAR dad demographic. I mean, come on. What are the media and politicians thinking? He makes one trip and all of a sudden we are talking about the president courting this demographic; this is a waste of time. When you look at the statistics behind this demographic and its members’ voting habits, you can see how ridiculous this sounds.

What is a NASCAR dad? Well, Larry Sabato, a pundit, calls them “middle to lower-middle-class males who live in rural areas and traditionally vote Democratic but have switched to Republican over the past few years.” According to an ABC News report, the NASCAR dads accounted for 2 percent of the overall vote in 2000 and overwhelmingly voted for President Bush – hardly a group that should be receiving this amount of attention.

The attention stems from the press, political scientists and politicians all looking for a group that will tip the scale toward one candidate or another; otherwise, a single answer to why things happen the way they do. This is so pointless. Segmenting people into groups accomplishes nothing. The press and others read into things too much. President Bush wanted to make an appearance at an event that is synonymous with America and where a large party of these constituents would be. That is smart politics on his part. It would be just the same as John Kerry going to a Boston Red Sox game talking with fans. Is he trying to court the “semi-professional baseball family vote?” Of course not. He is there to talk and have a good time.

If politicians and the media want to focus on swing voters, concentrate on independents. Bottom line, as segmented as the nation is, 45 percent of the population is independent. So how about we look at those 45 percent instead of focusing on only 2 percent? We segment and think about every little thing that we often lose track of the big picture. And that big picture includes millions of people that have not participated in electoral politics. Remember, you are already lumped into one of the groups which gets no air time – the college kid. Get informed and look at the issues and vote because it does make a difference.