How important is a candidate's identity in whether or not you will vote for them?
Going off of the question about white people preferring a white president, how much does identity influence your vote (obviously can’t speak for its subconscious effect)? Will you refuse to vote for a candidate who is old and white? Will you vote for a woman because they are a woman?
As a gay man, I am glad to see that a gay candidate (Buttigieg) is getting votes and that his homosexuality doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting his chances. I think those of us in underrepresented minority groups are naturally satisfied to see “one of our own” succeed especially if we thought it might prevent them from doing so. But I won’t vote for him just because he is gay. Identity isn’t that important to me.
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A bit, that is why I could never understand the attraction Trump has had, in his private life he has screwed a great deal of tradsmen and labourers out of hard earned income with his shady casino bankruptcies,he has cheated on all of his wives.
And that was before your country elected him, and all that people didn’t seem to care.
I could give a rats ass about their identity.
Agree with @ARE_you_kidding_me – philosophy, effectiveness, smarts is more important.
As for Buttigieg – my problem with him is NOT his sexuality. It’s his experience. It’s not clear to me how being the mayor of South Bend, with a population of 102,000 people, prepares you for running the US government.
While I would be thrilled to have a gay man or woman in office, identity is not important to me. I’m voting for the old Jewish man because I agree with his policies.
Near-zero importance, but men have more testosterone, and are in a different social position in society, which may shape my perceptions of what they are likely like.
All things being equal, I think we can use more representation from women and people from more varied backgrounds.
Also, with abortion rights under attack, and misogynists and sex offenders managing to stay in positions of power, I think more female voices are valuable to have in government.
Identity is not at all an issue for me.
Like @Jonsblond, I would love more diversity in government, but I’m worried about the rest of the world’s perception of us and our strength. Obama really impacted my thoughts on that aspect.
I would love to vote for a brilliant female Rep or Libertarian. A better version of Hillary, if you will.
Identity means absolutely nothing to me. To me it’s all about issues. I would prefer not to have another old man in office but I wouldn’t not vote for him because he’s an old man.
That said, I have a good friend who is gay and is voting for Pete because he thinks it’s important to support a gay man.
It’s not.
Their ideology is what matters.
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