Anaheim Darlene
 | |
| Era | The Nineties |
|---|---|
| Age | 48-62 |
| Home | Anaheim, CA |
| Demographic | suburban white, long-term resident, demographic change |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Successor | Fox News Phyllis |
Darlene is a white homeowner in an Orange County suburb that has become increasingly Latino around her. She is unaffiliated with either party and a swing voter of the Proposition 187 decade.
Who they stand for
Darlene stands for the white homeowners of California's older suburbs during the state's fastest demographic change. Santa Ana had a majority Latino population by 1990, and Anaheim was nearly half Latino by 2000, as immigrants from Mexico and Central America moved into the area's houses. This group's politics became Proposition 187 in 1994, a ballot measure that passed with 59 per cent of the vote and helped re-elect Pete Wilson as governor, and Proposition 227 in 1998, which ended most bilingual teaching in California's public schools. The same voters had backed Reagan for president and then voted for Clinton twice, because the economy was strong through the decade and the culture war had moved to Washington.
This group does not consider itself anti-immigrant and reacts badly to being called that. It bases its views on what it sees in its own street, not on what it sees on cable television, and it describes the change it is living through in terms of language and schools rather than race. Fox News Phyllis, who succeeds Darlene, forms her fear from television rather than from her own street. Renter Ryan, another persona, has lost a house rather than a neighbourhood.
Playing to them
Darlene responds to firm order and to the sense that someone in charge has noticed her situation. She rewards firm enforcement at the border, English used as the language of the classroom, visible policing, and a property-tax bill that stays flat. She also rewards a president who talks about specific neighbourhoods and schools instead of about broad social groups. She does not forgive being lectured. A president who answers her worry with a speech about tolerance, or who calls her support for enforcement racist, confirms what she already suspected about him. Amnesty for undocumented immigrants is the fastest way to lose her support.
The cost of winning Darlene's support falls on voters in the Central Valley and East Los Angeles. Central Valley Ramón and East LA Jazmín read any measure like Proposition 187 as aimed at their own families. Scarsdale Ellen and Madison Steph hear an English-only policy as the language of the Christian Coalition. A president can hold the support of both Darlene and Bensonhurst Rosalie by emphasising order, but he cannot hold the support of both Darlene and Ramón by taking a hard line on the border.
Where they live
The five states where Anaheim Darlene makes up the largest share of the electorate in the nineties:
- California
- Arizona
- Nevada
- Colorado
- Washington
Lineage
Anaheim Darlene → Fox News Phyllis → Renter Ryan
White swing voters who move right because of a change that liberals will not discuss, and who deny that the move is ideological. Darlene's change is the demographics of her town. Phyllis's is the border. Ryan's is the cost of a house. The persona changes from a frightened older woman to a priced-out young man because what has been lost is no longer a neighbourhood but the ability to marry and have children. All three resent being called bigots.