Fox News Phyllis
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 60-69 |
| Home | Sun City, AZ |
| Demographic | white, retired, Sun Belt widow |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Anaheim Darlene |
| Successor | Renter Ryan |
Phyllis is a Ford foreman's widow who has retired from Cleveland to Sun City, and she leaves the cable news on all day. The September 2001 attacks frighten her, the border alarms her, and her Social Security cheque decides her vote before any belief does.
Who they stand for
Retirees in the Sun Belt's age-restricted towns are the largest swing-voter group over sixty-five. In this decade they gain a favoured channel, as Fox News overtakes CNN in January 2002 and stays in their living rooms for the rest of the Iraq war. Their priority is protecting entitlement programmes before anything else. Bush's 2005 tour promoting private Social Security accounts collapses under their phone calls to Congress, the 2006 Medicare drug benefit creates a coverage gap known as the doughnut hole, and Sun City fights Obama's health-care law on the ground that it cuts Medicare Advantage funding. On border security, they are Arizona's majority. Proposition 200 passes in 2004, the Minuteman patrols sit on the border in 2005, John McCain's 2005 and 2007 immigration bills nearly cost him support in his own party, and Arizona's SB 1070 law follows in 2010. The 2008 crash reduces their Ford stock to a dollar a share and takes their houses with it, and in 2010 voters over sixty-five swing sharply Republican.
Her predecessor, Darlene, loses her old neighbourhood to demographic change. Her successor, Ryan, cannot afford to buy a house. Both deny that ideology motivates their views, and both resent being called bigots.
Playing to them
Phyllis responds to border enforcement, Medicare kept intact, Social Security left untouched, visible toughness on terrorism, and support for the troops, in that order once she is confident her cheque is safe. She is the swing voter that both parties pursue by offering to protect entitlement programmes. A Democrat who protects Medicare and sounds tough on the border can win her vote, and a Republican who proposes private Social Security accounts loses her vote the same afternoon.
She does not forgive amnesty for illegal immigrants, a Medicare cut, privatisation of Social Security, softness on terrorism, or any suggestion that her fears are driven by prejudice, and that suggestion is the surest way to lose her support permanently. She repeats what she hears on television, so the political message that wins her over is usually one the channel is already broadcasting. Winning her support on the border costs Bakersfield Jesús, Mesa Ruben and Las Vegas Marisol. Winning her support on entitlement programmes costs Startup Seth and Country Club Whit, who want those programmes reformed. The airport security measures she wants cost Fremont Anjali's support, whose husband is the kind of traveller pulled aside for extra screening.
Where they live
The five states where Fox News Phyllis makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Arizona
- Maine
- Kansas
- Vermont
- North Dakota
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.