Thinking of Voters as Groups

For John, BLUF:  Democrats are losing "non-college educated white voters".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Talking Point Memo, a political blog more to the left than the right, has an editorial on how the Democratic Party does not gain the votes of "non-college educated white voters".  The OpEd makes sense up until the next to last and last paragraphs:

There's nothing wrong with studying these percentages in terms of demography. Nor is there anything wrong with Democratic strategists recognizing that their candidates need to win this or that percentage of white voters to win.  But creeping in the shadows of these conversations about how Democrats can no longer manage to win the white vote and are only saved from political oblivion by running up big margins among African-Americans is a little disguised assumption that African-American votes are somehow second-rate.

I don't think there's any getting around that.

This seems pretty obscure.  African-American voters are very important and Republicans should be coveting them, hoping for them to return to the Republican fold after a half century absence.  I am not sure what Mr Josh Marshall is trying to say there.

Regards  —  Cliff