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Does ethnicity still impact PolAm voting habits?
Why no Polish voting bloc in America?
By Robert Strybel, Polish/Polonian Affairs Writer
Having extensively studied Polish-American voting patterns, Professor Emeritus Donald Pienkos of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has concluded that “it’s been a long time since any substantial number of PolAm voters voted largely on the basis of their ethnicity.” The political scientist noted that in 1960, when John Kennedy crossed swords with Richard Nixon,r the presidency, perhaps also in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won in a landslide, that large numbers of Polish-American voters displayed their ethnic preference.
But it can be argued that Catholicity was the decisive ethnic factor back in 1960, and the pro-Johnson vote resulted from the built-up Camelot-era momentum. That was nothing distinctively Polish, as not only PolAms and JFK’s fellow-Irish-descended compatriots but Catholic Americans of Italian, Hispanic. Bavarian, Austrian and other ancestry also cast their ballots for Kennedy in large numbers. The very notion of an American Catholic president was quite exotic back then, but the novelty soon wore off.
For quite some time Polish Americans have voted on the basis of their age, geographic location, education, occupation and perceived social class rather than purely ethnic considerations. That would indicate that Polonians have successfully assimilated to general American society. It also suggests that Poland is in good shape, doing well and not a cause for major PolAm concern. If Poland (heaven forbid!) were in Ukraine’s tragic situation, that would surely be a rallying point for Polonia’s electorate.
However, the lack of a discernible PolAm voting bloc alo has its downside, because Polonian voters get lumped together and disappear amid the faceless voting masses. Especially in an election year, the political powers that be sit up and take notice of ethnic-specific voters. That can be seen in how they cultivate and cater to the interests, needs and demands of Black, Jewish, Hispanic, Arab and other distinct voting blocs. Ethnic anonymity is not always an asset!
Professor Pienkos recalled that both Kennedy and Nixon were “solid Cold War anti-communists” and therefore resonated with the many Polonians whose relatives were languishing under Soviet domination. That accounted for the huge crowds of 1960 that welcomed Kennedy to New York’s Pułaski Day Parade and the mammoth annual Constitution Day gathering in Chicago’s Humboldt Park during Nixon’s visit.
One might think that also today Polish Chicago would be largely for Trump. Chicagoan Harriet Matuszczak, a retired office worker, disagrees. “The ‘machine’ that (former Chicago mayor) Daley started forced people to join up with the democrats. Many of the professional men and women in Chicago are committed to the democratic party to hold their positions,” she explained.
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But Professor Ewa Barczyk of Milwaukee told this reporter: “I know too many Poles who have abandoned their dyed-in-the-wool democratic allegiance. Fewer are blue collar now. And more and more do not like the democrats’ controversial, cultural issues and are still largely practicing Catholics.”
According to one PolAm anthropologist, who prefers to remain unnamed, a factor entrenching today’s polarization could have been the internet. It has created separate bubbles that do not interact with opposing ones. Has that not contributed to today’s extremely belligerent political scene were there is little room for mutual understanding and compromise?
