On Their Trail: The Hunt for White Rural (Male) Working Class Voters

I am becoming more and more bothered by the language of pundits during this campaign. Whether trailing "Obama's black vote," or tallying "Clinton's female vote," the tedious and annoying process of viewing these candidates' as monolithic beings is doing a horrible disservice to the democratic process. Equally as annoying is the call that CNN, MSNBC, and other news agencies have put out to white rural (male) working class voters. I guess it makes sense...If you're not female OR black, then..... how do you decide who to vote for?!

For me the most frustrating thing about pundits leading the discussion about Democrat's seeking the white (male) rural working class vote is that they completely discount the history of this population's voting trends. This group left the party in three large waves:

(1) When Truman added a civil rights plank to his campaign the Dixiecrat party was established in protest .

(2) Kennedy made a call to Mrs. Coretta Scott King for support during his 1960 election and many Dixiecrats/States Rights Party members moved even farther to the right.

(3) Many (but not all) of the 'loyal' white rural (male) working class voters that remained with the Democratic Party did so in hopes of seeing it return to it's old 'Bourbon Rule Democrat' roots. By the 1980s some of them became Republicans, but again many of the ones that remained with the Democratic Party stayed in name only. They quickly became known as Reagan Democrats.

So, I guess my question to the political pundits is how and why would Obama or Clinton pursue these votes, especially considering the fact that this group has not historically been supportive of civil rights. And to qualify my use of the term civil rights...I'm not talking about the racialized 1954-1968 usage of the word. I mean "civil rights," the rights of citizens. Rooted in the 14th amendment and helping to push for the rights of people regardless of color, gender, and ability. It's not popular to say, but deep down I feel that most white rural (male) working class voters do not support the Democratic Party because of their history of bigotry and greed. Why is this so hard for those in the mainstream media to see and when will the election conversation turn back to real issues?