On Feb 23, 2009, at 12:01 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
On Feb 23, 2009, at 11:55 AM, ravi wrote:
Didn't someone in one of your shows raise exactly that question?
Perhaps Bartels himself? The answer again, IMHO, is not in the
numbers (which is not to suggest that numbers may not be available
to back up the answer).
Where is the answer then? In the air? Or someplace dark and musky?
If theory is too high-minded ;-), then I suggest common sense! The
alternative to sifting data is not air-headedness (though of course by
"dark and musky" you might mean the mind, the existence of which
militant behaviourists -- identical in the West with leftists? -- of
course deny). W.r.t to the questions at hand:
Poor working class whites (it seems to me -- common sense, here) vote
GOP because of (a) a realisation that neither party caters to their
economic interests and/or (b) religious/social identification. Note,
in the case of (b) again that Bartels's data about upper class whites
being *more* driven by such concerns is not a negation of this thesis.
The claim is not a relative one (the proper form of the question
raised is: why isn't there 100% support from the working class poor
people for the Democratic party?). In pointing out that *some* working
class poor vote on the basis of religious/social issues, he already
concedes the argument.
I will leave as an exercise to the reader, the second question: why do
a majority of CT and NJ, and now 150k-250k voters (if I remember the
numbers correctly), vote Democrat? My tentative thesis is a spillover
effect from NYC and the general northeast sociopolitical climate, and
all it entails, and therefore a preference for capitalism lite,
exactly as offered by the Dems. I think it is an almost safe bet that
the above alighment is not because 150k earners suddenly gained some
working class consciousness (even if some of their jobs are being
shipped to India)! ;-)
--ravi
--
Support something better than yourself ;-)
PeTA => http://peta.org/
Greenpeace => http://greenpeace.org/
If you have nothing better to read: http://platosbeard.org/
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