We tend to think of the political divisions in America
rather starkly and traditionally. There are red, blue,
and purple states (often displayed on a high-tech cable
news map), and Republican, Democratic, and Independent
voters. But as the American electorate grows more
polarized and the ideological center more heterodox, the
Pew Research Center says it's past time for a new
classification system. In a study released today, the
think tank has sorted Americans into nine
political typologies for the modern age, noting
their values, demographics, and lifestyles (you can find
out which group you belong to here).
![]()
Pew says the biggest shift its noticed in the political
landscape is that the "long-standing divide between
economic, pro-business conservatives and social
conservatives has blurred," and a new breed of
through-and-through, Tea Party-supporting
conservatives--the Staunch Conservatives--has emerged to
join the less ideologically rigid Main Street
Republicans. On the left, Pew says, the Staunch
Conservatives have a polar opposite in the Solid
Liberals. But this side of the political spectrum also
features two religious, financially troubled, and
socially conservative groups: the optimistic, ethnically
diverse New Coalition Democrats and the cynical,
blue-collar Hard-Pressed Democrats.
Independents, according to Pew, are a mishmash of
Libertarians (economically conservative and socially
liberal), Disaffecteds (cynical and cash-strapped), and
Post-Moderns (young and socially liberal). While a
"growing number of Americans are choosing not to
identify with either political party," Pew says, these
people shouldn't be mistaken as moderate. "Many of these
independents hold extremely strong ideological
positions," the report notes, "but they combine these
views in ways that defy liberal or conservative
orthodoxy."
What does this all mean for 2012? ABC's
Amy Walter points out that the Republican coalition is
"more ideologically cohesive" and politically engaged
than the Democratic coalition, which seems like good
news. But the bad news, Walter adds, is that "winning
over this group in a primary means potentially
distancing oneself more than ever from those groups in
the center who are the key to winning a general
election."
Pew's report comes amidst other recent efforts to
categorize the American electorate. Patchwork
Nation has carved up counties into types like
"Evangelical Epicenters" and 'Mormon Outposts." National
Journal's Ronald Brownstein has divided districts
into four
quadrants based on the "central fault lines" of
race and education levels, and has described
America's growing racial diversity and aging population
as an "intensifying confrontation between the gray and
the brown."
