Byrd machine remarks refer to Virginia. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. <rosserjb at jmu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, November 09, 2000 1:46 PM Subject: Re: election demographics
>Justin,
> Well, how about George McGovern? Couldn't
>even take his own state. Just another wanker, eh?
> I was not here then, but his run triggered the shift
>of the Byrd machine from the Demos to the Repugs,
>who now control not only the legislature, but all the
>top offices in the state without having gone Demo
>for prez since LBJ. Lot more of that went on.
> Now, this did not keep me from being a policy
>adviser for old George when he ran again in 1984 as
>the "conscience of the Democratic Party." For those
>who remember his debate performance in Iowa that
>year (came in third in the caucuses), I was the author
>of his proposal to cut the DOD budget by $ 63 billion
>that he trumpeted then. Oh well....
>Barkley Rosser
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Justin Schwartz <jkschw at hotmail.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Date: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 5:26 PM
>Subject: Re: election demographics
>
>
>>I still haven't provided the figures, but there is an obvious hypothesis
to
>>explain your puzzle. It's not that people have preferred more conservative
>>candidates. It's that they haven't been offered more liberal ones. Why
>>Reagan over Carter, Bush Sr over Dukakis, you ask? The thing is, these
>>liberals were fleeing liberalism instead of trumpeting it--they treated it
>>as something to be ashamed of, and in fact, bought into and reinforced ana
>>ggressively conservative rhetoric. There is an old (1960s, I think) book
on
>>what Americans really think that I liked, can't remember the authors or
>>title, have it around here somewhere, that argued that Americans go in for
>>conservative global rhetoric and liberal concrete policies. --jks
>>
>>>
>>>Here then is the puzzle: how is it a gradually more liberal electorate
>>>prefers to elect increasingly conservative candidates? There's got
>>>to be some additional dimension here that slice and dice the meanings
>>>and
>>>causes of liberalism and conservativism into contradictory fragments.
>>>
>>>If the electorate now is more liberal than the ones electing Johnson
>>>or Kennedy, which helps explain how or why Nixon expanded the social
>>>welfare state, how is it that a Democratic President feels compelled
>>>to latch onto something like welfare reform because it's seen consistent
>>>with the mood of the people?
>>>
>>>Dennis Breslin
>>
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>
>