>
> > No, 80% is probably about right. If you run down the things socialists
>agree
> > on- universal health care, union rights, taxing the hell out of the
>rich,
> > etc. -- at least 20% agree fully on it.
>
>I wish. I was more left than 98-99% of my high school contemporaries and
>am
>now further left than about 90% of UM students.
>
>-- Luke
>
Nathan's right when it comes to the poll data. U-M students tend to be better off than the general population, and maybe your HS was too--where'd you go to HS, Luke? Moreover this is a robust, long term result. Free and Cantril have a classic study from the '60s on the the political beliefs of AMericans, showing that they respond to fairly conservative rhetoric in the abstract, and support progressive or liberal policies in the concrete. Ferguson and Rogers did a similar, less rigorous study in the 80s that replicated these results (Right Turn). Practically speaking the problem is that the political beliefs on the concrete level don't find organized support in, for example, the Democratic Party, and so are not translated into policy initiatives.
jks
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