[lbo-talk] Bartels on Frank, etc.

Michael Hoover hooverm at scc-fl.edu
Sun Mar 5 04:33:51 PST 2006



>>> furuhashi.1 at osu.edu 03/03/06 6:45 PM >>>
The question for supporters of the Democratic Party is this: why do middle-income white workers vote Republican rather than Democratic? Which is to blame: middle-income white workers or the Democratic Party? Are middle-income white workers voting against their economic interests (since, as Larry M. Bartels shows, the higher their income, the more likely questions such as abortion and religion matter to them) or has the Democratic Party's economic policy (on the wages and employment, trade and investment, taxation, and social spending fronts) failed them? Both? Do middle-income white workers on the average get back more in social spending on them than they pay in taxes and does voting for Democrats make a positive difference for them in this respect? Does the Democratic Party's policy on wages, employment, trade, and investment positively or negatively impact them, relative to the Republican Party's? <<<<<>>>>>

here's conservative-leaning poli sci guys morris fiorina & paul peterson on what they call 'contemporary democratic-republicans'... mh

Early Democratic-Republicans were small farmers and individual entrepreneurs attracted by the Jeffersonian ideal of "common man" democracy. The party was pitted against the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton and its supporters drawn mainly from the property-owning and merchant classes of New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Such elites saw themselves as the only group qualified to govern, while the commoners were fit only to follow.

Today, another group of "Democratic-Republicans" has emerged from something that happened in economically affluent communities in the 1980s and 1990s. So- called "baby boomers" who grew up politically during the Vietnam War and Watergate started making money and moving in. Voting patterns began to shift. While Republicans can still count on the support of most residents of higher-income hamlets, income may be less of a predictor of party loyalty than it once was.

Who are these "Democratic Republicans"? One answer is that among them are people who went to Woodstock (the first one, in 1969), protested the Vietnam War, and are now working at corporate executive levels and professional-managerial occupations. They wear Jerry Garcia neckties, drive Volvos, and eat organic foods.

Four Types of New Democratic Republicans: Boardroom Democrats Bill Clinton succeeded in recruiting high-tech corporate leaders largely on the strength of his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which promised lower trade barriers between the United States and Mexico ) and his advocacy of positions favored by the telecommunications industry that culminated in the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Republicans still have a substantial edge among bankers and manufacturers, but Democats have made substantial forays into "Silicon Valleys" around the country.

Neiman-Marcus Pro-Choicers The "protest generation" may have grown-up, but it believes strongly in freedom of choice. The Republican hard-line position on abortion has driven some of the affluent into the Democratic party. Level of education appears to be an important variable on this issue; college graduates are twice as likely to support abortion rights than high school graduates. A choice between higher taxes and social freedom on the one hand and lower taxes and a conservative social agenda on the other has split well-to-do educated "boomers"; Nieman- Marcus pro-choicers have chosen the former.

Horation Alger Ethnics Images of the Republican party as the protector of an older, white elite have driven some successful minorities toward the Democrats. For these, as well as other affluent ethnics, issues may overwhelm income as a source of party identification.

Perego Pushers Named after the favorite baby-stroller among the well-to-do, this label captures young, urban professionals ("yuppies") in transition from "single and free" to parenthood. Some have moved from their chic, downtown flats and loft apartments to new suburban developments to raise their children. Mostly white, and likely to be liberal on social issues and conservative on economic issues, the "economic boom" of the 1990s led some of this "moderate" group into the Demcratic camp because they worried that Republicans intended to push their anti-abortion, antigay, pro-school prayer agenda.



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