> So I'm serious, pending any detailed research covering a goodly period
> of time, voting is a good predictor of voting, and nothing else.
>
I wonder what the function of the "I'm serious" in this sentence is?
First of all, Doug already posted numbers showing that party ID is a good predictor of people's attitudes on a wide range of political issues. Second of all, there is obviously no contradiction at all between the acquisition of partisan ID from parents and the ability of partisan ID to predict worldview, since people also get their worldview from their parents often.
And by the way, Chicago may have a Democratic machine, but people vote reflexively for the national Democrats in every big city in the country, including those where the local administration is Republican, like NYC. Living in a big city is like having Democratic parents, you might say.
SA