[lbo-talk] Political geography ( Was: lbo-talk Digest, Vol 1122, Issue 4)

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 4 08:57:06 PST 2010


This could (maybe) also reflect a difference in level of political activity among the populations. If you have a high level of liberal or socialist opinion in a given population, and a low level of conservative, but if the latter is politically active and the other is not, the area will register as conservative, even if most of the population really isn't. (Though I don't know if this is actually a factor here.)

I think more importantly, real people don't usually fall into a left vs. right dichotomy. If someone for instance has liberal economic views but is totally convinced that abortion is murder and evil, they are probably going to support whatever political group they feel has the strongest antiabortion platform, even if the group is pushing an economic platform that they dislike.

----- Original Message ---- From: Marv Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> ================================== I wouldn't have thought this was controversial. Look at the electoral map in any advanced capitalist country and it's pretty clear that liberal and socialist parties have historically drawn their strength from the working class in the large cities while parties on the right have typically appealed to more conservative farmers, small town merchants and bankers, and their employees. I recall posting 2008 election return data to the list some time back showing this to be the case, with few exceptions, even in those states where the Republicans have been the stronger party. The influx of successive generations of immigrant workers into the cities has always deepened this cleavage.

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