Mediaboss Marketing

TIME History politics What Makes a Democrat a Democrat and a Republican a Republican? Its More Complicated Than You Think It remains the case that a large majority of the public has liberal views on some issues and conservative views on others

History News Network

This post is in partnership with the History News Network, the website that puts the news into historical perspective. The article below was originally published at HNN.

Political scientists will often say that peoples political party affiliations are major causes of their voting behavior and of their opinions on various policy issues. Yet this line often neglects evidence that, to understand political party affiliations, one needs to focus on voters opinions on various policy issues.

Fifty years ago, Democrat Lyndon Johnson battled Republican Barry Goldwater for the presidency. At that time, no Republican presidential candidate had carried the Deep South since Reconstruction. Nonetheless, Goldwater carried the line of states from Louisiana to South Carolina (as well as his home state of Arizona) but no other states. The reason for his victory in these southern states had to do with Goldwaters opposition to the Civil Rights Act, which Johnson, in contrast, had championed. In the election, many southern whites voted on the basis of this issue, at the expense of their traditional party.

Further, as the pace of social change accelerated in the early 1960s, the Supreme Court issued a line of controversial decisions on school prayer, birth control, and abortion. These previously sleepy issues took on greater public prominence. As the political parties adopted their contrasting positions in the 1970s, key voting groups began shifting. White churchgoers (including many southerners and Catholics who had previously been solid supporters of Democrats) increasingly voted Republican, while the growing group of non-religious whites leaned more towards Democrats.

More recently, the Reagan years saw the opening of a new gender gap in party voting, driven not by abortion (an issue on which men and women have never, it turns out, differed much on average), but by the gender gap in support for government safety-net programs. In addition, more recently, Republicans have become increasingly associated with anti-immigrant views (a major milestone occurring in 1994, when Republican Governor Pete Wilson supported Californias Proposition 187), and, as a result, Latinos have become increasingly solid Democratic supporters.

To make sense of contemporary politics, its more crucial than ever to understand what drives the publics contrasting views on a wide range of hot-button issues taxes, healthcare, affirmative action, immigration, school prayer, same-sex marriage, abortion, marijuana legalization, and others. One needs to be able to see how these issues relate to the demographic splits that increasingly guide political analysis.

In The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind (Princeton, 2014), we offer a fresh perspective on these topics. We combine the data-driven analyses typical of political professionals with growing psychological insights into human motives.

We sift through large surveys for connections between peoples lives and their politics, focusing attention on the biggest links. A key point is that different kinds of issues involve different major demographic predictors.

Go here to read the rest:
What Makes a Democrat a Democrat and a Republican a Republican? Its More Complicated Than You Think

Southern Democrats who lost key races this election cycle

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

New Orleans (CNN) -- The 2014 elections seemed like the final reckoning for Southern Democrats, the culmination of a political metamorphosis that began in the Civil Rights era and concluded under the nation's first black President.

Wiped out in governors' races, clobbered in Senate contests, irrelevant in many House districts and boxed out of state legislatures, Democrats in the South today look like a rump party consigned to a lifetime of indignity.

"I can't remember it being any gloomier for Democrats in the South than it is today," said Curtis Wilkie, the longtime journalist and observer of Southern life who lectures at the University of Mississippi. "The party has been demonized by Republicans. It's very bleak. I just don't see anything good for them on the horizon."

Democrats are looking everywhere for solutions to their Southern problem. They hope population changes will make states such as Georgia and North Carolina more hospitable. They want more financial help from the national party. Some are even clinging to the dim hope that Hillary Clinton might help make inroads with white working class voters in Arkansas in 2016.

Success here is crucial for the party. There's virtually no way for Democrats to win back a majority in the Senate -- much less the House -- without finding a way to compete more effectively in the South. But the truth is there are no easy answers for a party so deep in the hole.

White voters have abandoned Democrats for decades, and the flight has only hastened under President Barack Obama. The migration has created a troublesome math problem: Democrats across the region now depend on African-American voters and not much else.

It's a disastrous formula in low-turnout midterms dominated by white voters. In Louisiana, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu won only 18% of white voters on Election Day. She won't do much better in what's expected to be another knife-twisting loss for Democrats in the state's runoff election here on Saturday. If she loses, there won't be a single Democratic senator or governor anywhere south of Virginia.

READ: Landrieu, Cassidy spar in final Senate debate

Original post:
Death of the Southern Democrat

If real-estate mogul and deep-pocketed White House donor Terry Bean were a Republican, hed be a household name by now.

Beans face would be splashed all over the covers of grocery-stand newsweeklies. The garrulous hostesses of ABCs The View would be haranguing the GOP to return his campaign contributions.

Child-welfare advocates would be demanding his resignation from top political advocacy and civic groups.

Media satellite trucks from NBCs Today show would be parked outside the Lane County, Ore., Circuit Court on Dec. 3 for his first appearance.

And The New York Times archives would be teeming with thousand-word editorials and multiple lead stories about his grand jury indictment on horrifying sexual-abuse allegations involving multiple victims including a 15-year-old boy.

Instead, a search for Terry Bean on the left-wing paper of records Web site on Tuesday yielded exactly one story dated Jan. 16, 1880, about a Westchester County elder with that name plus an advertising link to retailer L.L. Bean.

So, who is Terry Bean? Hes a wealthy, high-flying liberal and celebrated gay-rights activist who co-founded the influential Human Rights Campaign organization.

He is also a veteran member of the board of the HRC Foundation, which disseminates Common Core-aligned anti-bullying material to childrens schools nationwide.

Bean shelled out more than $500,000 for President Obama and the Democrats in 2012. He was rewarded with an exclusive Air Force One ride with Obama.

The president also gave the developer a special shout-out at an opulent fund-raiser in Portland, where Beans family had established a longstanding political and corporate fiefdom.

See more here:
Democrat donor scandal news not fit to print?

Ontario is reviewing the rules for severance pay after a rookie New Democrat MPP became eligible for a $58,000 golden parachute despite working only five months.

Sudburys Joe Cimino, who was elected on June 12, resigned suddenly on Nov. 20, citing personal reasons.

Combined with his six months of severance pay and a byelection that Premier Kathleen Wynne must call on or before May 20, Ciminos mysterious departure could cost Ontarians as much as $558,000.

Government House leader Yasir Naqvi said there would be an all-party review by the legislatures board of internal economy, which oversees MPP compensation.

Naqvi said severance is to assist the member in transitioning into a different life given there are no pensions, but the Cimino affair alters the landscape.

It creates a new situation that needs to be reviewed, he said, conceding that under the existing rules the New Democrat will receive the money.

I dont remember something like that . . . where an MPP has stepped down so quickly.

Progressive Conservative interim leader Jim Wilson was incredulous and agreed changes are needed.

There probably should be a minimum amount of time that you serve here before you get any type of payout from the taxpayer and I dont what that would be, but Id be willing to discuss it, said Wilson.

Im sure anybody in the public, including myself, thinks thats just ridiculous, the Tory chief said.

Go here to see the original:
Ontario to review severance rules after New Democrat MPPs departure

":DON #39;t VOTE DEMOCRAT! " Vanilla SPilla rips Jon Gruber Barack Obama #39;
Mega hit song!! Vanilla SPilla LAshes out at JOn Gruber and the Gruber Dick Sucking Blue party ,Republican Reviolution "Don #39;t Vote Democrat!," Twin - C Vanil...

By: Charlie Graham

Read more:
":DON't VOTE DEMOCRAT! " Vanilla SPilla rips Jon Gruber & Barack Obama' - Video