Beyond 'red-blue,' parties are riven within - CSM 5/13/05

You can test your placement in the new typology here:

http://typology.people-press.org/

I came out a Liberal, as expected.

is down by Ghandi.

Is a good place to be :)

Dems and Repubs to tick off. That mean Pat Buchanan and I would check the same thing. (Although maybe he was say he leans Repub. who knows with him)

A few points made in this detailed study:

"In the middle sit three groups: Upbeats, Disaffecteds, and Bystanders. The first are well-educated, generally informed, and politically moderate, and feel good about their personal finances and the direction of the country. The second group is cynical and less well-off. The third, mostly young adults, are largely on the sidelines.

During the 1990s, these three middle groups were not especially partisan, but they now lean decidedly toward the GOP. The Upbeats, who still do not formally identify themselves as Republican, voted for Bush 4 to 1 last November. Part of that is a result of Bush's personal appeal to this group, and so with Bush not on the ticket four years from now, Democrats are still hopeful they can lure some of these voters into their camp."

Also this interested me a lot:

"One sign that polarization is indeed a reality is the fact that the Liberal group has nearly doubled in the past six years, now representing 19 percent of registered voters. And there are no more "New Democrats" - the centrist Democratic philosophy that Bill Clinton rode to the White House.

"This suggests that some of the growth among Liberals comes from former New Democrats, whose views on national security and government regulation have become more polarized after more than four years of GOP control," writes Pew.

The aspect about the role of national security in deciding the election swing does not surprise me but the findings are striking none the less.

And yes I too come out as "Liberal". Who wudda thunk?

When they imply that the "New Democrats" have simply disappeared, os somehow converted into "Liberals." I think it's much more likely that the Pew people instead redefined the catagories, rolling the liberals and New Democrats (also referred to as "Clintonites") in together. Demographically, they are much similar; ideologically, not as much... altho perhaps compared to the other groups, not so different either.

The one data point that surprised me the most is that the so-called "Up-beats" voted so heavily for Bush. I never would have thought that, as my own personal exposure to this sort is that they were not at all happy with him. That said, a lot of 'em didn't think much of Kerry either. Perhaps if the Pew institute is reporting accurately (and I don't take that as a given), it all came down to tax cuts.

Now that I give it more thought, my take on these people, who are the very ones Kerry should have been able to induce to cross-over, is that they do not care a great deal about the Iraq war--they have not served, will not serve, and their kids are too young and/or they are too affluent for them to be worried. They tend not to be against civil rights, reproductive choice, or gay rights, but those are not issues that affect them personally either (except for the relatively small percentage who are minority or gay themselves). Same for environment and trade/labor issues--they probably lean to the left, as long as they don't have to pay for actually doing anything, and no one takes their SUVs away. I suspect they tend to support the Repubs on Social Security, but again, I doubt it's that big a deal to them, with their 401Ks, as long as their payroll taxes don't go up.

Oh btw, I came out as a liberal as well. No big surprise there.

natch.

It was interesting to read the demographics for the Liberals, though. Youngest besides the Bystanders. There IS hope! But, it does also show that we HAVE to fix the education system, since the Libs are also the most educated.

interpretation of your "type":

http://politicalcompass.org/

eom

When their reckless actions have done more to endanger our security than anything else. Their alienation of our allies, they're PNAC vision of world domination, their embrace of torture that repulsed the Iraq population from the U.S. and is now doing the same in Afghanistan, their refusal to deal directly with North Korea or Iran, the list goes on and on.

I keep staring at that paragraph. :(