Class Wars? [posted by Troy] There is an interesting LA Times article the discusses their newest poll in terms of liberal culture vs conservative culture. I've pasted a couple paragraphs from it below. They frame the entire election in terms of two competing world views, and they note that the way people fall behind the two parties is really a function of the way they view the world. The funny thing is that the rich tend to support Kerry, and the lower-middle classes support Bush. (Maybe the ultra-rich support Bush, too?) Here's a section of the article:
"The poll also signals that next Tuesday's election is likely to continue a generation-long pattern in which attitudes on noneconomic issues — including abortion and foreign policy — have increasingly eclipsed class as the axis of U.S. politics...
...Bush's message, which stresses his national security record and his commitment to conservative cultural values, is helping him gain ground among lower middle-income and less-educated voters ambivalent about his economic record. Conversely, the message is costing him with more affluent and better-educated families that have historically supported Republicans.
Strikingly, Bush leads Kerry in the poll among lower- and middle-income white voters, but trails his rival among whites earning at least $100,000 per year.
Bush also runs best among voters without college degrees, whereas Kerry leads not only among college-educated women (a traditional Democratic constituency), but among college-educated men — usually one of the electorate's most reliably Republican groups in the electorate.
Consistently in the poll, cultural indicators prove more powerful predictors of candidate support than economic status." LA Times (registration required), Ronald Brownstein, "Voters Still Split Sharply, and Evenly," Oct. 26th, 2004.
9:27:16 PM  permanent link Google It!
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