The Democrats’ Left Turn Is Not an Illusion

New York Times ^ | 18 October 2018 | Thomas B. Edsall

[Magnatron]

Over the past 18 years, the Democratic electorate has moved steadily to the left, as liberals have displaced moderates. Self-identified liberals of all races and ethnicities now command a majority in the party, raising the possibility that views once confined mainly to the party elite have spread into the rank and file.

From 2001 to 2018, the share of Democratic voters who describe themselves as liberal has grown from 30 to 50 percent, according to data provided by Lydia Saad, a senior editor at the Gallup Poll.

The percentage of Democrats who say they are moderate has fallen from 44 to 35; the percentage of self-identified conservative Democrats has gone from 25 to 13 percent.

Well-educated whites, especially white women, are pushing the party decisively leftward. According to Gallup, the share of white Democrats calling themselves liberal on social issues has grown since 2001 from 39 to 61 percent. Because of this growth, white liberals are now roughly 40 percent of all Democratic voters.

While a substantial percentage of Democratic minorities identify as liberals, those percentages have not been growing at anywhere near the rate that they have for white Democrats, so blacks and Hispanics have not contributed significantly to the rising percentage of self-identified Democratic liberals. Over the past 17 years, for example, the percentage of black Democrats who identify themselves as liberals grew by a modest three percentage points, according to both Gallup and the Pew Research Center.

In fact, white liberals are well to the left of the black electorate on some racial issues.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Not one had ever held a private sector job

THAT, IMO, is the nub of the problem. They spend their youth in universities and then graduate with some useless social science degree right into the arms of some government bureaucratic job.

Barack Obama only worked in the private sector for a few months in his whole life. It was at an ice cream shop. In his book he called it "going behind enemy lines".

[CptnObvious]

The percentage of Democrats who say they are moderate has fallen from 44 to 35

Ruh Roh!

[Stirner]

“going behind enemy lines”

If I recall correctly, BO was referring to a brief stint he had working for some Wall Street firm. Baskin-Robbins was a much earlier job as a teenager in which he gave away “free” ice cream to friends. So he had two private sector jobs that lasted for a total of several months. I think he met his wife when they were both working for the Wall Street firm.

[jmacusa]

When has the Left never been to the left? When?