Posted on 01/30/2016 5:51:51 AM PST by Kaslin
Have you ever wondered why Republicans and Democrats differ in the way they think about government? I'm not talking about the difference between conservatives and liberals. Those differences are pretty apparent. But most Democrats are not all that liberal and ideology is not what drives them to the voting booth.
A Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that
61% of registered Democrats say candidates' detailed policy plans - on health care or other topics - matter to their vote, and 35% say a candidate's general values and approach to government matters more. For Republicans it's the reverse: 51% care most about a candidate's general values and approach to government, and 45% prioritize their policy plans.
Let's drill down a bit on what that really means. Ezra Klein describes an interesting journalistic experiment. MSNBC asked Benjy Sarlin, its reporter on the Republican race, and Alex Seitz-Wald, its reporter on the Democratic race, to flip jobs for a week and write up what they learned. I'll skip the full conversation and zero in on what Klein found most revealing -- a statement by Sarlin:
I was caught off guard by how specific and personal Democratic voters' issues tended to be. One woman told me she had lost a job because she had to take care of a sick relative and wanted paid family leave. Another woman told me her insurance stopped covering a certain medication that had grown too expensive and she liked how Clinton and Sanders talked about lowering drug prices. One man told me his wages were stagnant at his hotel job and he was looking for policies to increase them.
"We’re talking about bread-and-butter issues," Phyllis Thede, an Iowa state representative backing Clinton, told me when I asked about her constituents' top concerns.
By contrast, Republican voters tend to be excited by more abstract issues: One of the most common answers I get from Cruz voters when I ask about their leading concern is "the Constitution." There are fewer "I have a specific problem in my own life, and I'd like the government to do x about it" responses.
These findings are consistent with my own anecdotal experience. For many years I was an attentive viewer of C-Span's morning show – where callers could call in on a "Democratic" or "Republican" line. What I found striking was how rarely anyone on the Democratic line talked the way Bernie Sanders talks. I don't recall a single caller saying we should all (including the caller) pay higher taxes so that we can have paid family leave or free college tuition or universal pre-school or universal long term care.
Instead I heard teachers arguing for more pay for teachers, seniors wanting more out of Social Security and Medicare, union members wanting trade protection, etc. In other words, what I heard a lot of was selfishness. The Democratic line attracted a lot of people who want government to intervene for their benefit at everyone else's expense.
In column after column, New York Times writer Paul Krugman repeats the canard that the Republican Party is the party of selfishness and greed and the Democratic Party is the party of altruism and charity. This, by the way, is how most of the intellectual elite thinks. Yet if we look at the personal behavior of Republicans and Democrats, the reverse seems to be true.
The modern Democratic Party descended from the Roosevelt coalition. And that coalition was solidly based on economic self-interest. At Franklin Roosevelt's behest, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which attempted to regulate the entire economy, based on the Italian fascist model. In each industry, management and labor were allowed to collude to set prices, wages, output, etc. Every industry or trade was allowed to conspire to pursue its own interests at the expense of the public. The Supreme Court put an end to the NIRA, but it didn't put an end to the ideas behind it.
The regulatory agencies that survived judicial scrutiny continued the Roosevelt pattern. The CAB served as a cartel agent for the airlines. The ICC served as a cartel agent for the trucking and railroad industries. The FCC was a cartel agent for the broadcast industry. The AAA was the vehicle that allowed farmers to seek monopoly rents.
The Democratic Party attracts rent seekers. The Republican Party attracts them as well. But the Democratic Party's essence seems to be rent seeking. Democratic candidates campaign on the idea of taking from Peter to give to Paul and brag about it once they have done it. Republicans do it too, but afterward they are more likely to apologize for what they have done. For more on this see my post, What is a Progressive?
Just ask ryan mconnell and obama when they meet this week
Good column. Mr. Goodman does a good job telling us the differences between Democrat and Republican VOTERS. What he does not say is, upon arrival in Washington DC something happens. They all become Uni-partyians.
What the left wants is free stuff at the expense of taxpayers, they do not realize in their ignorance and arrogance that the politicians are using their lusts and evil materialism to steal theirs and ours liberties which will result in a tyranny by the dem and rino politicians who hate the liberties our forefathers fought and died for!
The leftist are vicious and cruel and hateful.
Republicans want freedom.
Democrat candidates lie to their voters so they can steal money. Republican candidates lie to their voters so they can steal money.
Both believe government is the solution to every problem.
They are not.
As an example: a union member might be very conservative socially and economically, but he's willing to set those views aside and join with social and economic liberals in order to advance his union views. That's where the strength of the Democrats lies.
I think we've seen good evidence in the past year that conservatives are now more willing than ever to ditch principle for the sake of their specific personal interests.
They aren’t.
That is the problem.
Makers need property rights to keep the stuff they produced - takers hate property rights because they survive by raiding the makers.
It is left as an exercise to determine which group became Republicans and which Democrats.
Well, most Republican voters are alive.
No surprise, Democrats are always the people with their hand out wanting someone else to pay so they do not have to take responsibility for their lives.
Democrats vote for who they think will be the biggest sugar daddy.
My Dad always said “a Kennedy is somebody who wants to give your money to the poor and get credit for doing it”
The difference between Republicans and Democrats is the same as the difference between Democrats and Socialists the way I see it from my house.
Someone much smarter than BCC came up with something like; The Democrats would burn the constitution today while the Republicans are willing to put it off for a week or two.
Republicans make believe they want closed borders so they can get our votes; Democrat don’t care what American citizens want they don’t lie about it; they just want no borders. That’s the difference.
Could have fooled me (naught)!
What are all those overwhelming polls for Hillary? What are they saying?
That someone who lies to the Government is OK - that's a Liberal idea.
That a President can write Domestic Laws though EXECUTIVE ORDERS is OK - That's a Liberal idea.
That a President can dissolve our borders and bring in a TON OF ILLEGAL ALIENS THROUGH UNCONTROLLED BORDERS IS OK - WELL THAT'S A LIBERAL IDEA.
Don't Ya Think??
Something that I have noticed in my personal experience regarding those who vote Democrat is that they seem to view themselves as superior.
1)They tend to think that they are smarter than conservatives.
2)They treat people in service jobs with disdain.
democrats are tax and spend spend spend to buy votes
republicans lie about their real intentions and then tax and spend spend spend
hence we are 24 TRILLION IN DEBT... THAT WILL NEVER BE PAID and will rise to 30 Trillion in eight years.... until the $ is WORTHLESS
Democrats are ignorant traitors to the USA.
Well... duh. Conservatives have known for a long time that liberalism is based in personal greed masked as concern for fellow citizens. Unfortunately, too many Republican politicians seem to forget that truth when they get elected.
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