Disparate Coalitions Now Make Up Two Parties, Study Finds

Washington Post ^ | 16 May 2005 | Dan Balz

[Lorianne]

Four times in the past two decades, beginning in 1987, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has mapped the U.S. electorate. These studies have provided a guide to the changing shape of American politics, the strength of the major political parties, the stability -- or fragility -- of their coalitions and how issues unite or divide the country.

The latest effort was released last week, a thick booklet of data, charts and analysis from a Pew team led by director Andrew Kohut that describes the post-Sept. 11, 2001, political landscape.

In describing the new shape of the electorate, the study shows how far the country has moved from the days when income and education were the most useful barometers in predicting a person's party identification. Both parties now are coalitions of the wealthy and not-so-wealthy, and of well-educated and less-educated voters.

[muawiyah]

And however we might be divided up, the Democrats got the stupid ones.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

The study is here:

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=242

[daviddennis]

What the heck is a "pro-government conservative"?

I've never heard that term before, and I've read similar analyses.

I think a definition would be in order for the article to be considered even a half-decent one.

D