Welcome to the Ideopolis. - A new Democrat Majority is Emerging!

The Boston Globe (not on Web Site- Paper Printed Edition Only) ^ | Sunday October 27,2002 | John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira

[vannrox]

The Democrats will do well, particularly in gubernatorial contests unaffected by talk Of War, but they may not claim the Majority toward which they have been Moving, by fits and starts, since 1996. It won't be long, however Before the decade is over, the Democrats Will complete this journey, and the country will move from conservative Republican majority to a progressive Democratic one.

[glc1173@aol.com]

Bull. Nonminority women aren't part of any "new Democratic majority" outside long-commie Blue Nation states. Bush won heavily-black Red Nation states like here in North Carolina by margins so high that it's mathematically obvious he won the entire nonminority female vote.

[Persuasion]

Democratic ideology controls the public school system, in very deep and dark ways.

And higher education too.

[ExpandNATO]

They think that the tech workers are core Democratic voters?

Yes, they do and with some reason. From my experience, most (if not the vast majority) of tech workers are down on Bush for abortion rights, stomping on stem cell research, his supposed inability to speak publicly, foot dragging on gun control (hatred of rednecks is very common), etc. Of course, this could well be a local thing.

Also, tech workers do not have to vote Democrat to provide a boost to the Democrats. Once these tech workers have moved into an ideopolis, they have boosted the population in the area resulting in increased representation for the area. If they are too few to change the vote balance, they have just increased the number of representatives needed, but without changing the party affiliation. Also, the area where they came from has lost a Republican voter.

[x]

Serious font size crisis.

Affluent areas on the coasts swung towards Clinton and Gore. So did outlying cities and university towns in the Middle West with the same make-up. And "verbalizers" or "symbol manipulators" have shown a preference for Democrats. But I don't think it represents technologists swinging to the Democrats. It's rather the affluent decadence that accompanied the late 90s boom. In other words, it was the apparent prosperity of the time and all of the perks and privileges that high-flying dot.coms and start-ups were getting that swung the vote strongly Gore's way. When you understand that every tech worker or manager or director may be married to a Democrat or spend his or her wad on the decadent pleasures of a high flying era, you can see how politics in New Hampshire or Northern Virginia (already full of Government workers) or Silicon Valley may have changed.

A Democrat who can win over these people may win elections (though he'll lose votes in key industrial or mining states like KY, PA, WV or OH). But not every Democrat will be able to do so.

The old industrial and new high tech economies have different ways of thinking of society and the individual. So they'll swing different ways -- so long as old economy districts remain industrial. When welfare becomes the main industry, they may change their votes and a new alignment may occur. But it's by no means clear that high tech is tied to liberals and democrats or that high tech will always be a high flyer. Basically, in 2000, they were getting all they wanted and weren't under pressure or threatened by government, so they felt free to vote for the incumbent Democrats who courted them. That won't always be the case.

[ChuxsterS]

Earlier this summer, as the economy slowed and the winds of...

I think it's very telling that the very first words of this article start in on a little Democrat historical revisionism. The economy slowed in the summer of 2000, when their man was still in the White House. This summer, the economy was recovering (albeit with less than hoped-for vigor).

[Nick Danger]

There's a lot of wishful thinking here, by a somewhat idealistic leftist idiot who at least knows how to lie with statistics. He's taken something that is happening -- migrations associated with the move toward a more knowledge-based economy -- and tried to turn it into a wet dream for Democrats. As an exercise in polemic, it's somewhat clever, but if the author believes it himself he's dumber than a rock.

If you take a compass, and put the pin in the center of any inner city full of core Democrat voters, and then adjust the compass to draw a circle around the largest area in which you will still find a Democratic majority, you will have his "ideopolis." All this guy has done is draw some circles around different cities than a guy from Boston is used to hearing about. "Houston" didn't used to be on the radar if you were from Boston... real cities were places like Pittsburg and Philadelphia. When Phoenix got an NFL team, he probably went into shock. That people might be moving to places like this probably came as a revelation to him, which is why he thinks he's discovered something new.

The hidden assumption in this guy's "Ideopolii" is that Democrats can move from one city to another, without reducing the number of Democrats left behind. In his formulation, the "growing areas" get all these new Democrats from the Fourth Dimension. None of them ever leave where they are; new ones just show up someplace else. Soon the entire country will be covered with Democrats.

It is true that 2+2=5, for sufficiently large values of 2. However, no one has ever actually seen this happen in the real world. Boston may be home to MIT, but I suspect this guy didn't go there. Someone who can add and subtract would have noticed that every time an aging hippy moves from Minneapolis to Boulder, Colorado gains a liberal voter. But Minnesota loses one.

[ExpandNATO]

Someone who can add and subtract would have noticed that every time an aging hippy moves from Minneapolis to Boulder, Colorado gains a liberal voter. But Minnesota loses one.

But if Minnesota has a surplus of liberals, then the loss of one makes no difference there, but makes Boulder more liberal.

For example, Delaware used to be a swing state with quite a few Republicans (such as Roth of Roth IRA fame). But we got a migration of banks from New York and thanks to this migration, this place is now rather solidly Democrat.

[FreedomPoster]

Topquark & Koblenz pretty much said what I would have said, and very eloquently, I might add.

The idea of achieving empirical results and calling it a day, versus attaining the elusive nirvana of theoretical perfection, is key to understanding the mindset difference between an engineer and a pure scientist.
This difference may be why there is more of a liberal (= misguidely idealist) lean in the pure sciences than in engineering. Lord knows, the Left has a paucity of empirical results at which to point.

[aruanan]

More like Idiotopolis.

[LS]

I think there is a spelling error. It is "Idiotopolis."

[Texas_Jarhead]

the dimocRATs have control of many state apparatus that are used for 'progressive' indoctrination. unless the power triangle of self-serving fed & state unions, education unions, and the dimocRATs is busted up then things ain't gonna change. they will churn out more collectivist voters and conservatives will be pushed more tightly into a corner. eventually the collectivists will go too far and the middle and right will have no choice but to fight back or face extinction or inprisonment. they will fight back and that will signal the end of end for America. I pray that I am wrong.

[vannrox]

.


A Liberal Education
Seven hundred and thirty four, give or take when added to fourty five equals an amount that is significantly larger than the first value. This proves the properties of summation when numbers are involved. Therefore, the banning of thirty four may just result in the first number if summed properly.


An Engineering Education
734 + 45 = 779.


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[IronJack]

This is all wishful thinking. For example, Texas, which has been a cornerstone of Dixie Democracy, has swung almost 100 percent GOP. With its growing population and respected technological/industrial base, Texas is much more the emerging picture of 21st century America than some cobwebbed ghost town like Silly-Con Valley. All over the South, the echos of Democracy are fading, as Dixie finally realizes that their lot aligns more closely with conservatism than with the tree-hugging, whale-saving, welfare-mooching, Spendocrats and their homosexual, communist, treasonous brotherhood. And that conservatives are the respecters of states' rights and individual dignity rather than collectivist claptrap.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump
To read later

[Torie]

No, it is about the relative size of cohorts of voters. I think the idea is that the number of folks with advanced degrees is growing, while the number with pickup trucks with gun racks is falling, etc.

[VaBthang4]

Ugh...


Welcome to Idiotopolis.

Liberal seed spinning.

[Spiritus Gladius]

The problem with all this is that it assumes that the issues that remain salient will not change.

Unfortunately, the issues are whatever the Democrats and their media lapdogs say they are. You'll note that the issues that are of concern to we conservatives rarely come to the attention of the national media, except when they offer opportunities for excoriation and derision.

[Nick Danger]

I think the idea is that the number of folks with advanced degrees is growing, while the number with pickup trucks with gun racks is falling, etc.

Yeah, I would expect that level of analysis from a smug liberal idiot. How does he explain the fact that in 2000, Gore won voters with no high school diploma and those with post-graduate degrees, but Bush won among high school graduates, those who attended college, and those who graduated college. Where does he think the big numbers are?

[Spiritus Gladius]

Democratic ideology controls the public school system, in very deep and dark ways.

Herein lies the root of the problem. Conservatives are aging and dying off; we're not replacing ourselves as fast as the paid breeding classes can produce new little dim-witted government dependents. Worse, we can't even educate our own children in our traditions and values, without a daily battle against the liberal indoctrination that's called public education.

Demographics is destiny, and unfortunately, our destiny looks pretty grim.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Immigrants remain DemocRat for generations after they arrive.

The Republican establishment is importing their demise by the sheer numbers coming in. Try telling them that though, even if they know it's true they act as if they don't want to hear it.