> One more demonstration that there is a class divide in the United States. A majority of the elite are liberal; a majority of the people are conservative.
Well, I don't know...this is only 165 out of thousands of movers and shakers. Ask Ned Johnson what he thinks.
"Chad Gifford...said that if the marriage amendment goes to the ballot, the state's political leadership would be consumed by a divisive debate that will divert lawmakers' attention from more important issues, such as education, the economy, and the environment."
The longer the pols are diverted from meddling in "more important issues," the better.
I am just pessimistic. All the polls I have seen say that 80% of the elite in the United States are liberal in their values. What has moderated this to a degree are the true "moderates" in the Republican Party: well-to-do and "orthodox" evangelicals and Catholics. Fifty years ago, wealthy Southern Baptists and Pentacostals were as rare as hen's teeth. "Aristocrats" gravitated toward the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, if they were members at all. One reason for the surge of the "Radical Right" is that this is no longer the case.
I would say that now the views of the elite and the general population are like a photo negative .
Elite is libertine/liberal on the moral issues (they want to indulge in dissolute life style) and "conservative" on the economic issues (they want to keep all wealth for themselves).
Regular people care more for economic justice (in interest of their families) and they want moral order (also in interest of their families). So you could say that they are left leaning on economy and right leaning on morality.
The reason why the New Deal Democrats used to win so easily it is because their views and action reflected the position of the mainstream America.
After post 1960 decadence the Reagan Democrats bolted to the Republicans hoping that they will find what they lost, but they are being taken advantage of. They get the stick but the carrot never materializes.