Monday, June 30, 2014
American Political Preferences Are Not Well Explained By Conventional Categories
This article describes the political categories that are used by Pew in its political polling. Pew does not divide Americans into left, right and center. There is no coherent center in American politics. There are two right wing groups, that have some things in common, and they are very committed. Left leaning groups lean Democratic but many lack coherence or commitment. The percentage of Democratic leaning Americans is larger than the Republican leaning percentage but they do not share a consistent ideology and the commitment that comes from a shared ideology. That is why Republicans do better in elections than their numbers suggest.