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Three findings on moderates in US politics: (1) They are a large proportion of the public, (2) Their views are not simply random or incoherent, and (3) They appear to be central to electoral change, as they are highly responsive to candidate ideology, voting against extreme candidates.
Main Post: Three findings on moderates in US politics: (1) They are a large proportion of the public, (2) Their views are not simply random or incoherent, and (3) They appear to be central to electoral change, as they are highly responsive to candidate ideology, voting against extreme candidates.
Top Comment: We develop a method to distinguish three ways an individual might be classified as moderate: having genuinely moderate views across issues, being inattentive to politics or political surveys, or holding views poorly summarized by a single liberal–conservative dimension. I suspect that many or most moderates don’t fit any of these categories. Rather, their main characteristic is that they place relatively less weight on ideology compared to perceived effectiveness—they may say they want the minimum wage to be $5, $20, or anywhere in between, but they’ll prefer candidates who seem capable of improving economic prosperity even if they don’t do it by implementing their preferred policies. This is somewhat reflected by the study’s finding that all three of their categories of moderates are more influenced by experience and incumbency; but I think moderates can also select against those factors if they perceive the current establishment to be ineffective.
“Red wave” appears to be crashing ahead of 2022 midterms
Main Post: “Red wave” appears to be crashing ahead of 2022 midterms
Top Comment:
No, it crashes after we vote in November. Do not believe anything you read.
The worst part about being a democrat in a red state like Indiana is...
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Everyone just assumes you're a republican too.
Specifically at work in my case. Everyone around me is talking about how the election was rigged and how joe is going to be the down fall of America. Yada yada yada.
Which in and of itself confuses me to no end after we've had a two bit wannabe dictator in the Whitehouse for 4 years, but I digress.
I'm in charge of people so Ive always had a policy of not talking politics at work, because no matter what my politics are there is always going to be someone under me who has the opposite views. So Nothing good can come out of talking politics at work unless you're 100% sure the other person shares the same exact views you do.
But that still doesn't stop people from bringing it up to me all the time. Then I have to dance around conversation and move the convo onto something else. Occasionally I have had to put my foot down saying I'm not talking politics at work.
Just annoying.
Top Comment:
3 things I don't talk about at work: Religion, Sex, and Politics.
Nothing good comes from it.
Would you rather live in a red area in a blue state, or a blue area in a red state?
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I live by the border between two states. On one side, there is a large city that's a blue oasis in an otherwise red state. On the other side, there are mostly conservative exurbs and rural areas, but the state itself is very blue. My wife and I have often discussed which side would be better to live in. Ultimately we decided that it was worth having a blue-state government that would better protect our rights and safety, even if we stand out amongst our neighbors, than having to deal with the deep red conservative state government next door.
What about you? Which side would you rather live in?
Top Comment:
As a black guy, I’d take the blue area in a red state solely cause living and being in red areas feels super uncomfortable and pretty hostile.
It’s like being a pit bull around a bunch of Karen’s with small children vs being a pit bull inside your home in a Kareny suburb.
What political views in a man are an automatic red flag?
Main Post: What political views in a man are an automatic red flag?
Why are Democrats and Republicans respectively blue and red?
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There have been a few posts about how the conservative Democratic Party became liberal and vice versa for the Republicans, but something I've always wondered is how they arrived at their respective colors. Of particular interest to me is the question of whether the Republicans were always 'red', since it occurs to me that red might not have been the most auspicious color, especially during the Red Scare(s). Can anyone comment on this?
Top Comment:
In the 2000 election, Tim Russert decided to color his election map with red states for the Republicans and blue states for the Democrats. Previous to this sticking in the public mind for some reason, election maps had been colored inconsistently, though red was more often associated with the left, as it still is in nearly every other country.
ELI5: Why is red the republican color in the US when it's the symbol of socialism in the rest of the world?
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In a lot of countries right wing politics are blue and left wing are red.
Top Comment: In the 2000 election, most major news networks used maps where states that George Bush won were red and states that Al Gore won were blue. The 2000 election coverage dragged on for a long time, so by the end of it, people associated those colors with the parties of each candidate. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, this was not a thing before the 2000 election. Red was the color of socialism as much as in any other part of the world, and neither Republicans nor Democrats had a standard color.