tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5131909766460602337.post8817453810803989368..comments2023-11-05T03:47:11.804-05:00Comments on Now At The Podium: Study Finds That Democrats are the Party of the RichUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5131909766460602337.post-10257683497682868212007-11-25T11:56:00.000-05:002007-11-25T11:56:00.000-05:00"Why didn't they just ask the voters themselves in...<I>"Why didn't they just ask the voters themselves instead of some convoluted methodology involving tax returns and areas?"</I><BR/><BR/>That's an intentionally ignorant rhetorical question, Kenton, and you know it.<BR/><BR/>If they ask the voters, they won't get any kind of consistency. It's not a convoluted method to take each district, rank it's number of people that make over "X" amount of dollars a year, and see how that district voted. That's actually a very sensible way of looking at it.<BR/><BR/>Also, your statement about the majority being held on "above-median" district being because of the majority overall actually plays against the general leftist claim that the GOP is the "party of the rich", because the Democrats have a majority of the "above-median income" seats, which means they are just as much a party of the rich as the Republicans, if not slightly more.<BR/><BR/>Not only that, but the study stated earlier in the article that the Democrats hold a <B>larger</B> majority amongst the "richer" districts...that majority dwindles as you get closer and closer to "average" income.<BR/><BR/>A good example of where the Democratic vote lies, if you look at the CNN exit polls from the 2006 Senate Election in Virginia, George Allen actually won the majority of votes of all income brackets except for the lowest bracket (making below either $15 or 20K, I can't remember offhand) and the highest bracket (which was those making over $100,000). So the poorest and richest voted for Webb, those in the middle voted for Allen.<BR/><BR/>Kenton, while the cost of living is lower out in the rural areas ("boondocks", c'mon, can you show our NoVa bias any more?), the average income is also much lower, as well. Also, why is it that in affluent suburban areas on a national level, that the trend is blue...and has been for a long time?<BR/><BR/>The truth is...Democrats get elected by poor inner-city voters and upper-middle class/rich voters. It's those in the middle class that tend to vote Republican.Phil Chronigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13459711272739517500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5131909766460602337.post-1056926496207448692007-11-23T20:09:00.000-05:002007-11-23T20:09:00.000-05:00Why didn't they just ask the voters themselves ins...Why didn't they just ask the voters themselves instead of some convoluted methodology involving tax returns and areas? Exit polls in presidential years (I know, bastions of accuracy that they are) consistently show a near-linear relationship between income and voting, the tipping point being at about <A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html" REL="nofollow">$50,000/yearly</A> in 2004. 2006 still showed that once incomes move into the six figures, <A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html" REL="nofollow">Republicans take control</A>.<BR/><BR/>Take this:<BR/>"But in a broader measurement, the study also showed that of the 167 House districts where the median annual income was higher than the national median of $48,201, a slight majority, 84 districts, were represented by Democrats." That's 50.3%, hardly a majority that can give anyone a conclusion. Democrats might just hold a majority there because, I don't know, <I>they hold a majority overall</I>?<BR/><BR/>The article also says nothing of the poorer Congressional Districts. Poor, mostly white, and rural districts tend to be conservative (and "poor" is a relative term here, the cost of living out in the boondocks is lower). Poor, mostly minority, inner-city districts tend to elect Democrats.<BR/><BR/>The conclusion here--that Democrats represent the rich--might become true later, but it's far from common knowledge and flies in the face of at least a few decades of history.Kentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08882752479799446034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5131909766460602337.post-61840325454198636982007-11-23T12:28:00.000-05:002007-11-23T12:28:00.000-05:00The rich are the ones that can afford to vote demo...The rich are the ones that can afford to vote democtatic. :)Whackettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16012739312397667834noreply@blogger.com