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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gpowell who wrote (67568)	11/22/2004 10:40:47 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

It's Not the Economy _________________________ Paul Waldman (8:45AM) 11/22/2004 With the predictable conceit that what we see today is what shall be henceforth, many commentators have taken President Bush's victory as evidence that people no longer vote their economic interests. Though but a tiny sliver of Americans have actually benefited from the president's economic policies, he got a majority because people looked past their own selfish needs and voted their values. The Democratic Party, we are told, must now go beyond its traditional identity as the defender of ordinary people's interests if it ever hopes to win national victory again, because the economy doesn't really matter anymore. But this actually isn't anything new. For a couple of decades now, political scientists analyzing survey data have been finding that people don't vote according to their own economic fortunes. The far better predictor of their votes is what they believe about how the country is doing economically. If they think things in the country are going well, they reward the incumbent and his party, and if they think things are going poorly they punish him. This is referred to as sociotropic voting (typical academic behavior – take a simple concept and attach an esoteric term to it, so no one but initiates knows what you're talking about). So this election did represent a break with the past, but not because people stopped voting their economic interests. People stopped voting according to anyone's economic interest. There was broad agreement that Bush had not been good for the nation's economy. As a matter of fact, there was agreement that he hadn't done a good job on much of anything, with one exception: terrorism. Presidential performance was completely off the table – that's what made this election so extraordinary. One struggles to recall an incumbent with a record of failure so complete, yet even many of those who saw it clearly nonetheless cast a vote for Bush. You've got to hand it to them. gadflyer.com

To: gpowell who wrote (67568)	11/22/2004 11:08:24 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

When did Lizzie say that old people should die of West Nile? Didn't she say that old people were most susceptible to West Nile? If everyone had insurance or access to health care that would go a long way to solving that problem. Then again Bush wants to kill every man, woman and child who opposes him in Iraq (and probably in the US and France) so Republicans are the most evil people in the world right now using that standard.