Placing Priority

In this article, we are going to compare and contrast Market Skeptic Republicans with the two other Democratic-leaning groups in the Center of the electorate, the Devout and Diverse and Disaffected Democrats. We will also throw in the Country First Conservatives/Paleocons.

The Market Skeptic Republicans aka the Disaffected or Hard Pressed Skeptics are 12% of the general public and registered voters and 10% of politically engaged voters. The Devout and Diverse Democrats are 9% of the general public and registered voters and 6% of politically engaged voters. The Disaffected Democrats are 14% of the general public and 11% of politically engaged voters.

The two-party system is anchored by Core Conservatives/True Cons and Solid Liberals/Woke Shitlibs. It is intensely polarized between two groups of wealthy people who favor fiscal conservatism and social liberalism. This is why the country always seems to move toward libertarianism after every election. When the Republicans are in charge, we get corporate tax cuts. When the Democrats are in charge, we get things like desegregating restrooms for transsexuals. This is what is called “progress.”

Who are the Democrats?

Pew Research Center:

“Solid Liberals anchor the Democratic coalition, as similar groups did in 2014 and 2011. Those in this group take liberal positions across nearly every domain – including government, the economy and business, race, gender and immigration. They also think the U.S. should be active in world affairs. Solid Liberals are highly engaged and intensely partisan: 99% affiliate with, or lean to, the Democratic Party, including 47% who describe themselves as strong Democrats. About seven-in-ten (71%) describe themselves as liberal; by comparison, no more than a third of those in any other typology group call themselves liberal.

Opportunity Democrats, who are 80% Democratic or Democratic-leaning, are in broad agreement with Solid Liberals on most political values. However, particularly on questions about economic opportunity, they hold less uniformly liberal stances than Solid Liberals and a plurality (46%) call themselves moderate.

Disaffected Democrats similarly are more likely to call themselves moderate (44%) than liberal (30%), even as 85% identify with or lean to the Democratic Party. Generally in alignment with Solid Liberals on most political values, this group diverges from them in their skepticism about government. In contrast to Opportunity Democrats, Disaffected Democrats are more critical in their views of the economic system broadly, including U.S. involvement in the global economic system.

The final group in the Democratic coalition, Devout and Diverse, is the most politically diverse group in the typology: 59% are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 26% are Republican or lean Republican. Most of those in this majority-minority group hold liberal values about the social safety net and racial issues. But Devout and Diverse part ways with other Democratic-oriented groups in their isolationist views of foreign policy and are far more mixed than these other groups in their views about immigrants, environmental regulation and homosexuality.”

Solid Liberals/Woke Shitlibs run the Democratic Party.

The groups in the Center of the electorate are the most likely to agree their vote doesn’t matter: Market Skeptic Republicans, Devout and Diverse Democrats and especially the Disaffected Democrats. The True Cons and Woke Shitlibs are the two groups most satisfied with the system.

Four groups say that life in America has gotten worse for them over the past 50 years: Country First Conservatives (Paleocons), Market Skeptic Republicans (Populists/Nationalists), Devout and Diverse Democrats and Disaffected Democrats. The True Cons and Woke Shitlibs both agree that life has gotten better for them and the two-party system represents them.

Disaffected Democrats are the most pessimistic group in America.

The Market Skeptic Republicans (Populists and Nationalists) and Country First Conservatives (Paleocons) are indistinguishable on believing their family having achieved the American Dream. Devout and Diverse Democrats and Disaffected Democrats are even more disaffected.

Market Skeptic Republicans (Populists and Nationalists), Disaffected Democrats and Solid Liberals agree on believing that banks and financial institutions have a negative impact on the country.

The whole country agrees that income inequality in the United States is a big problem with the notable exception of True Cons. 94% of Market Skeptic Republicans, 99% of Solid Liberals and 99% of Disaffected Democrats believe the U.S. economic system unfairly favors powerful interests.

Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA represent the 79% of True Cons who believe in the fairness of the U.S. economic system:

Health care is one of the biggest issues that draws the Disaffected Democrats and Diverse and Devout Democrats:

Health care voters are moderates who are more anti-immigration.

True Cons and Woke Shitlibs are intensely polarized on raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Market Skeptic Republicans (Populists and Nationalists) and Disaffected Democrats tend to support the idea. Country First Conservatives are significantly more moderate on the issues.

As one might expect, the big divide is on race and immigration.

Devout and Diverse Democrats and Disaffected Democrats overwhelmingly say that more needs to be done to give equal rights to blacks. Disaffected Democrats support BLM. Devout and Diverse Democrats are more skeptical of BLM and noticeably more skeptical of immigration.

When it comes to foreign policy, Disaffected Dems and Devout and Diverse Dems are far closer to Market Skeptic Republicans and Country First Conservatives than to Solid Liberals/Woke Shitlibs.

The Market Skeptic Republicans (Populists and Nationalists), Disaffected Democrats and Devout and Diverse Democrats are the three groups that are concentrated in the Center of the electorate:

These three groups are more alike than different in their politics.

The funny thing is, they are moderates (socially conservative/economically populist) who mirror each other on race and identity. Ethnocentrism or in group bias is higher among young moderates of all races:

The political divide between the two parties runs through more lower income, working class, ethnocentric Whites, Hispanics and blacks who are split on identity issues.

These are the issues that divide the electorate.

What are the most important issues though to each group?

Voter Study Group:

The Democrats are split between DILEs (Democrat Independent Leaning Liberal Elites) and DLWCs (Democrat Leaning Working Class):

“What emerges in this report is a perceptible split between the two main groups that vote Democratic. On the issues, the Democratic Party faces a substantial divide between the two critical elements of its electoral coalition. …

Thus, the balance of this analysis will focus on the two distinct clusters that lean most consistently Democratic: DILE and DLWC. These two cluster groups differ greatly by their issue prioritization, and when compared to the Republican-leaning groups, they offer a clue to understanding the challenges that the Democratic Party faces as it seeks a path back to electoral success. …”

The Democratic Party is divided by race, class and issue prioritization.

“What emerges from this data is a clear division between the issue preferences of the DILEs and DLWCs. The latter group shares the economy as a high-priority issue with every cluster but the DILEs. DLWCs are also closer to conservative and moderate voters on jobs, crime, terrorism, and Social Security, which are high-priority issues (or close to it) for all clusters except the DILEs. And the top two issues that DILEs highly prioritize — environment and climate change — rank only ninth and 11th among DLWC voters, respectively. …”

DLWCs are closer to conservatives and moderate voters on jobs, crime, terrorism and Social Security. They care significantly less about the environment and climate change than DILEs.

“The two Democratic-leaning clusters do share some issues in common. Health care is the main unifying factor, with both groups deeming it a high-priority issue. On the opposite side of the scale, both groups rank the size of government as their least prioritized issue. …”

Health care is the issue that unites the two groups. DLWCs are more more anti-immigration, but vote with DILEs because of health care.

“Notwithstanding these similarities, the Democratic coalition is much further apart on the issues than their Republican-leaning counterparts. Compared to DILE and DLWC voters, who share only one high-priority issue, CY and CO voters each rank the economy and terrorism as high-priority issues, and they are close on jobs, crime, and taxes.  …

In fact, DLWCs share with the Republican-leaning groups a lower prioritization of gay rights, which is the least-prioritized issue (or nearly so) for all clusters of the electorate except DILEs. …”

DLWCs say that gay rights is their least important issue.

“DILEs (13 percent of the electorate) are heavily Democratic (67 percent) and liberal (77 percent), and are less than 1 percent Republican or conservative. They are also the youngest group, with 51 percent under 45 years old. The DILE cluster has the second-highest percentage of white voters (75 percent), behind only the CY cluster (79 percent). Their educational attainment is the highest of all the groups, as 86 percent have some college/an associate’s degree or more, with 48 percent having graduated college, and 22 percent having done post-graduate work. Finally, they have the highest income — with 26 percent making $100,000 or more, and only 10 percent making $30,000 or less. …”

DILEs are upper income, college-educated White professionals.

“In contrast, the DLWC cluster (27 percent of the electorate) is the group with the largest non-white population; 39 percent of voters in this cluster identify as non-white. The majority of this group identifies as Democratic (52 percent), and a high proportion identifies as independent (32 percent). Ideologically, moderates make up the largest share (50 percent) of this group, though liberals outnumber conservatives 34 percent to 17 percent. This is the second-oldest group, with 53 percent age 55 or older, and only 4 percent under age 30. Significantly more people within this group are female (66 percent). In terms of education, only 24 percent have a college degree or more, while 45 percent have a high school diploma or less. DLWCs also have the lowest average income; over half of this group (52 percent) makes $50,000 or less.

Thus, the data show that apart from major differences over issue prioritization, the two clusters that make up the Democratic coalition are also very demographically distinct. …”

DLWCs are lower income White and non-White voters who are more likely to be moderates and Independents.

“As of the July 2017 VOTER Survey, there was almost unanimous disapproval (99 percent) of President Trump among DILEs; in contrast, nearly 23 percent of DLWCs supported the president. Among CYs and COs, there was far more consistency, with 89 percent and 80 percent of these voters approving of the president, respectively. …

In this analysis, a homogenous cluster of high-income and highly educated mostly white voters — DILEs — votes almost unanimously Democratic, rather than Republican. The most diverse cluster, DLWCs, provides a good portion of its votes to Republicans …”

Top 5 DILE issues:

Environment, Climate Change, Health care, Education, Racial Equality.

Top 5 DLWC issues:

Health care, Social Security, Medicare, Economy, Jobs.

How DLWCs rate DILE issues in terms of importance: Environment (#9), Climate Change (#12), Health care (#1), Education (#8) and Racial equality (#13).

How DILEs rate DLWCs issues in terms of importance: Health care (#3), Social Security (#14), Medicare (#9), Economy (#12), Jobs (#13).

How do these different groups rate racial equality? DILEs say it is their #5. issue. Younger Conservatives and Older Conservatives say it is their #18 issue. Moderate Young Middle Income Voters rank it their #15 issue and DLWCs rate it their #13 issue.

How do these different groups rate immigration? DILEs say it is their #18 issue. Younger Conservatives say it is their #8 issue. Older Conservatives say it is their #12 issue. Moderate Young Middle Income Voters and DLWCs both rank it their #20 issue.

Overall, all voters say that health care is their second most important issue. It is the only issue on which DLWCs and DILEs are closely united.

Conclusion: Health care is the issue where nationalists and populists have by far the most to gain by taking a more moderate position.