In Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology, The Pew Research Center reports extensive polling research of over 10,000 adults, documenting their development of a typology of eight major political groups in the United States, based on their attitudes and values, operating underneath the more common "red-blue" binary distinction. Pew used cluster analysis on peoples response to 23 questions This extensive report looks as if it will become essential reading for all political analysts and poll enthusiasts interested in winning elections and better understanding the political landscape.
If you'd like to discover which group you fall into you can take their quiz here: Political Typology Quiz, although if you are in a hurry I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess you are probably in the what Pew calls Solid Liberal, but you could be a Faith and Family Left, or Next Generation Left. The reason I'm guessing you will be in one of the three primarily Democratic groups is by virtue of your participation in Daily Kos, most likely the first, or maybe second. Pew has defined the solid left as one of the three most political active partisan anchor groups and the average age of kogs is ... higher than the New Generation left which seems also to be ambivalent about safety net issues which are popular here. (And I mean this is the nicest possible way.)
I haven't had a chance to fully analyze this long and extensive report which is full of interesting data on these groups responses go a broad range of controversial social issues, so I invite readers with an interest to help digest it here.
Three of the eight groups are "strongly ideological, highly politically engaged and overwhelmingly partisan:"
Steadfast Conservatives who are critics of government, social safety nets, and very social conservative,
Business Conservatives favor limited government, but are more defined by their "support for Wall Street and business, as well as immigration reform." They also differ from Steadfast Conservatives in being more moderate on social issues. This is one of the groups I've argued we may be able to pull some to our side based on pro-science, or anti-science-denial, climate-change, and the defense analysis who declared climate change as a national security threat to the U.S. I do not see much discussion yet of how the national security issues play out in the different conservative groups.
Solid Liberals would be most of us here, I believe and we "express liberal attitudes across almost every realm – government, the economy and business and foreign policy, as well as on race, homosexuality and abortion – and are reliable and loyal Democratic voters.:
Young Outsiders lean Republican but do not have a strong allegiance to the Republican Party; in fact they tend to dislike both political parties. On many issues, from their support for environmental regulation to their liberal views on social issues, they diverge from traditional GOP orthodoxy. Yet in their support for limited government, Young Outsiders are firmly in the Republicans’ camp.
Hard-Pressed Skeptics have been battered by the struggling economy, and their difficult financial circumstances have left them resentful of both government and business. Despite their criticism of government performance, they back more generous government support for the poor and needy. Most Hard-Pressed Skeptics say they voted for Obama in 2012, though fewer than half approve of his job performance today.
The Next Generation Left are young, relatively affluent and very liberal on social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. But they have reservations about the cost of social programs. And while most of the Next Generation Left support affirmative action, they decisively reject the idea that racial discrimination is the main reason why many blacks are unable to get ahead.
The Faith and Family Left lean Democratic, based on their confidence in government and support for federal programs to address the nation’s problems. But this very religious, racially and ethnically diverse group is uncomfortable with the pace of societal change, including the acceptance of homosexuality and non-traditional family structures.
Bystanders, represent 10% of the public, "are on the sidelines of the political process. They are not registered to vote and pay very little attention to politics."
Opportunities for Political Strategies
One interesting section called "Divisions on the Left," discuses some of the frictions between the Solid Liberals, which constittute 15% of the public, and 17% of the registered voters, and the Faith and Family Left, which "is by far the most racially and ethnically diverse group in the typology: In fact, just 41% are white non-Hispanic; 30% are black, 19% are Hispanic and 8% are other or mixed race.," 91% of FAFL say “it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.” Less than 10% of the rest of the Democratic Party oriented groups agree. Only 37% of this group favors same-sex marriage, which is less than half the share of the two Democratic groups.
I can imagine Karl Rove looking over statistics like this imagining strategies for party "realignment," just as we will. There are dozens of opportunities for discussions like this embedded in this rich reservoir of data.
If you a Democratic who believes in electing more and better Democrats I recommend you read this data filled analysis cover to cover.
And, as a party, we would do well to better understand who we are, so we can treat each other with more respect, and work more effectively with one another.
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