This is minor and completely irrelevant to the post, but I think there's a minor typo. Charles I was executed by Cromwell. Charles II was during the Restoration.
Loved this one Razib. So as I observe American politics sitting in Mumbai I can't help but say this as an outsider. My experience is limited to working with political leaders in India. But politics in many ways has some universal features.
Now to your point of voting patterns where we see a certain class of voters who would be expected to be voting for the Democrats going the opposite way. I see this as the victory of the American system. I have this hypothesis, I do not how far it is true. But, IMO the American system no matter how narrow-minded it was in the beginning actually worked. As and when the societal moral arc kept on expanding more and more groups got the benefit of the system. Does it mean it is perfect? Absolutely not, it is far from perfect.
But the voting patterns show me one thing, the new republican voters actually vote for them and showcase their faith in the old American system. I rarely listen to things like "burn the whole system down" from my family and friends in America. They like it a lot and find all this burn everything down rhetoric very scary. No wonder many of my friends in America voted for Trump for the 1st time in their life. They have always voted for the Democrats. But this time they changed their preference. But they still dislike Trump, but the democrats scared them so much that they went away. They love America and the system it has produced where people can rise to the top. They are worried that in this self-hatred that seems to have engulfed the American culture they might destroy that great system. Keep up the good work.
"Trump’s red America is rural, and tends to be concentrated amongst the descendants of Cavaliers and Scots-Irish"
I think it should be noted that Trump, relative to Republican candidates preceding him, appealed more to the north and less to the south. There are Scots-Irish in the rustbelt, but that many Cavaliers.
Huh, that was really interesting. Felt like I knew this stuff but haven’t read it told like this before. Black Americans (this was going to be a Twitter reply but decided it’d be better over here) are much more grounded to this land than I am. 1856 from Hessen, Germany on my dads side. Grew up being all liberal and a lefty and hearing a lot about the whole white supremacy thing & being a kid, didn’t give it much thought but, as I’m getting older, it’s starting to get really silly and tiring. I don’t know what it means and it’s got nothing to do with my experience or the experience of my fellow Americans that I’ve witnessed. My best friend growing up is a DACA recipient and I’ve dated a few girls who were, too, including my current girlfriend; once you know one -- they start coming out of the wood-work, I guess. But one of my ex’s uncle ran a landscaping business and they were, for all intents and purposes, republicans. Very socially conservative, too. I don’t think the Democratic Party has as firm of a hold on these people as they like to make seem. Okay, this is getting long now. The part where you talked about talking with the Korean-American friend that went to schools in the south was interesting, too. Very cool piece!
"Trump’s red America is rural, and tends to be concentrated amongst the descendants of Cavaliers and Scots-Irish. In contrast, the leadership of blue America falls to the Yankees and their fellow travelers, liberal white ethnics, Jews, and highly-educated Asian immigrants."
I know this sounds true in theory to me, but really how well does this predict voting behavior? My family (Pennsylvania Dutch and Puritan ancestry mixed with more recent German and Swedish immigrants) has deep roots in the Midwest and has voted Republican for as long as anyone can remember. We all still vote Republican--as do most of my extended family. In fact, at a large family reunion from maternal grandmother's side--a lineage that has Puritan roots going back to the 1600s--the host made a joke about everyone voting Republican, and everyone laughed. I guess another way of thinking about this would ask: how strong is this tendency? What data supports it, besides county-level data or what have you? We know from adoption studies that political identification is subject to nurture. I would not be surprised if a very rigorous genealogical study showed direct descendants of Republican voters in 1856 still vote mostly Republican.
This is minor and completely irrelevant to the post, but I think there's a minor typo. Charles I was executed by Cromwell. Charles II was during the Restoration.
Sorry to be that internet guy.
Loved this one Razib. So as I observe American politics sitting in Mumbai I can't help but say this as an outsider. My experience is limited to working with political leaders in India. But politics in many ways has some universal features.
Now to your point of voting patterns where we see a certain class of voters who would be expected to be voting for the Democrats going the opposite way. I see this as the victory of the American system. I have this hypothesis, I do not how far it is true. But, IMO the American system no matter how narrow-minded it was in the beginning actually worked. As and when the societal moral arc kept on expanding more and more groups got the benefit of the system. Does it mean it is perfect? Absolutely not, it is far from perfect.
But the voting patterns show me one thing, the new republican voters actually vote for them and showcase their faith in the old American system. I rarely listen to things like "burn the whole system down" from my family and friends in America. They like it a lot and find all this burn everything down rhetoric very scary. No wonder many of my friends in America voted for Trump for the 1st time in their life. They have always voted for the Democrats. But this time they changed their preference. But they still dislike Trump, but the democrats scared them so much that they went away. They love America and the system it has produced where people can rise to the top. They are worried that in this self-hatred that seems to have engulfed the American culture they might destroy that great system. Keep up the good work.
"Trump’s red America is rural, and tends to be concentrated amongst the descendants of Cavaliers and Scots-Irish"
I think it should be noted that Trump, relative to Republican candidates preceding him, appealed more to the north and less to the south. There are Scots-Irish in the rustbelt, but that many Cavaliers.
Huh, that was really interesting. Felt like I knew this stuff but haven’t read it told like this before. Black Americans (this was going to be a Twitter reply but decided it’d be better over here) are much more grounded to this land than I am. 1856 from Hessen, Germany on my dads side. Grew up being all liberal and a lefty and hearing a lot about the whole white supremacy thing & being a kid, didn’t give it much thought but, as I’m getting older, it’s starting to get really silly and tiring. I don’t know what it means and it’s got nothing to do with my experience or the experience of my fellow Americans that I’ve witnessed. My best friend growing up is a DACA recipient and I’ve dated a few girls who were, too, including my current girlfriend; once you know one -- they start coming out of the wood-work, I guess. But one of my ex’s uncle ran a landscaping business and they were, for all intents and purposes, republicans. Very socially conservative, too. I don’t think the Democratic Party has as firm of a hold on these people as they like to make seem. Okay, this is getting long now. The part where you talked about talking with the Korean-American friend that went to schools in the south was interesting, too. Very cool piece!
"Trump’s red America is rural, and tends to be concentrated amongst the descendants of Cavaliers and Scots-Irish. In contrast, the leadership of blue America falls to the Yankees and their fellow travelers, liberal white ethnics, Jews, and highly-educated Asian immigrants."
I know this sounds true in theory to me, but really how well does this predict voting behavior? My family (Pennsylvania Dutch and Puritan ancestry mixed with more recent German and Swedish immigrants) has deep roots in the Midwest and has voted Republican for as long as anyone can remember. We all still vote Republican--as do most of my extended family. In fact, at a large family reunion from maternal grandmother's side--a lineage that has Puritan roots going back to the 1600s--the host made a joke about everyone voting Republican, and everyone laughed. I guess another way of thinking about this would ask: how strong is this tendency? What data supports it, besides county-level data or what have you? We know from adoption studies that political identification is subject to nurture. I would not be surprised if a very rigorous genealogical study showed direct descendants of Republican voters in 1856 still vote mostly Republican.