The Vanishing Republican Voter

[lonestarnot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07Inequality-t.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin :) And they try to claim there is no class war! :thumbsdown:

The Vanishing Republican Voter

By DAVID FRUM
Published: September 5, 2008
I LIVE IN WASHINGTON, in a neighborhood that is home to lawyers, political consultants, television personalities and the chief executive of the TIAA-CREF pension fund. Not exactly an abode of the superrich, but the kind of neighborhood where almost nobody does her own yardwork or vacuums his own floor. Children’s birthday parties feature rented moon bounces or hired magicians. The local grocery stores offer elegant precooked dinners of salmon, duck and artichoke ravioli.


Four miles to the southeast there stretches a different Washington. More than one-third of the people live in poverty. Close to half the young children are overweight. Fewer than half the adults work. The rate of violent crime is more than 10 times that of the leafy streets of my neighborhood.

Measured by money income, Washington qualifies as one the most unequal cities in the United States. Yet these two very different halves of a single city do share at least one thing. They vote the same way: Democratic. And in this, we are not alone. As a general rule, the more unequal a place is, the more Democratic; the more equal, the more Republican. The gap between rich and poor in Washington is nearly twice as great as in strongly Republican Charlotte, N.C.; and more than twice as great as in Republican-leaning Phoenix, Fort Worth, Indianapolis and Anaheim.

My fellow conservatives and Republicans have tended not to worry very much about the widening of income inequalities. As long as there exists equality of opportunity — as long as everybody’s income is rising — who cares if some people get rich faster than others? Societies that try too hard to enforce equality deny important freedoms and inhibit wealth-creating enterprise. Individuals who worry overmuch about inequality can succumb to life-distorting envy and resentment.

All true! But something else is true, too: As America becomes more unequal, it also becomes less Republican. The trends we have dismissed are ending by devouring us.


(Ok I posted more than three but I had too)

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Only someone like David Frum could twist the growing inequality in this nation into a treatise that

supports Conservative Repukiness......

[lonestarnot]

2. pukey fucker!

Maybe I shouldn't have posted it, but the title caught my eye.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. It gives some interesting insight into their thought processes...

and...it is a sign that they are scared...

[AndyTiedye]

4. Perhaps Wealthy Republicans Are Less Likely to Live in Cities