Monday, October 20, 2008

Razib's review of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State is interesting. For example:
In rich states, blue states, the rich are more secular than the poor. I doubt this will surprise many readers. But this might: in red states the rich are often more religious than the poor! In blue states the wealthy are more socially liberal than the poor, but somewhat more economically conservative. In other words, the wealthy in blue states tend to exhibit a libertarian lean. In red states the wealthy are at least, or more, socially conservative, and much more economically conservative. This is of course a natural explanation for why income matters much more in red states for partisan voting, but less so in blue states. Blue state elites have to balance their social values which are strongly Left with their economic interests. In red states elites have no such conundrum, their social and economic interests are naturally served by the Republican party, while the poor who may be socially conservative have powerful economic interests in the Democratic party.

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