Discussion: THIS CHART: How The Two Parties Have Changed Since 1992

Republicans; the older, dumber, whiter and meaner Party.
Real attractive if you’re one of those.

Democrats have everything going for them except the cheating factor. We play by the rules and the other side doesn’t even recognize the meaning of that.

Cheaters never prosper, that’s also the good news!

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Not clear why the article isn’t also pointing out that relative to the larger population, the Republican party has also become less educated during this time. So, less diverse, less educated, older, and slightly more religious.

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This points up quite strongly the benefits to the Republicans from the suppression of non-white voters. In fact, it shows that it is essential if the Republicans are to have electoral success on a national level. I’m sure Kris Kobach and Hans von Spakovsky are on top of this.

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The GOP base is dominated by people who grew up when you didn’t need a college degree to succeed in life and who think the same is still true courtesy of fairy tales about China/Mexico being the cause of all our woes. It’s hard to reach out to younger voters when you have nothing to offer them for fear of offending the misinformed current party members. Doubly so when you’re still bent on “family values” (Trump family values? shiver) when people have grown up observing bellicose fundamentalism and the obvious attempts to hide clerical sex abuse.

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The election data has been indicating this for some time, a fact that the Southern Strategy-driven GOP has been purposefully deaf to (the 2012 GOP Growth & Opportunity Report has been a clarion call we’ll see ignored for at least another election cycle). They’ve worked hard for this upcoming disaster.

When you’re more of an opposition-to-all-things party and are too busy tearing shit down rather than building something (besides imaginary 100 feet tall walls), your rhetoric is impotent and you allow the other party to set the playing field. We went through this as a party ourselves during the late 70s, the mid 80s and during the Bush years.

Fortunately for progressives, it’s too late for Republicans to turn their ship about. The only thing that will give them pause is a political drowning en masse. And boy is that on its way.

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Note that the Republicans have 12% “religiously unaffiliated” now… more than the Dems did in '96, when the Republicans were calling the Dems godless atheists.

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It’s true that Dems tend to be better educated, but that doesn’t stop the commenters at Fox from referring to them as “low-information” voters.

All without irony, of course.

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Interesting to see if a new movement will emerge within the GOP. I would love to see a movement of young Republicans pushing critical thinking and rejecting racism/sexism. I would also love to see a unicorn.

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Well since they are on Fox #1 we can assume that they are Republicans, and #2 they aren’t as well educated as other news channel commentators.

Regardless of methodology and political affiliation, I think that half the people who claim religious affiliation still lie. The fact of the matter is most Americans do not attend a worship service of any kind, ever. Okay, maybe Christmas Eve with grandma. If this were not true, your typical suburban mainline congregation wouldn’t be fretting about fixing the roof on the parsonage and looking at an emptier and emptier sanctuary on Sundays.

There is a very vocal minority of Americans who are seriously religious and most of these people are non-denom “Christians.”

That is really interesting, especially about education level. I remember one of the standard Republican slurs against liberals was “Volvo driving latte sipping liberal elites”. Back then, it wasn’t true, but maybe Republicans thought it would alienate working class Democrats from the party if they could redefinite like that. So it is interesting that the party identification of college educated Americans seems to be more liberal now. Can only speculate why. Probably partly an age thing, but I suspect it is the increasing tendency for college educated people to live in and near larger cities. In particular, larger high cost of living cities, where even the college educated feel like the working poor.

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Any time a piece of data shows up that could be interpreted as older=bad, this forum jumps all over it, grouping the adjective ‘old’ with all sorts of adjectives describing negatives. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Ageism is bigotry.

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In terms of voting, age just means closer to aging out, i.e. dying off. The Party with youth on their side is inherently stronger and youth tends to be progressive, which is our sweet spot.

I think most posters here would even consider themselves older and often make jokes at their own expense.

It isn’t hating on the old because of merely being old, I’m sure both Party’s have their fair share of the elderly.
It’s all about vote advantage and attracting important demographics.

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I’m not sure you can say that the GOP has become less diverse. If the percentage of the population that is minority ethnicity has risen from 16 o 28 percent and the minority ethnicity percentage of the GOP has risen from 7 to 13, then the GOP is more diverse than it was, and it’s minority ethnicity has grown at a faster rate than the population.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s still a disgustingly low minority percentage, but it hasn’t become less diverse.

That sounds like constant shopping because of sales. You eventually will save so much that you’re broke.

A college education generally gives you three things:

  1. Exposure to “foreign” ideas, cultures, morals, and people you would have never been exposed to otherwise.
  2. The ability to think critically and to people who analyze things critically for a living.
  3. Experience living in a “different” culture from the one you grew up in.
    NOTE: None of this applies to FAUX Universities like “Liberty University”.
    It also does not apply if you were immersed in the “Greek Culture” while at college.

Damn, there I go again, betraying my demographic - +50 white woman haven’t voted for a Republican since 1985 (Norma Paulus of Oregon.). I know people usually get more conservative with time, but I seem to be doing the opposite.

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So the GOP is whiter and dumber than the Dems. I think that has been apparent for some time.

Hmmmm. I am on the upper half of 68, am white, and religious. What are the odds?

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