I think I would try to identify the usual constituencies that Republicans and Democrats try to appeal to. Neither party really has a single base: Republicans want to appeal to their traditional business interests along with small businesspeople, evangelicals, security hawks, and most of rural America. Democrats have most of the cities, union members (dwindling), some minorities, and liberal religious groups. Of course, a lot of people fit into more than one of these groups, and there are tensions between coalition partners! For example, among Republicans, business people and hawks are often socially liberal. African-Americans generally vote Democratic, but they often support school vouchers and disapprove of abortion. So I'd probably want to start with that kind of analysis, before trying to explain why the parties sort of have official ideologies, but aren't very consistent.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-11-21 04:15 pm (UTC)So I'd probably want to start with that kind of analysis, before trying to explain why the parties sort of have official ideologies, but aren't very consistent.