Friday Open Thread [5.22.15]

Filed in National by on May 22, 2015

Jay Bookman at The Atlanta Journal Constitution takes a deep look at the Republican economic legacy:

Sometimes you hear people say that America can no longer afford X, Y or Z because we’re broke. We just don’t have the money. We are not broke. We are not anywhere near broke. But we may in fact be broken.

Our political system is broken, our national will is broken, our sense of ourselves as a people is broken, our commitment to “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” is broken. Our willingness to invest in each other and in our future is broken.

All because some racists in the Republican Party can’t deal with the fact that a black man is President.

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For the first time since polling began in 1999, Gallup found that there are more social liberals in the United States than social conservatives.

Gallup reported that the number of respondents who called themselves social liberals has increased to 31%, while the number of self-identified social conservatives has fallen to 30%. The number of Democrats who refer to themselves as social liberals jumped from 47% in 2014 to 53% in 2015. The number of Republicans who call themselves socially conservative has declined from 60% in 2014 to 53% in 2015.

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  1. Jason330 says:
    May 22, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    “Gallup reported that the number of respondents who called themselves social liberals has increased to 31%, while the number of self-identified social conservatives has fallen to 30%.”

    I credit the contributors and commenters at Delaware Liberal for reclaiming the term of honor, integrity and rationality.

  2. Mikem2784 says:
    May 22, 2015 at 1:53 pm

    I get so tired of hearing about how tight our state budget is and how much we have to cut spending and raise fees on things mandated by the state that ordinary working people have to buy whilst at the same time refusing to even consider the creation of one or two new tax brackets at the top. It wouldn’t solve everything, but at least it would demonstrate that we’re going to make the rich do their part in sharing the suffering that the middle class in Delaware has felt for the last 9 years now.

  3. cassandra_m says:
    May 22, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    This study is a little old, but provides an interesting perspective combined with the change noted by Gallup — Study: Lawmakers Assume Voters Are Way More Conservative Than They Are:

    The typical conservative legislator overestimates his or her district’s conservatism by a whopping 20 percentage points. Indeed, he or she believes the district is even more conservative than the most right-leaning district in the entire country.
    Liberals also think their constituents’ views are more conservative than they really are, but are typically only off by about five percentage points.

    The why is not exactly news here:

    As the beginnings of an answer, the co-authors note that many scholars have found “politicians feel much more accountable to the wealthy, party leaders, or interest groups than to rank and file voters’ preferences,” and that “politically active citizens tend to be wealthier and more conservative than others.”

    In other words, staying in office – the sine qua non goal for the vast majority of elected officials — is likely not perfectly aligned with representing the views of a majority of their constituents.

  4. Nancy Willing says:
    May 22, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    This was noted in the Center for America’s Future news letter today – Third Way’s Jon Cowan and DE Gov. Jack Markell criticize Mayor de Blasio’s “Progressive Agenda” in W. Post oped

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-contract-for-the-middle-class/2015/05/21/26e41824-fd9d-11e4-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html

    arrrrrrrrrgh

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