Naw, Bobert, I bet there are lots of people on the right who don't vote come election day...but it would be interesting to see the comparative proportions of those who do or don't on either side of the political divide.

People who are older and more financially secure tend to get out and vote (because they're used to doing so), while those who are on the low end of the economic scale and in ghettoes tend not to, I think. This means that those who have the most vested interest in maintaining a system of privilege and maintaining the status quo are far more likely to vote than those who are suffering worst under the status quo...and that does favour a right wing economic agenda.

While in Communist Russia, it would have favoured a left wing (hardline Communist) agenda.

Ironical, isn't it? The well established in any society will generally support a repressive system, because one hand washes the other. (There are mavericks, though, among the young and rebellious...Fidel Castro grew up in a rich and privileged family in Cuba, with every reason to support the Batista government, but became a revolutionary. It's relatively rare, but it happens. It happens when idealism and principle weigh larger in a person's mind than immediate advantage and sheer greed. Castro could've had anything he wanted. He chose to risk his life, suffer tremendous privation, and fight against tremendous odds, and he won....just like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did...and they were among his heroes!)

I suggest a reading of several good books about Cuba, for an overview of what I've said above. Castro anticipated support from the USA for his revolution, but he underestimated the power of large corporations and the Mafia to influence American foreign policy. He kicked them out of Cuba...they made him a pariah in Washington.

He could have been a valued US ally all these years, if principle outweighed the dollar in America. It doesn't, sadly enough. It doesn't in most other governments either.

- LH