The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #110367   Message #2317083
Posted By: GUEST,Fantasma
16-Apr-08 - 06:51 AM
Thread Name: BS: Are You Bitter???
Subject: RE: BS: Are You Bitter???
And according to the latest social science research, Obama is DEAD WRONG in his "bitter" speech, and is exploiting the upper class Dem elites' prejudices.

Here is a brief abstract from a recent study at Penn State, which showed that the conservative Republican base isn't from the working class, but the same upper class elites that he appeals to in his own party:

"The elusive link between conservative Protestantism and conservative economics

Jacob Felson and Heather Kindella, Authors

Pennsylvania State University, Sociology, 1352 Deerfield Drive, State College, PA 16803, USA

Available online 16 January 2007.

Abstract

Research on the political attitudes of conservative Protestants has yielded inconsistent results. We know that conservative Protestants (CPs) tend to be more socially conservative than members of other religious groups and have tended to vote Republican in recent years, but we are less certain of their attitudes toward the size and role of government in matters unrelated to religion. Despite theoretical expectations and qualitative research supporting a link between conservative Protestantism and conservative attitudes about the size and role of government, quantitative work has failed to find a consistent relationship. The present study interprets conservative Protestant issue preferences in the context of research on non-attitudes, arguing that we should not expect ideological constraint among the less educated segment of the population. However, among better educated members of the population, we should expect to find ideologically consistent attitudes. Results from the General Social Survey suggest that better-educated evangelical Protestants are consistently more economically conservative than other Protestants. Among Protestants with lower levels of education, there is no consistent relationship between conservative Protestantism and economic policy preferences. Since the better educated are disproportionately politically active, politicians may be especially likely to pay attention to their interests. This may help to explain why the Republican coalition between social and economic conservatives has endured for several decades and shows no signs of abating."