"Strong Democrats" have, in the past 10 years, swung away from the median voter on cultural issues
New analysis by 
Conversation
![David Watson 🥑](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="96" height="96"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Post your reply
"Democrat political elites" culturally diverge from the median voter
Research by Alexander Furnas () and Timothy LaPira ().
ft.com/content/73a183
White progressives do stand for minorities,
But actually have very different views
- such as on legal immigration and policing.
Graph by
The Democrats are no longer seen as representing the working class -
“Strong Republicans” have also swung away from the median voter on issues
Holy crap--that affirmative action graph! This matches quite nicely with a lot of "attitudes on race" surveys, but this ideological breakdown isolates it much more starkly.
Would you say Dems are in line with the economics profession?
It is pretty universal in the economics profession that immigration is good.
Plus, the US economy is becoming more dependent on immigration as families dry up.
It's a great analysis, but I disagree with the statement: "Hispanic and Black conservatives voting increasingly in line with their social values rather than their economic priorities."
Red states are doing better economically than blue states, and this is why people move there.
OK so I read the article and it doesn't say what "cultural issues" exactly Ds are to the left on. It mentions two: legal immigration should be made easier, and size of force and scope of police work should be cut. The first is Wall Street conservative, the 2nd is libertarian.
What about, say, guns, or gay rights? Because Republican politicians are wickedly divergent from the sainted median voter on those.
This looks all scientific like, but there is a lot of subjectiveness going on.
¡Tramita tu credencial para votar 
! Sin importar la distancia, sigue participando en la vida democrática del país 
¡es tu derecho!
Identifica los requisitos 
y realiza tu trámite.
Más información en: votoextranjero.mx
! Sin importar la distancia, sigue participando en la vida democrática del país ¡es tu derecho!
Identifica los requisitos y realiza tu trámite.
Más información en: votoextranjero.mx
One quibble--yes real divergence, but is immigration simply a cultural issue?
"Median voter" is not something you can measure in a survey that's basically "yes/no". And a median voter couldn't have an percentage average position on one issue in one year.
What are we even doing here?
The rightward move on immigration is even more extreme after 2020 (not sure if strong D moved right themselves though.)
What’s actually happened is Americans have swung away from answering this survey
This chart doesn’t make sense. Democrats are way left on immigration. Republicans have moved slightly left on immigration and the median voter moved sharply right? That doesn’t track.
Considering your work on gender - Is it fair to say that (young) women have swung more if compared to policy, but (young men) more if compared to centre of opinion?
(As in what you compare change against, a fixed or moving value.)
I hope this answers the question for Dems of why someone would vote for Trump.
Yeah well we're not changing our values just because the median voter is a moron - we'll get 'em eventually.
Wait, where is the republican radicalization, purge of moderate and rise of alt-right influencers ? I suspect the shift would be strongly to the other side for other questions.
This data in this article is not super relevant to the claims in this article. Like, he is trying to claim that 60% of white Dems support affirmative action means the average Dem has 60 affirmative action support intensity points,
Politicians are the problem. It’s time for real change beyond red and blue curtains on a sinking ship.
Totally pointless and apparently counter productive to adopt more culturally radical policies while living standards of working class people continue to stagnate.
Can’t help but notice the coincidence with Occupy Wall Street 2011 and maybe Bernie Sanders 2012. I wonder how far right they simultaneously went on economic issues.
pardon me, but by definition, if half of the electorate moves in a direction, the "median" should move in that direction too. This doesn't seem very serious
I've seen a similar chart of congress. In that case, congress had moved much further right on the red side than the blue side had moved to the left (almost none).
Interesting cause and effect?
This is one of the main reasons why so many conservative-temperament Democrats and moderates were open to voting for Trump.
Trump/Vance platform is a lot like what old-school 1990’s era Democrats put forward.
wait, I thought affirmative action had always had around 50% support? Here's a poll from 2005 usatoday.com/news/polls/tab
No Democrats I know believe we need more immigration. This is BS. We need a rational effective sustainable immigration program which we don't have because Congress won't fix it. They won't fund fixing it.
I wish this had points on it not just trendlines. Does the swing really start at 2012, or is it just connecting to 2016, or even 2013 Ferguson shit?
I wonder what was going on between 2008 and 2012. To make it shift so hard to the left.Just something to ponder.
I seem to remember somebody saying something about "fundamentally changing america".
Oh yeah,It was that community organizer and Big Mike.
Perhaps they thought they could drag the Overton window with them. Turns out they weren't strong enough.
How are these statistics (which are calculated as fractions of a sample) defined for the 'median voter'?
diagram seems to be getting more empirical support each day. With this election result more now feel more free to say what most have said, but were rejected as far-right or nonsensical. The Western world seems to be healing and we are here for it. Thanks
How tf is immigration a “cultural issue” rather than a human rights one ? 
Not sure
Sounds more like perception than reality.
Republicans have promoted culture wars for years.
Consider cause and effect. It will make you smarter.
Then the following becomes even more interesting
Quote
Thi7d
@slidex177
WHO FUNDS THE WOKE, FAR-LEFT, NEOMARXISTS? WESTERN CAPITALISTS ARE UNLIKELY TO DO THAT.
THEN WHO?
BILLIONS CAN'T APPEAR JUST MAGICALLY.
THEY ARE SO BIG AND POPULAR – TOTALLY ORGANICALLY?
Why do I constantly see young, half-legal immigrants from certain regions saying that x.com/slidex177/stat…
Show more
Democrats did not understand that MAGA, Republicans, Libertarians and "actual" Liberals saw the explosion "Wokeness" and "DEI" as the perfect ways to show normal people how insane Democrats are. They STILL don't get it. 
GIF
A lot of people have noticed this. It's nice to see it quantified somewhat.
Everyone on the right is "far right", yet the actual "far left" is largely never in the spotlight.
Well, actions have consequences.
Enjoy.
Need to also look at % of people who are Dem, Median, and Rep over same time period too. If % of median voter is shrinking then not as important. Not that I’m saying it is
Does this correlate at all with the rise of alternative (conservative) media?
That is, did the MSM drift off taking the hard core people with it while everybody else were influenced by the alternative media?
They call it Trump Derangement Syndrome.
If Trump came out and publicly said the sky is blue, they'd disagree and call a "blue sky" fascist.
These are not ideal point estimates are percentages and net support. You cannot estimate median position without ideal points 
! WTF???
! WTF???
. urnmurdoch do you have graphics like this for last UK GE?
As a centrist I felt both parties diverged away
Obvious to anyone living among them. When I went to college and was surrounded by libs, dems, and progressives for the first time, it was a relief. Increasingly it’s felt like living with the hardcore religious conservatives I grew up with and escaped from.
Wokism = Totalitarian regimes trying to undermine Occident from within + Fools buying that rotten propaganda.
Mainstream Democrats today hold positions that most Democrats would have considered batshit crazy as little as ten years ago. Mainstream Republicans, including Trump supporters, hold few, if any, positions that haven't been common among mainstream Republicans for decades.
Trump won Collin by 9 percent and it has a median income of 118,000 while he lost Dallas by 20 percent and it has a median income of 75,000.
Cherry-picking, really?
Quote
Joshua Loftus
@joftius
Republicans have become more rightwing over time. If certain people vote or donate Dem now that doesn't mean those people shifted left
Any datavis or conversation about politics in the US that doesn't include the context of asymmetric polarization is practically misinformation x.com/jburnmurdoch/s…
Show more
Interesting! How much of this is:
- mainstream Dems actually moving “left” on culture?
- or the numbers of “strong Dems” shrinking?
- or an information landscape propagating conservative views despite wider cultural change (the mean moved “left” even if the median stayed still)?
Well, that is called positive evolution of culture, not a leftist turn.
it seems to me that you are able to vote, which was not always a given...
They have swung so far to the left, anyone to right the of Mao Tse Tung is considered far right.