CULTURAL ISSUES OR WHAT'S NOT THE MATTER WITH KANSAS

(H/T to PGL at The Angry Bear)

Mark Thoma of Economist's View mentioned the work of Prof. Larry Bartels on values voting. You may recall that Thomas Frank in What's the Matter with Kansas asserted that white voters, especially working class whites, feel for the GOP "culture war" crap and turned away from the Democratic Party.

Prof. Bartels has done some research that shows this is false. It's been the middle to upper income whites who have turned to the GOP, not the working class. His paper, "What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter with Kansas?," has 4 main conclusions:


• Has the white working class abandoned the Democratic Party? No.

• Has the white working class become more conservative? No.

• Do working class "moral values" trump economics? No.

• Are religious voters distracted from economic issues? No.