A new Pew
Research Center study makes clear that Republicans are no
longer the party just of the wealthy, nor are Democrats the party
of the working class. And both have constituencies of anti-gay
conservatives (though a bigger percentage of the GOP base). As the
Washington Post's
report on the study puts it:
Both parties now are coalitions of the wealthy and not-so-wealthy, and of well-educated and less-educated voters. Taken together, the findings show why neither party can take its coalition for granted in future campaigns.
Republicans can be pro-business Enterprisers, Social
Conservatives or Pro-Government Conservatives, while Democrats can
be Liberals, Disadvantaged Democrats and Conservative Democrats.
According to the study:
While agreeing with the conservative position on most key issues, Enterprisers [9% of the general population, 11% of registered voters] are distinguished from other Republican-leaning groups by their relative lack of intensity with respect to individual or social moral beliefs. . . .
Overall, divisions over social and religious issues continue to be far more intense on the left than on the right. Conservative Democrats - who represent 14% of the general public [15% of registered voters] and a quarter of John Kerry's voting base in 2004 - tend to agree with Republican groups more than other Democratic groups when it comes to key social issues such as gay marriage and abortion.
Which may be why, despite all the gay money Democrats receive, their pro-gay actions at the national level have been mostly rhetorical, and often their record has been scarcely better than that of the Republicans (the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, etc.).
Want to know what category you fit into? Take the test. (Not
surprisingly, I'm an Enterpriser).