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thatc0braguy t1_j7lrcp9 wrote

Reply to comment by Anticode in George W. Bush morning jog on September 11, 2001 by hungHub

Conservatism comes from money & ownership, generally. Money is the biggest indicator of where you will fall politically. (Celebrities being the outlier since their income comes from us giving them sales)

Because successive generations have less to conserve, they themselves are less conservative in general. As long as the economy continues to drive inequality, this will not reverse.

There's also the issue of medical complications where liberals are more likely to die earlier due to the stresses of poverty vs conservatives who can stay on top of their health through regular checkups. For example, republicans celebrated AIDS wiping out large demographics who were very anti-conservative.

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Anticode t1_j7mg4x1 wrote

I think you've got the arrangement of the dynamic backwards. Red states are some of the poorest in the union. I suspect that the reason why so much of the wealthy elite are conservative is a combination of...

  1. The republican party is practically specifically geared towards policies that benefit the rich, obfuscated by social policies that revolve around things the voters are angry about.

  2. Those least concerned with equity, empathy, and fairness are those most likely to pursue extreme wealth - and to acquire it (via variously unethical means).

I also think that having wealth also inspires people towards paranoia and fear, as they've now compartmentalized themselves from the masses and/or recognize the disparity (subconsciously or otherwise).

Like another commenter pointed out, democrats raised more money than republicans during that period of time (if you ignore the big-big contributions).

That being said, I deeply agree with you that democrats are the 'default party' and that there is no liberal party.

(Which is why I like to say that republicans/democrats are the offensive and defense lines of the elite respectively.)

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thatc0braguy t1_j7mk57s wrote

I wouldn't disagree with anything you've said.

I can't say for sure, but the "why" of the poorest states voting majority for the rich man's party is because those states don't see themselves as poor Laborers, they consider themselves "future millionaires" and vote accordingly.

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Chewybunny t1_j7m02q3 wrote

To an extent - more money from the top 300 richest zip codes in 2013–14 went to Democrats than Republicans, by a significant but not overwhelming margin, if you set aside those contributions over $1 million made by wealthy individuals to their own campaigns.

This could be because the big four metro areas of in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. have the highest concentration of the 300 richest zip codes. The top 5% of the people living in those zip codes contribute to Democrats twice as much as they do to Republicans.

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thatc0braguy t1_j7m199b wrote

Democrats are more the "default party" not necessarily liberal.

If anything I would consider the US has two conservative parties and zero labor parties.

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