Progressives (Liberals)

In response to this post of mine on Beto O’Rourke from March 14th, Marc Hetherington wrote this response. Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler are the authors of this ground-breaking study, Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics.

Quote:

You might not be thinking about Beto’s potential base of support the right way. Those of us who follow politics closely always tend to think about the world in terms of ideology. But decades of research in political science suggests that most Americans do not think in ideological terms.


This innocence of ideology manifests itself in both inter- and intra-party contests. The latter is important as it relates to Beto. Remember that the folks who supported Bernie over Hillary were, on average, less, not more, liberal. This suggests that Bernie attracted his supporters on grounds other than ideology.

Our research suggests that the other thing is something more fundamental, what we call worldview. Those who supported Sanders have a worldview that values niche things over mainstream things. They stream rather than using cable. They drive hybrids rather than gas powered cars. They like underdogs and are repelled by the establishment.

This crowd not only voted for Sanders in 16, it voted for Obama in 08, and Bradley in 00. For reasons that have nothing to do with ideology, we think they are going to love Beto in 2020. He’s niche. He’s not establishment. This will be what devastates Sanders’ candidacy. When it was Bernie against the establishment, these people all went for Bernie. But Bernie against Beto will be different. That vote will be split, and I suspect an 80 year old guy from New England will struggle to win that much of it against a 40 year old guy from Texas who used to play in a punk band.

"It's truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of 'the other side.' Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows....

"Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this? There must be Collusion with the Democrats and, of course, Russia! Such one sided media coverage, most of it Fake News."

What Beto Backlash? Fundraising Haul Undercuts Reports of a Disastrous Launch

...Multiply all this criticism by the frequency at which he was raked over the coals by Republicans and supporters of Democratic rivals, and ratchet it up a few notches via repetition on Twitter, and you have a bit of a mess for a new candidate who had previously ascended on a wave of viral adulation just as intense as this apparent downward swoon.

Then a new week began with this breaking news (per NBC News):

But aside from that history, what we see again is Trump's fragility in the face of satire directed at him.

It's disastrous in that he won't say how many donors/amount per donor. Progressives don't like that opaqueness.

Mr. O’Rourke, Mr. Sanders and the rest of the presidential hopefuls must file fund-raising reports at the end of March. Those first-quarter filings will be made public on April 15.

"It's disastrous in that he won't say how many donors/amount per donor. Progressives don't like that opaqueness."

Hasn't yet, but that type info came out quick from Kamala and Bern, we'll see.
Bern's last run 76% ended up being small donor, Beto's was 46%.

Why do you think they wouldn’t say?

There's plenty of other stuff going on that merits much more attention, you know,