How did this happen?

[memphis]

Gore refused to run on "Clinton prosperity." Gore has this understandable, though stupid hang-up about not running in somebody's shadow. He refused to let his father (who had also held his senate seat) campaign for him for Senate, and he didn't want Bill Clinton's help running for president. Gore completely overestimated the anti-Clinton sentiment in the country and nominated one of Clinton's sharpest Democratic critics for the post of Vice President. This same man added nothing to the ticket as he represented a state and an ethnic group that were going to vote overwhelmingly Democratic anyway. Distance from the popular Bill Clinton and the very poor choice of the NE unlikable, moralizing Lieberman were the two biggest factors in Gore's inability to win the presidency.  Nonetheless, his margin of victory in the popular vote was still more than FOUR TIMES that of JFK in 1960.

[memphis]

I suppose it's because uneducated Christian conservatives will vote for the more conservative candidate no matter what, and this group constitutes a large percentage of the electorate.

Get your nose out of the air.

Yeah, I'd characterize these people more as willfully ignorant rather than uneducated. :-) Seriously though, both parties have their share of this type of people. South Memphis, for instance, is probably 95%+ Democratic (super-Christian as well) and I don't think too many voters there are terribly informed. It's just the nature of democracy.

[memphis]

I suppose it's because uneducated Christian conservatives will vote for the more conservative candidate no matter what, and this group constitutes a large percentage of the electorate.

Get your nose out of the air.

Yeah, I'd characterize these people more as willfully ignorant rather than uneducated. :-) Seriously though, both parties have their share of this type of people. South Memphis, for instance, is probably 95%+ Democratic (super-Christian as well) and I don't think too many voters there are terribly informed. It's just the nature of democracy.

Yeah, I'll admit it does happen on both sides. What is interesting, though, is that among white voters, there is a significant positive relationship between education level and support for liberal ideas and Democratic politicians.

I'm not so sure. The business wing of the Republican party is very well educated, often at private schools. Union blue collar Dems may not even have a high school diploma. Social liberalism may be popular among the well educated, but economic liberalism is not. These folks are much more inclined to support corporate welfare and subsidising Social Security. You really can't believe the media hype about the red state/blue state crap.