How divided are we?

[cwelsch]

Then as now nobody likes the protestors.  Most people were against Vietnam AND against the protests.  Today people aren't much more interested.

But Vietnam had a draft.  That made it much scarier and more personal.  No draft for the Iraq war so a lot less personal.  Maybe 'more divided but not as emotional' is a good way to put it.

[cwelsch]

FDR was the wealthy.

Since forever the Democratic Party has been the wealthy (FDR, Kennedys, etc.) and the working class and poor.  The Republicans were always middle class and nowadays upper-middle class.

Really rich people have no problem paying taxes, they still have tons left over.  The middle class works hard for its money and it gets pissed off when taxes are levied on it.  The Republicans were middle class since the 1850s when they formed, they've been middle class since then.

This is reflected in contributions, since pre-BCRA the Democrats relied on huge lump-sum donations from uber-wealthy contributors such as Hollywood and trial lawyers.  The Republicans on the other hand got huge numbers of donations from middle class people who gave the personal limit.

After BCRA, the Democrats (any decent analyst will tell you this) lost their huge contributors that helped make up the distance between them and the GOP.  The GOP still has tons of contributors that are now giving $2,000 each.  The Democrats had fewer contributors but each gave way more than the average Republican contributors, who were in turn much more numerous.  That's because the GOP pulls middle class sympathies and the Democrats until Clinton had more trouble with the middle class.

So the people who hated FDR were the middle class and the wealthy middle class, but the truly wealthy quasi-aristocratic people in New England and New York weren't as pissed.  They could afford his shenanigans, after all.


Regardless, despite the fierce hatred of FDR among some at the time, he still won landslide elections.



PS - I have no problem with the Democrats taking money from Hollywood and uberwealthy people, I think it should be legal.  I just think we should be honest about where the support originates.