Why Democrats are doomed (to internal party arguments)

[anigbrowl]

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2010/03/30/the-democrats-are-doomed-or-how-a-big-tent-can-be-too-big/

This is one in a series of statistical analyses by a statistician who works for a large dating website and does monthly posts on interesting insights they get from combing through their data (as well as publicly available data). It's very readable but might be rather confusing (or simply boring) if you're not familiar with statistics. You may not like all his conclusions, but his methods are sound. Offered up for general academic interest rather than as any kind of urgent issue.

[damntexdem]

1. Because Democrats tend to think.

Very, very unlike Repukes.

[Make7]

2. Interesting viewpoint. ( n/t )

[RandomThoughts]

3. Interesting article, but it creates a dynamic without factoring external factors.

It speaks of peoples actions without factoring in societal conditions.

If the world was in a static state equal in the middle of the spectrum always, you might find those numbers true, but as conditions change, lines move with the conditions.


I think of it this way.

1000 people get off a boat and land on an island. Nothing there, they have to set up society and build stuff. Everyone thinks in terms of capitalism and personal responsibility. People that work harder should have more, and there is a need to motivate workers to build housing and such, and so there is proper reward.

most people are free market republican at that point.


1000 people get off a boat and land on an island. There are houses and fields, and 15 of the 1000 say the houses are all theirs, the fields are all theirs, and everyone else has to do work for them, or live outside with little food. They make the claim that their parents made alot of money so they have the right to have everything, and have everyone work for their benefit. The 15 also say they will be better at taking care of people anyway, because there parents made lots of money.

most people are social democrats at that point.

[anigbrowl]

4. Perhaps, but without long term data it's necessarily a snapshot

It might be interesting to see whether these observations hold true in other countries if/when they have sufficient international membership to draw a comparison.

[elocs]

5. K&R for a very interesting and insightful article. I enjoyed reading it.

Yes, Democrats have a big tent and a wide variety of viewpoints. There should be some common viewpoints that make us Democrats and ones which should hold us together. Unfortunately many Democrats have different make or break issues, ones on which they absolutely refuse to compromise even for the good of the party and they either sit out or walk away.

Republicans understand the strength of party discipline and standing together much better than Democrats. Until that changes they will wield more political power in this country than they should. Democrats love to be loved and liked and so they will compromise themselves away in the name of bipartisanship. Republicans don't care (teabaggers?) and will hold together to accomplish their goals.