Michael Barone had an interesting entry on his blog, discussing Adam Smith. It concerned morality and the differing views of it vs. economic prosperity. Adam Smith’s point, that Mr. Barone commented on, was that a “strict” view of morality was generally valued by the “common people”, while a “liberal” view of morality was generally valued by the more affluent people.

Today, this is reflected in the constituencies of the Republican and Democratic parties. In a weird turnaround, the Republican party now has a core membership among the “common people” while the Democratic party has its core membership among the “affluent” people. Granted, there are still vestiges of union members and the urban poor who vote Democratic as well as the executives of large corporations who vote Republican, but I think these groups are definitely in the minority, the real power works the other way around.

Now, of course, the Republicans are very much aware of their “base”, and have used it successfully. But, the Democrats seem oblivious to their current constituency. I wonder what would happen if Democrats started paying more attention to this.

9/15/2005 9:29:38 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics
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