D+2?

What is the cultural identity of White America? A recent Russian or Greek immigrant arguably shares more in common with an Ethiopian immigrant via adherence to the Orthodox Church than he/she does with an upper class govt worker who traces his ancestry to the mayflower.

I think having state-sanctioned celebrations of various white immigrant groups would be great.

Option 1, I have no qualms about the US government using force to kill members of murderous extremist groups even if that force is extra-judicial. The problem lies in the fact that this force is dangerously overapplied.

Not sure if I post enough to be considered "of Atlas" but I am Mexican-American.

This question is inane: I'd vote for plenty of scary quasi-fascists if the opposition was worse and I'd certainly vote for many center-right politicians over quasi-fascists. It depends on the choice offered to me.

I enjoy political theory, but the rest of political science isn't that interesting. Similarly I really love the study of human geography, but physical geography bores me.

^Basically, although the comparative approach interests me as well.

I eat 10+ spoonfulls of straight Jiff peanut butter on a daily basis.

Nations and Nationalist Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality by Hobsbawm

Spring Breakers

Economic score: -7.03
Social score: -7.22

Being in contact with trust fund anarchists turned me into a Marxist.

Kichii Miyazawa

If the question is the percentage of blue-collar whites who are Democratic, then that doesn't require that most people overall, or most Democrats, be blue-collar white Democrats.

Blue-collar whites in most northern cities (here as opposed to suburbs) are a Democratic constituency. I believe from earlier precinct discussions on this forum that none of Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis or St. Paul has a Republican precinct that isn't a religious college or a very rich area, and yet there are definitely parts of these cities that are substantially white and blue-collar. Further east it gets a bit complicated with the history of white flight backlash, but there are still strongly Democratic working-class areas in places like the west side of Cleveland, much of Pittsburgh, etc.

My hunch would be that in some of these urban neighborhoods the D vote among blue-collar whites is higher than in any more rural area that stands out more on a map, but this is hard to prove. And of course "blue-collar white" is kind of a vague category.

Lower-income Portland neighborhoods without a significant urban professional or young adult contingent are strongly Democratic. Depending on the location, working class Portland neighborhoods regularly give Democratic candidates between 55% to 80% of the vote. Unfortunately, determining the percentage blue collar whites give to Democrats is tough in many of these neighborhoods because as gentrification proceeds, immigrants are relegated here and this is rapidly changing the character of East Portland.

In general in the NW, there is a pretty strong correlation between the white working class and prevalence of lower income Asian/Latino immigrants and even African-Americans to an extent that makes a determination of blue collar, white voting difficult.

Off the top of my head, here are some urban areas containing significant contingents of blue collar, white Democrats:
Tacoma
Spokane
Flint
Toledo
Youngstown
Allentown

Sachs' is correct about the variability of multipliers but consensus appears to be moving in Krugman's direction there. See: IMF's revision on importance of counter-cyclical spending and change in range of multiplier.

Sachs' article is far from nitpicky but I think it is off-base and reveals Sachs lack of political knowledge. If the Obama administration followed Sachs' advise and diverged from its "populist" stimulus to include more long-term public investment in infrastructure, the economy would have suffered in the short run. Large-scale public works programs would take years to get off the ground and without "crude" stimulus unemployment would skyrocket to 13-14% + tax receipts would plummet. For this reason, Sachs' response to Krugman is an absurdity if we take his long run debt concerns at face value. How would the economy, and thus the revenue side of the budget, be able to respond to this shock without "crude" stimulus?

I'll ignore Sachs' prescriptions on tax revenue, which are sound and I believe that Krugman would agree with wholeheartedly. The problem is that his proposal isn't politically expedient on that front. His alternative counter-cyclical stimulus is and it is dangerous. It doesn't surprise me that the man who formulated "shock-therapy" as a solution would be so thick-headed there.

If Sachs stuck to writing about the climate and poverty, I'd respect him.

edit: bad response but I agree with long-term investment in key infrastructure whether it be energy, transport or in power grids but not as a foundational counter-cyclical measure especially in a federal polity which contains 50 states without the ability to pursue counter-cyclical policies. Get real, Sachs. 

Sprawl, suburban Californian white flight, and decline of union towns all explain the shift. Sandpoint still voting for democrats is remarkable though.

It really isn't, Sandpoint received a much different inflow of migrants in the 60s and 70s that dominate political culture within the city limits. Its liberal character had little to do with a unionized working class and thus it has managed to stay fairly liberal. This is evident in Nader's voting strength in Sandpoint (~10%).

[fairly remote and isolated]

That area is very "redneck." It's dominated by agriculture, logging, and mining, and much of it is fairly remote and isolated, so the locals would be suspicious of outsiders (especially in light of the influx of Californians and other out-of-staters into Idaho in recent years), particularly culturally liberal, monied urban sophisticates (not always the case with people moving to Idaho, in fact many of the people who tend to move there are quite conservative, but the stereotype/perception is there). Environmentalists and such are really...disliked and resented up there, let's say.

Fairly remote and isolated? To my knowledge, most of the panhandle's population concentrates in and around Coeur d'Alene, which is Idaho's second largest metropolitan area. Spokane WA is just accross the state line, and Interstate 90 cuts right through.

Kootenai County's growth is really recent. A few decades ago Coeur d' Alene was an insignificant town that could hardly be concerned apart of the Spokane metro area (~15-20 thousand people). Now its metro area has significant overlap with Spokane's and it's sprawled out.

North Idaho's turn away from the Democratic Party isn't surprising. It lacks a working class ethos as resource extraction has ceased to be an economic driver and as unions died a quick death after the passage of right to work laws (25% unionization to 5% in the span of two decades). The SoCal-diaspora now dominates political culture in the panhandle and has managed to integrate itself with the fiercely individualist value system of the region.

Moscow is an exception to this because it is a university town. It has actually turned into a stronger bastion of liberalism over the past few decades. Towns linked to resource extraction have shifted to the right with speed: Lewiston, Kellogg, St. Mary's which suggests that even if these industries remained a major source of employment that the Democratic Party's disconnect with mining and logging would have killed its ability to compete.

It's probably important to note that the region remained a Democratic bastion at the legislative and state level up until 2000.

The results Torie posted are based on a study conducted by the conservative American Action Forum. The study's methodology was to survey major insurance providers. Color me skeptical.

Also, pro-tip for Torie: this is the only way to create a functional health insurance marketplace.

Christie calls out people that BS. Is it really any wonder why so many young people dislike him?

Brilliant political analysis, Phil.

Have this forum learned anything about crosstabs?

new song is really bad.

"the American Empire is over and the descent is going to be horrifying" -- Chris Hedges.

the sustainability of the global imperial venture is in serious decline.  see Latin America in the 2000s and the last few years in the Middle East.  it is not in the American character to shift to cooperation in the face of waning ability to dominate, so fully expect an escalation of US-perpetrated violence likely culminating in a global holocaust in one form of another.

it is likely the 'post-civilizational' 'historians', if we can imagine such a thing, will look back at our present time as already part of an era that rendered the civilization-experiment as we know it, doomed.

Intense psychological problems result in ideologies that prophesize "the end of the world as we know it" to minimize the cognitive dissonance between said problems and the relatively tranquil/happy/prosperous society we live in.

The Republic
Poor Economics
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

In Macklemore's defense, he did write this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdVRlM-kSx8

The whole album is the best I have heard out of rap in a while.

-a white person

Macklemore is okay, I saw him in concert last year.

I just don't get how people can live with (let alone enjoy) that stench, dude. Sorry.

There are edibles, vaporizers, tinctures, cologne, smoke buddies and gum. Live it up.

The sane Joe Republic(an) rears his head. I've missed him!

I'll never forget this time in college when this kid plopped down next to me in class and reeked of marijuana. I mean it smelled like this kid bathed in it. What filth. How do people stomach that? That should tell you right off the bat that there is something very, very wrong with those people.

I'll never forget this time at a restaurant when this couple plopped down next to me and reeked of booze. I mean it smelled like this couple bathed in it. What filth. How do people stomach that along with the hangovers, headaches and muscle cramps? That should tell you right off the bat that there is something very, very wrong with those people.

Drinking puzzles me far more than smoking the dank even though I partake in both activities.

Not sure if that was supposed to be mocking me or not. Whatever the case, people that would drink to that point would disgust me as well. Try a little harder next time.

Mocking of course. My point is that Aristotle is right. It's all about finding the golden mean. Using stereotypical stoners to lay waste to the entire activity is ridiculous.