Posted by
Nerdus Maximus on Saturday, March 15, 2008 6:02:29 PM
While there are many factors one might consider when choosing a political party, the conventional wisdom is that people "vote their pocketbooks". This being the case, let's look at the economic logic of the Republican and Democratic parties.
The first thing to remember is that, in order to gain power by winning elections (which is the primary goal of political parties), it is wildly to a party's advantage to have more people in demographic groups that tend to vote for your party. The foundational formula of electoral math is More Likely Voters = Good.
Now let's look at the reputed economic standing of people who vote for each party. Rich people, so we are told, vote Republican. This is convenient as both Republican and rich start with "r", making it easier to remember. So it stands to reason, since rich people vote Republican and a party with more voters is more successful, that the Republican party would be motivated to make more people rich. Democrats, on the other hand, are the party favored by the poor. We will refer to them as "destitute" because both Democratic and destitute start with "d", making it easier to remember. Now, what would the Democratic party be motivated to do if its electoral success depends on there being large numbers of destitute people? (Remember your electoral math: More Likely Voters = Good) Why, of course, it is clearly in the best interests of the Democratic party to have as many destitute people as possible.
I hope this lesson in electoral math helps when you read, hear or see a report that indicates either that the Republican party wants to keep people poor or that the Democratic party wants to make people rich. Either claim flies in the face of basic electoral math and is therefor highly suspect at best.