DISQUS

Will: Thanks for the link and the discussion. I basically agree with what you wrote (of course) except that it's always iffy to try to predict what will happen next. Also, my impression from poll data from 2004 is that, like it or not, the Republicans could gain by moving to the left economically (i.e., in favor of more regulation and government intervention). More generally, voters prefer more ideologically moderate candidates, but the electoral benefits from moderation, at least in the short term, appear to be pretty small.

Finally, I think you might be right that the Democrats will have difficulty shaking off the support of the rich, now that they have it. The influence of upper-income Americans is not just in their votes (although that does matter in some of the richer states) but in campaign contributions and political influence felt in other ways (whether it be a news reporter or media executive with socially liberal views, or a business executive who opposes unionization).

I was getting robocalls all the time from a collection agency (trying to reach someone with the same name as someone who used to have my phone number). I called them up one day and just chewed him out. There's no way this could've had any effect--I mean, if you work for a collection agency you must get this sort of call a hundred times a day--but it was satisfying, I'll say that. We should all have the right to scream at someone who wastes our time. Although I guess this wouldn't work so well if it were somebody in a call center in India or wherever. Perhaps they could have a law that the caller has to live nearby the callee, so that said caller has to be slightly worried that he might run into his victim on the street and have to explain why he keeps calling at dinnertime and leaving messages.

Nicole,

Yes, good point. We're comparing religious to non-religious, but to the extent that there are fewer religious attenders in, say, Sweden,religious can be a less important factor there in total. On the other hand, if there are big differences between how religious and non-religious people vote, this presumably represents a potentially important issue in a country (just as, for example, gay rights is important in the U.S. even though only a small proportion of Americans are gay). In any case, I'm happy to discuss this further on Thursday...

About 25 years ago I read a quote on one of those 365-inspirational-sayings-a-year calendars, something like, "To have ideas is to gather flowers. To think is to weave them into garlands." This made a big impression on me. Ideas are great but sometimes we have to put in the hard work too. Writing the ideas down is a start but not always enough either. Unfortunately, it's often difficult to find others to weave the ideas into garlands for us.

Will,

People hate talked about some of these things, for example the idea that many professionals feel more like employees than free agents. For example, if you're a doctor you might be more likely to be annoyed at insurance companies than at the government. But I don't know any systematic research on this. Also, not all the professionals, owners, etc., are wealthy.

Regarding your questions about personality variables predicting liberalism or conservatism, check out the work of John Jost. I'm not sure if they've connected these to occupation.