But 96 percent of House incumbents won re-election in 2014, and the Republican majority — despite its own 71 percent disapproval rating on Election Day — expanded.
.. Underlying the old rule was a bigger one: the “median voter theorem” — the idea that the views of the typical, middle-of-the-road voter, as expressed through elections, drove parties and politicians.
.. It’s not much of a theory at all anymore. Well-organized interest groups like the National Rifle Association and the National Education Association as well as large donors and ideological warriors on both sides have more clout than the median voter because they are organized and focused while most people aren’t.
.. Consider another once-useful guideline, which dates to the 1960s: Americans are “philosophical conservatives but operational liberals.” That is, we hate the idea of government, but we value the benefits we get from government — and politicians act accordingly.
.. Restrictions on voting, along with aggressive redistricting, reduce the influence of the median voter. Campaign war chests (including “super PACs”) scare off opponents, from within their own party as well as the other. By crippling civil-society institutions such as unions and community groups, which organize middle- and lower-income voters, they sometimes avoid being held accountable.
.. And by recasting politics as a winner-take-all conflict between wholly incompatible ideologies and identities — as most of the presidential candidates have done — they help to closely align party and ideology, so that those who identify as Republican will always vote Republican and vice versa. When politicians know more or less who will vote and how, they can ignore most voters — including their own loyalists.
In one study, we presented liberals and conservatives with one of two messages in support of same-sex marriage. One message emphasized the need for equal rights for same-sex couples. This is the sort of fairness-based message that liberals typically advance for same-sex marriage. It is framed in terms of a value — equality — that research has shown resonates more strongly among liberals than conservatives. The other message was designed to appeal to values of patriotism and group loyalty, which have been shown to resonate more with conservatives. (It argued that “same-sex couples are proud and patriotic Americans” who “contribute to the American economy and society.”)
Liberals showed the same support for same-sex marriage regardless of which message they encountered. But conservatives supported same-sex marriage significantly more if they read the patriotism message rather than the fairness one.
.. Despite the financial incentive, just 9 percent of liberals made arguments that appealed to more conservative notions of morality, while 69 percent made arguments based on more liberal values.
I’m not telling you not to act. The Gospel wants to offer you a way to make your action sustainable and lasting over the long haul. People on the right tend to be perpetually angry and overly defended, and people on the left tend to be perpetually cynical and outraged.
The Global change game was devised in Winnipeg in December 1991 by a group of students from the University of Manitoba. It is a simulation that involves exploring, understanding and solving some of the issues that plague the world today.