Religion, marriage and the GOP's demographic challenge brought to the fore by 2012 election

[BroomWagon]

I’ve never understood why states which, looking at a national map, are clearly in the east, are called “midwest states,” while Kansas, geographically a midwest state, is called a “Plains State” if it is called anything at all.

It’s the subject of Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” He finds our propensity to vote conservative to be a pathological condition. After voting 60% for Romney this time around, I’m sure he’ll be ready to write another book. Unlike some small eastern states, it takes six hours to drive across it.

I think in the old days, the Midwest was sort of the West before so much of the expansive West was explored thoroughly. Similar to the way I don’t think of St. Louis as the West but the arc is called the Gateway to the west. I guess that is proper.

Just saying “Middle West” seems a bit odd. I mean, we don’t have a “Middle East” so it must have to do with how the country was developed, the railroads and so on.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kansas and yes, it takes that long time to drive, I came in from Colorado, and it was so flat, there are the fields of grain, the sun was coming up, it was very pleasant. The Sunflower State I believe it is called as well.

And Bob Dole was mentioned today, I also sort of remember some somewhat rolling hills around Russel and I stayed in Salinas for a few days. When I was a kid, our family befriended this man and he was from Peabody Kansas which is a quaint name.

 

[oldcelt]

I’ve never understood why states which, looking at a national map, are clearly in the east, are called “midwest states,” while Kansas, geographically a midwest state, is called a “Plains State” if it is called anything at all.

It’s the subject of Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” He finds our propensity to vote conservative to be a pathological condition. After voting 60% for Romney this time around, I’m sure he’ll be ready to write another book. Unlike some small eastern states, it takes six hours to drive across it.

The term is a bit outdated…but Illinois, etc, were called the Northwest in the mid 19th century. I guess were slow to update our terminology.

John

 

[CMatt25]

Romney won the vote of Synagogue and Church attending Jews and Catholics.

The Truly Faithful.

I’ve seen exit polling on who won among weekly churchgoers and among those who never attend. Do you know who won among those who might attend worship services 2 or 3 rimes a month? Or monthly? Or some other interval between the weekly and never?

 

[benjammin]

I think the center of the country, lower 48 is actually in Kansas. They are mainly a Plains State. They were with the North in the Civil War and they are a state that grows a lot of grains I would say and in this are similar to a Midwest state.

thefreedictionary.com/Midwest

Of course, these kinds of definitions often change. I do think Missouri is sometimes considered a Southern state but are not the south like Alabama, Tennessee are.

Except for the boot heel. That place is pretty Southern. Even the Ozarks are fairly southern

 

[benjammin]

I’ve never understood why states which, looking at a national map, are clearly in the east, are called “midwest states,” while Kansas, geographically a midwest state, is called a “Plains State” if it is called anything at all.

It’s the subject of Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” He finds our propensity to vote conservative to be a pathological condition. After voting 60% for Romney this time around, I’m sure he’ll be ready to write another book. Unlike some small eastern states, it takes six hours to drive across it.

See, I disagree on the Midwest thing. I even consider Pittsburgh and Buffalo the Midwest, but I would say its a different part of the midwest. To me anything from Pittsburgh and Buffalo to Chicago is the Rust belt midwest. Then I would say that From Chicago to about Omaha would be the true midwest, and you could divide into more farming areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Eastern NE and Kansas, and the Dakotas and the more wooded areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota. To me the plains are the start of the west and seem more western than Eastern.

Also, I’ve heard of Thomas’ book. I think he failed to realize that even though Kansas used to be progressive, they were always socially conservative. I have a hard time believing that progressives like Teddy Roosevelt, and even Democrats like Woodrow Wilson and Bryan would be Liberals today (granted I think TR supported Eugenics, while Bryan probably did not). Also, maybe someone should write a book called whats the matter with the Coasts

 

[Swiss_Guy]

See, I disagree on the Midwest thing. I even consider Pittsburgh and Buffalo the Midwest, but I would say its a different part of the midwest. To me anything from Pittsburgh and Buffalo to Chicago is the Rust belt midwest. Then I would say that From Chicago to about Omaha would be the true midwest, and you could divide into more farming areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Eastern NE and Kansas, and the Dakotas and the more wooded areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota. To me the plains are the start of the west and seem more western than Eastern.

Also, I’ve heard of Thomas’ book. I think he failed to realize that even though Kansas used to be progressive, they were always socially conservative. I have a hard time believing that progressives like Teddy Roosevelt, and even Democrats like Woodrow Wilson and Bryan would be Liberals today (granted I think TR supported Eugenics, while Bryan probably did not). Also, maybe someone should write a book called whats the matter with the Coasts

:doh2:

Lord have mercy.

 

[He_Man]

I’ve never understood why states which, looking at a national map, are clearly in the east, are called “midwest states,” while Kansas, geographically a midwest state, is called a “Plains State” if it is called anything at all.

It’s the subject of Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” He finds our propensity to vote conservative to be a pathological condition. After voting 60% for Romney this time around, I’m sure he’ll be ready to write another book. Unlike some small eastern states, it takes six hours to drive across it.

Probably the same reason the Dallas Cowboys play in the NFC East.

Technically, Dallas is east of Honolulu, but come on.

 

[CMatt25]

Probably the same reason the Dallas Cowboys play in the NFC East.

Technically, Dallas is east of Honolulu, but come on.

I know they moved from Cleveland and all that but also like the Ravens playing in the Central with the Browns.

 

[He_Man]

I know they moved from Cleveland and all that but also like the Ravens playing in the Central with the Browns.

Technically, it it the AFC North, but since we were a border State in the civil war, I’d hardly say we are in the North.

 

[CMatt25]

Technically, it it the AFC North, but since we were a border State in the civil war, I’d hardly say we are in the North.

LOL you caught me there HeMan. I knew that. But my sport is baseball and then basketball. Wasn’t there at one time a Central? If so showing my age I fear. Nice recovery of my fumble. But yes Baltimore is further south than New England, NY, and Buffalo. And further north than Miami.

 

[oldcelt]

Technically, it it the AFC North, but since we were a border State in the civil war, I’d hardly say we are in the North.

I think Pittsburgh wishes they were in the Central and, perhaps, vice-versa. The injury tolls from their games are enough to make anybody wish that…but it sure makes for fun viewing.

 

[JimG]

See, I disagree on the Midwest thing. I even consider Pittsburgh and Buffalo the Midwest, but I would say its a different part of the midwest. To me anything from Pittsburgh and Buffalo to Chicago is the Rust belt midwest. Then I would say that From Chicago to about Omaha would be the true midwest, and you could divide into more farming areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Eastern NE and Kansas, and the Dakotas and the more wooded areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota. To me the plains are the start of the west and seem more western than Eastern.

Also, I’ve heard of Thomas’ book. I think he failed to realize that even though Kansas used to be progressive, they were always socially conservative. I have a hard time believing that progressives like Teddy Roosevelt, and even Democrats like Woodrow Wilson and Bryan would be Liberals today (granted I think TR supported Eugenics, while Bryan probably did not). Also, maybe someone should write a book called whats the matter with the Coasts

Welll, the state is at least economically conservative, perhaps less so socially; otherwise I don’t see how we could have elected Kathleen Sebelius as governor.

 

[SuperLuigi]

deseretnews.com/article/865566214/Religion-marriage-and-the-GOPs-demographic-challenge-brought-to-the-fore-by-2012-election.html?pg=all

This has less to do with demographics and everything to do with the entitlement culture.

Can anyone on here explain how the Latino vote or even the single women vote gave Barack Hussein Obama Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and counties in rural Michigan and Pennsylvania? How about Fairfax County Virginia?

The Latino vote and single woman vote could have WON the election for Romney, but it isn’t the only or maybe not even the biggest reason he lost.

 

[SuperLuigi]

I’ve seen exit polling on who won among weekly churchgoers and among those who never attend. Do you know who won among those who might attend worship services 2 or 3 rimes a month? Or monthly? Or some other interval between the weekly and never?

I think the idea is that the less religious you are, the more likely you are to vote democrat.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Romney lost the WH by 400,000 votes (total deficit in CO/FL/OH/VA), or 0.33% of all votes. That’s a GOTV problem by definition

twitter.com/seanmdav/status/266917108154265602

t.co/ZhoFgUYl

Compare totals from each source

3 million republicans stayed at home

 

[PaulinVA]

This has less to do with demographics and everything to do with the entitlement culture.

Can anyone on here explain how the Latino vote or even the single women vote gave Barack Hussein Obama Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and counties in rural Michigan and Pennsylvania? How about Fairfax County Virginia?

The Latino vote and single woman vote could have WON the election for Romney, but it isn’t the only or maybe not even the biggest reason he lost.

You need to look at other demographics. College graduates went for Obama - Fairfax has one of the highest percentages of college graduates (58%) in the nation.

 

[DavidinStLouis]

3 million republicans stayed at home

That’s a d*mn shame that those voters stayed at home. It’s nearly unforgivable - given what is likely in store for the nation now. :nope:

 

[BroomWagon]

I don’t agree with Bryan Fischer’s analysis in full and he is a controversial person but working with “Evangelical numbers” is interesting too. Santorum got a lot out of the Evangelicals. Though, I think his column is worth considering.

afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147529001

Thus it’s no exaggeration to say that white evangelicals put Barack Obama back in the White House.

Oh dear. And it might not be an exaggeration to say the same for our faith.

26% of the electorate consisted of white evangelicals, they cast 30,813,237 of the 118,512,450 votes cast. Of those 30 million evangelical votes, 24.3 million went to Gov. Romney and and 6.5 million went to the president. The total vote differential between President Obama and Gov. Romney was just 2,897,472 (60,782,354 to 57,884,882).

I don’t think his math is totally sound but I wonder how the Catholic vote would figure in this. In fact, I think his math is off but with some tweaking this could be useful.

In other words, if one says Evangelicals are 26% of the electorate, what is the percentage of Catholics? Practicing Catholics though would be the key demographic.

But in the end, we need to seek to be Christ like in all this, this is of this world.

 

[_Abyssinia]

That’s a d*mn shame that those voters stayed at home. It’s nearly unforgivable - given what is likely in store for the nation now. :nope:

Question is why did they stay at home?

 

[CMatt25]

I think the idea is that the less religious you are, the more likely you are to vote democrat.

I only asked because the poster spoke of the truly faithful such as Catholics and those Jews who attend their religious services weekly. So I was wondering if those many people of faith whose faith communities do not require their weekly attendance under penalty of mortal sin as the Catholic faith does, and if perhaps then someone of faith attends twice a month or some other interval between weekly and never, who they may have voted for? For instance if a person of Christian faith in the UCC or TEC who lets say attends every other wk, or a Unitarian Univesalist who attends weekly, if they would have been more likely to have voted for Romney too?