[81alum]

[quote author=82 Card link=topic=14611.msg156694#msg156694 date=1455695971]
[quote author=garvin link=topic=14611.msg156666#msg156666 date=1455664525]
.... The entire tenor of this discussion is left of center. ....

I'm not convinced the center is where you think it is.
[/quote]

Here is one indication of where the country is politically:

Senate 54R/44D
House 246R/188D
Governors 31R/18D
State Leg 31R/11D/8 split
President D
[/quote]
I think that is fair, and the fact that nearly 50% of active Stanford alums are from California probably skews the impressions of this board.  I try very hard to convince my northern CA students that their personal experiences growing up in this area are often a hindrance to understanding American political culture as a whole.

The numbers of seats in the House, however, is deceptive.  In 2012 the Democrats won 52% of all votes case for the House but the Republicans got a lopsided majority of the seats.  In 2014 the Democrats were down to 48% of the votes but got only 43% of the seats.  That is partly gerrymandering but it has more to do with the urban/rural distribution of votes.  Democrats have become far more concentrated in urban areas, which is an inefficient way to distribute votes in a district based system.  To give another example to illustrate this sorting of ideologies on the urban/rural line, in 1976 Jimmy Carter won a competitive election while winning 1700 counties nationally, while in 2008 Obama had a similar margin while winning 700 counties.

There is in fact an ideological shift brewing, and it has to do with age.  The Hillary/Bernie split of young people is most instructive to anyone following Inglehart's "generational replacement" model for predicting changes in the political culture.

[81alum]

[quote author=82 Card link=topic=14611.msg156694#msg156694 date=1455695971]
[quote author=garvin link=topic=14611.msg156666#msg156666 date=1455664525]
.... The entire tenor of this discussion is left of center. ....

I'm not convinced the center is where you think it is.
[/quote]

Here is one indication of where the country is politically:

Senate 54R/44D
House 246R/188D
Governors 31R/18D
State Leg 31R/11D/8 split
President D
[/quote]
I think that is fair, and the fact that nearly 50% of active Stanford alums are from California probably skews the impressions of this board.  I try very hard to convince my northern CA students that their personal experiences growing up in this area are often a hindrance to understanding American political culture as a whole.

The numbers of seats in the House, however, is deceptive.  In 2012 the Democrats won 52% of all votes case for the House but the Republicans got a lopsided majority of the seats.  In 2014 the Democrats were down to 48% of the votes but got only 43% of the seats.  That is partly gerrymandering but it has more to do with the urban/rural distribution of votes.  Democrats have become far more concentrated in urban areas, which is an inefficient way to distribute votes in a district based system.  To give another example to illustrate this sorting of ideologies on the urban/rural line, in 1976 Jimmy Carter won a competitive election while winning 1700 counties nationally, while in 2008 Obama had a similar margin while winning 700 counties.

There is in fact an ideological shift brewing, and it has to do with age.  The Hillary/Bernie split of young people is most instructive to anyone following Inglehart's "generational replacement" model for predicting changes in the political culture.