Is it Really Red vs. Blue? Politics, Religion, and the Culture War Within

Popular media accounts have suggested there is a culture war raging between residents in red and blue states. Conversely, recent scholarship challenges that position and finds most Americans are not engaged in a culture war, but rather hold moderate positions on controversial social issues. Using public opinion data from the American National Election Study, we attempt to shed further light on the culture war debate. Our findings indicate that there are significant divisions between citizens who hold a literal interpretation of the Bible and those who do not. We conclude that a culture war does not rage between red and blue state residents as popular media accounts often portray; however, there is evidence of polarization within red and blue states with biblical beliefs at the center of this division.

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IdentityversusIdentity: Israel and Evangelicals and the Two-Front War for Jewish Votes

Politics and Religion ◽

10.1017/s1755048309990198 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 395-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Eric M. Uslaner ◽

Mark Lichbach

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Voting Behavior ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Social Issues ◽

Strong Support ◽

Election Study ◽

American Jews ◽

Democratic Attitudes ◽

National Election Study ◽

American National Election Study

AbstractRepublicans made major efforts to win a larger share of the Jewish vote in 2004 by emphasizing their strong support for Israel. They partially succeeded, but did not make a dent in the overall loyalty of American Jews to the Democratic party, since they lost approximately as many votes because of Jews' negative reactions to the party's evangelical base. We argue that both Israel and worries over evangelical influence in the country reflect concerns about Jewish identity, above and beyond disagreements on specific social issues. We compare American Jewish voting behavior and liberalism to the voting behavior of non-Jews in 2004 using a survey of Jews from the National Jewish Democratic Coalition and the American National Election Study. For non-Jews, attitudes toward evangelicals are closely linked to social issues, but for Jews this correlation is small. The Jewish reaction to evangelicals is more of an issue of identity and the close ties of evangelicals to the Republican Party keep many Jews Democratic. Attitudes toward evangelicals are far more important for Jewish voting behavior than for non-Jewish voters.

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Do Politicians Shape Public Opinion?

British Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0007123412000373 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 451-478 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Tetsuya Matsubayashi

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Experimental Design ◽

Political Representation ◽

Study Data ◽

Election Study ◽

Political Candidates ◽

Political Issues ◽

National Election Study ◽

American National Election Study ◽

Quasi Experimental

Most research on political representation focuses on how citizens’ ideology and partisanship influence their support for political candidates – leaving the question of whether (and how) elected officials influence citizens’ positions on political issues open to debate. The hypothesis tested here – using a unique, quasi-experimental design with American National Election Study data between 1956 and 2004 – is that Democratic representatives shift the opinions of constituents in the pro-Democratic and liberal direction, while Republican representatives shift constituents’ opinions in the pro-Republican and conservative direction. The findings show that incumbent representatives indeed move their constituents’ opinions in a particular direction, and that representatives have a stronger impact on constituents who are more frequently exposed to their messages.

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Measuring State Public Opinion with the Senate National Election Study

State Politics & Policy Quarterly ◽

10.1177/153244000100100107 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 111-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Barbara Norrander

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

State Politics ◽

National Election ◽

Election Study ◽

Public Preferences ◽

National Election Study ◽

American National Election Study

The surveys of Senate races from 1988 to 1992 conducted by the American National Election Study include a number of issue questions that can be aggregated to measure state public opinion. A simple-to-compute coefficient is used to judge the aggregated reliability of these measures. A comparison of these state public opinion measures on specific issues to more general indicators, such as state ideology and partisanship, demonstrates their usefulness in obtaining a richer depiction of public preferences for studies of state politics.

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