Data Talks

Very interesting.

Main finding: there is a disconnect between the donors and voters in each party, but it varies by party. Republican donors are fairly aligned with Republican voters on social issues, but *way* to their right on economic issues. pic.twitter.com/ZvuFC2D3pE

— David Broockman (@dbroockman) April 28, 2020

Click image to enlarge.

I am reading this to say that the donor class among Democrats is markedly to the left of Democratic voters on economic, social and global issues, particularly on social issues and global.

In contrast, Republican donors are almost completely aligned with Republican voters on social issues and very closely aligned on global issues. They are markedly to the right of the voting Republican public on economic issues.

There are thirteen specific topics measured. If you take a deviance of 0.1 between donor and voter class for each party as acceptable, the Democratic donor group is markedly to the left (beyond 0.1) of Democratic voters on ten of the thirteen issues. Republican donor class are to the right of Republican voters on only four of the thirteen topics.

For spending on the poor, the Democratic donor group is much closer to their voting base than are the Republican donor group to their base.

On every single social issue (abortion, gun control, capital punishment, and same sex marriage), the Democratic donor class are much further from their base than is the Republican donor class from theirs.

On global issues, (immigration, free trade agreements, focusing on US jobs over foreign jobs, focusing on US problems over foreign problems) the two donor classes are much closer to one another on average compared to the other nine issues. Republican donors are pretty close to the average republican voter on three of the four issues as well as reasonably close to Democratic donors on three of the four global issues.

On six issues (universal healthcare, abortion, gun control, capital punishment, primacy of American jobs, and primacy of American interests) of the thirteen, Democratic donors are greater than .2 to the left of their voting base. Only on spending on the poor is the Republican donor class 0.2 to the right of the Republican voting base out of the thirteen issues.

Lots more to contemplate.

Click to enlarge.