While the south was under an apartheid regime many Republicans (“Rockefeller Republicans”) were to the left of Democrats (“Dixiecrats.”) This is no longer the case; every Democratic senator is to the left of every Republican senator
Desegregation isn’t irrelevant to what has happened to American politics- but this doesn’t have anything to do with where senators are on an arbitrary political spectrum. The particular manifestation of the left-right political spectrum you have in mind here is the invention of the post-segregation political climate. Pre-desegregation issues didn’t break down into positions corresponding to our current political spectrum.
Pre-desegregation issues didn’t break down into positions corresponding to our current political spectrum.
That’s probably a better way of phrasing it. Perhaps I should have said that great majority of variance in political opinion today can be explained with one eigenvector while pre-segregation it would have taken two. Either way, the greater level of ideological coherence is responsible, I think.
Desegregation isn’t irrelevant to what has happened to American politics- but this doesn’t have anything to do with where senators are on an arbitrary political spectrum. The particular manifestation of the left-right political spectrum you have in mind here is the invention of the post-segregation political climate. Pre-desegregation issues didn’t break down into positions corresponding to our current political spectrum.
That’s probably a better way of phrasing it. Perhaps I should have said that great majority of variance in political opinion today can be explained with one eigenvector while pre-segregation it would have taken two. Either way, the greater level of ideological coherence is responsible, I think.