Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Spanking or Time Out: A Clash of Worldviews?
- 2 Putting Polarization in Perspective
- 3 Authoritarianism and Nonauthoritarianism: Concepts and Measures
- 4 A Historical Account of the Roots of Worldview Evolution
- 5 Authoritarianism's Structuring of Contemporary Issues
- 6 Threat and Authoritarianism: Polarization or Convergence
- 7 Evidence of Worldview Evolution
- 8 Immigration: A Reinforcing Cleavage that Now Constrains the Republican Party (GOP)
- 9 What the 2008 Democratic Nomination Struggle Reveals about Party Polarization
- 10 A New View of Polarization
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Spanking or Time Out: A Clash of Worldviews?
- 2 Putting Polarization in Perspective
- 3 Authoritarianism and Nonauthoritarianism: Concepts and Measures
- 4 A Historical Account of the Roots of Worldview Evolution
- 5 Authoritarianism's Structuring of Contemporary Issues
- 6 Threat and Authoritarianism: Polarization or Convergence
- 7 Evidence of Worldview Evolution
- 8 Immigration: A Reinforcing Cleavage that Now Constrains the Republican Party (GOP)
- 9 What the 2008 Democratic Nomination Struggle Reveals about Party Polarization
- 10 A New View of Polarization
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE 2008 GENERAL ELECTION
Barack Obama's victory in 2008 was historic as he became the first African American to be elected president. Moreover, his triumph over John McCain was substantial both in terms of the popular vote, which he won by more than 7 percentage points, and the electoral college vote, which he carried by 364 to 174. We think that authoritarianism likely played an important role in this outcome, although data are not available at the time of this writing to test our hypotheses rigorously. Certainly the themes raised in the fall campaign often mirrored those from the primary campaign between Obama and Hillary Clinton. And, as we showed in Chapter 9, that intraparty Democratic campaign made authoritarianism a significant dividing line. Moreover, the electoral map and the pattern of support for the candidates further suggest its importance.
As for the party standard-bearers, John McCain, at first glance, would not seem the best vessel for a campaign organized around issues structured by authoritarianism. Although his voting record is conservative, he has often bucked the party line. He was long associated with moderate positions on immigration, gay rights, and the use of torture. In fact, McCain's credentials among the most conservative elements of his party were suspect enough to have raised serious doubts among elite opinion makers, like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, about his fitness to be the candidate.
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- Information
- Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics , pp. 205 - 210Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009