Bartels takes the checkered flag

I agree more with Bartels side of the argument than I can about what Frank had to say. Bartels argument is more compelling to me because he has made a few observations that the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting more poor. George W. Bush had some of the largest tax cuts ever for the rich. The social aspect is something that I cannot deny either. I also think that the more wealthy you are, the more stock you put into social issues like gun control, abortion, and gay marriage.
I agree when Bartels thinks that he's talking more about activists than voters. "The issues on Frank's list range from bias in the news and school prayer to flag burning and offensive art" (Bartels 217). People that are burning flags and protesting school prayer aren't your typical go to the poll to vote people. Those are people we call activists. While I don't think you should pray in school or burn flags, I can't relate to Franks ideology in his article because I haven't had that type of experience as a voter. Franks working class is someone that doesn't have a college degree. I agree more with Bartels when he says that it is someone that happens to make below $35,000 a year. Some of the argument between these two I find hard to really choose but just because you have a degree doesn't mean you aren't working class.

"The relationship between issue positions and voting behavior was vastly stronger among whites with college degrees than among those without college degrees." Those are the results on abortion from Bartels. I think that is the result because of people having more education on that issue. Things like gun control could be completey different when it comes to the rich v. the poor, but these wedge issues are issues that have been going on for a long time and the stances have been varying from these different classes.

This election year was no different from any other year. People went to the polls to vote and the results were overwhelming. Barack Obama won the election, and working class voters came out to vote in record numbers. When Bartels said that working class people care more about the economic issues than moral issues, I believe this election might have nailed that theory to a T. With the way the country has been and the hole we have dug ourselves it's a little different from elections past, when moral issues like gay marriage and abortion have been a bigger part of them.