Pragmatism vs. idealism?
by Brian Mann on November 19th, 2009
Here’s an interesting tidbit. CNN/Opinion research polled voters on this basic question:
Would you rather vote for someone who agrees with you on major issues — or for someone who can win?
(I’m summarizing: See the whole thing here.)
The punchline is that Democrats preferred the candidate who can beat the other party by a wide margin (58%) over the candidate who agreed with them (38%).
For Republicans it was exactly the opposite, with most (51% preferring the candidate who agreed with them over the candidate who could win (43%).
Which basically sums up the state of the two parties, right? Republicans have a much more coherent set of “do-or-die” core values — and Democrats have a massive majority.
