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Visualizing the Ideological History of SCOTUS
langelgjm writes "An interesting exercise in quantifying and visualizing ideological shifts, the website ScotusScores.com tracks changes in the ideological history of the US Supreme Court from 1937 to 2007. Ideological positions are quantified using Martin-Quinn scores, and the chart highlights the often-bumpy transitions (Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas), as well as tendencies within each Justice's career."
Scalia's view is highly dogmatic and very naive. I adhere to methbumulism. I ask the meth-addicted bum down the street what the constitution should mean. It's one view over many--no view is right or wrong. It's all ideological.
There was a big realignment of constiuencies around '68...
Commonly referred to as Nixon's "southern strategy", i.e., try to monopolize the redneck bigot vote.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
> I'm not sure what you're trying to prove, but your account of "modern historians" seems to
> come out of thin air; no historian within the realm of citation has ever claimed Lincoln
> was a Democrat, or that the labels got "swapped" somehow.
Except they do. Oh they don't do it those words but they clearly try to paint the modern Democratic party as the inheritor of the Lincoln legacy on the race relations issue.
> The racist block of poor southern whites simply just stopped voting Dem and stated voting
> Republican after the LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act.
That is the theory we are given but I live in the South. The South became Republican as the old Yellow Dog Democrats started dying out. In the main those old guys never forgave the Republicans for Lincoln's "war Crimes", they just finally died out. A few of the less radicalized younger ones eventually flipped parties, mostly due to Reagan not Nixon.
And again, wouldn't you think bigots who are single issue voters on that issue would know the Civil Rights Act (and I think the VRA as well votewise) passed with Republican votes over the fillibuster of Kleagle Byrd and the majority of the Democrats in Congress. We are expected to believe they voted for Nixon over George Wallace? If the bigits were voting for Nixon was Wallace stuffing the ballot boxes to get his numbers?
As for your 'authorities' I wouldn't put much stock in what a NY Democrat has to say about the inner workings of the Republican party and Pat Buchanan is quite mad these days, you do know that don't you.
> People vote for socialists without believing in socialism...
This part of your post is just muddled. Some people are single issue voters. They have their pet issue and vote for whoever promises to support that issue, period. But most people aren't. But they also aren't the dolts you seem to think they are. If people really were as hopeless as you make them to be and they couldn't be educated then the whole notion of self government would be a bad idea.
The parties, in every period, tend to espouse two fairly different philosophies. even when not explicitly stated most voters have a fairly clear notion of what the two positions are. One will more closely align with their positions. That is the party they will be registered with. If neither party is very close they are an "Independent." Because our government schools (by intent) do a poor job of Civics education most people don't know enough to make the best choices and they are a lot more prone to get swayed by personalities but they do still vote their general interests as they see them most of the time.
And right now the two general positions have never been more starkly divided.
One side basically divides people into two groups. A small enlightened elite, fit to rule by right of their superior intelligence and morality and the poor benighted creatures who would collapse into cannibalism without the first group. And it is important that the second group BELIEVE themselves to be helpless and utterly dependent on the first group.
The other camp believes everyone should be free to pursue happiness and that the vast majority of people will find it if we can get the meddling fools in Washington off everyone's back.
Democrat delenda est