Here’s an analysis that’s somewhat dated, but that I came across and found interesting. Data from Larry Bartels (PDF).
At least during that time period, Senators of all stripes (in aggregate at least) simply ignored the opinions of low-income people. The correlations aren’t just small; they’re negative across the board.
Democrats at least pay attention to middle-class opinions — even more than high-income opinions.
Republicans — judging by their voting record in this period — only care about the opinions of high-income people. And they really, really, really care about those opinions.
Comments
One response to “Who Does the Senate Listen To? The Poor, the Middle Class, or the Rich?”
Not too surprising, but reaffirming, it is not just our imagination, to have it confirmed by a Princeton Professor. I didn’t look at how he compiled the statistics, but beings that is probably one of the 5 top schools in our nation, I’ll take him on his honor. I suppose Republicans would argue that those who pay more taxes SHOULD have more say, but it’s not the simple when you consider for example the 400 best-off taxpayers of the year 2007 (the most recent year the numbers are available) only paid an average of 16.6% if their income in federal income taxes.