Liberal Message Research Articles

Cultural conceptulisations in Elijah Akintunde’s Yoruba ballad gospel song Ijo Odi ‘Dance of the Deaf’

Abstract What kind of actions or reactions can sudden good news elicit in the experiencer? How can these actions/reactions be cognitively interpreted by others? Is there a nexus between social realities and the gospel? Using these questions as a spark, this article critically examines the cultural conceptualisations in Ijo Odi, a Yoruba gospel ballad by Elijah Akintunde. Drawing insights from Cultural Linguistics, this study argues that cultural symbols and structures (schemas, categories, and metaphors) are deployed in gospel music to capture the message of liberation from socio-economic challenges. Specifically, DANCE and DEAFNESS are mapped to express the kind of PERPLEXITY and ABSURDITY that characterise reaction to SUDDEN PLEASANT NEWS. The song also invokes cognitive schemas and cultural memories of dance, cultural class categories and metaphorization of dance and its internalized network of cognitive associations in the Yoruba world view to project the message of prosperity as a miracle. The study concludes that language is firmly grounded in cultural cognition and the complex socio-economic lives of Nigerians can be captured in the negotiation of spirituality in gospel songs. Future research may explore how the artistic performance of other music genres equally evoke cultural imageries in communicating other diverse issues.

‘Get in touch with yourself’: The Structure of Relationship Advice in Women’s Magazines

This study investigates the way sex and relationship advice articles are structured in four English language women’s magazines. Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire were selected from the US, and Female and Her World from Malaysia. Forty articles were selected for the analysis. The study adopts Machin and Van Leeuwen’s (2003) problem-solution structure, besides using discourse pragmatic analysis. By studying this genre in the two different contexts, one of the main things that emerged is that this particular genre is more complex and diverse than what other researchers have found. The writers of the advice resort to various strategies and techniques to attract women to read these articles. They also have to balance social and cultural sensitivities with their message of freedom and liberation for women as appeared in the Malaysian data. Thus, studying this genre gives useful insights on how culture affects the texts and vice-versa.

Types (Disinformation)

Types (Disinformation)

Dominium and The Empire of Laws

Civic republicanism endorses a freedom ideology that can support the corporate social responsibility movement [CSR] in some of the challenges it faces. This article is a call for CSR to embrace this normative guidance as a superior alternative to mainstream liberalism. Part I is the introduction. Part II discusses the institutional changes that gave rise to CSR’s present incarnation. Part III builds upon this discussion, explaining how corporate risk management strategies pose a threat to CSR’s persuasive authority today. It then considers CSR’s options for enhancing governance when such persuasive authority is not available. It determines that inspiring integrity – above all else – is integral to success and that, in turn, the removal of moral distance is key to inspiring such integrity. It also notes that whether a form of coercive authority exists or not to back a governance mechanism, the removal of moral distance will be key to its effectiveness. Part IV notes that efforts to remove moral distance have been attempted since the 1970s, but time has proven that business actors have been resilient to meaningful change. It argues that this failure to reduce moral distance is, in part, the result of mainstream liberalism, which continues to nullify such efforts to make business actors feel more accountable for the impacts of their decision-making. It then explores liberalism, detangling the meaning of possibly the most contested, and normatively powerful, concept from the twentieth century to the present. Part V explains civic republicanism. It then explores civic republicanism’s conceptual proximity to liberalism. Part VI makes the case for why civic republicanism ought to amend the liberal message, recasting the rights and responsibilities of both imperium (that is, the authority of the sovereign) and dominium (that is, the private authority usually emanating from property and contract) within society. Part VII concludes with a short reflection on the ground covered.

Editor’s Note

Previous articleNext article FreeEditor’s NoteFull TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis issue introduces an expansion of the journal’s “Art Work” section to include both artists’ and curators’ creative engagements with the Archives of American Art. Reaching across the collections, curator Robert Cozzolino composes a visual argument about the ethics of seeing private, and at times unexpected, materials in artists’ archives. Through his judicious selection, juxtaposition, and display of primary sources, he thinks about how and if researchers should disseminate such materials. Cozzolino asks: Are there aspects of artists’ papers that, once uncovered, can or should ever be unseen?If this curatorial intervention sheds light on what it means to see into archives, the essays in this issue’s “New Research” section grapple with the issue of not seeing. They do so by probing a variety of archival absences and ambiguities. Sarah Gordon considers why a New Deal mural by Rockwell Kent, which offered a controversial message of liberation to Puerto Ricans, has been largely lost to history. Christina Weyl asks, through the case of Worden Day, how scholars might fill in the missing or forgotten details of a woman artist’s life and career. Amelia Barikin and Chris McAuliffe treat the remains of an unrealized film script as both a record and component of Robert Smithson’s artistic practice.“Archive Matters” continues the themes of absence and ambiguity by reflecting on what archival rediscoveries can tell us about American art and its histories. In my own essay, I find that unearthing a lost archive devoted to Maine art reveals a great deal, including the critical revaluation of regionality since the 1960s. Julia Bryan-Wilson, however, argues for not allowing the information we uncover in archives to determine solely the meaning of art. She focuses on her own archival find: notes on possible titles for Louise Nevelson’s abstract sculptures.In closing, I wish to note that Liza Kirwin, deputy director of the Archives, has been integral to the editorial team since we relaunched the journal in 2015, working on every issue alongside me and Emily D. Shapiro. It is in grateful acknowledgement of her efforts and support that we add her name to the masthead. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Archives of American Art Journal Volume 58, Number 2Fall 2019 Sponsored by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/706830 Views: 95 © 2019 by The Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Effect of differently worded messages about alcohol on intent to breastfeed among university women in South Korea

Background: There is concern that advice not to drink alcohol could discourage the initiation and particularly shorten the duration of breastfeeding. However, little research has explored the impact of variously worded messages about drinking while breastfeeding on women’s intentions to drink or to breastfeed. Methods: We haphazardly allocated a convenience sample of nulliparous (>95%) Korean female university students to be exposed to three differently worded messages on alcohol use during breastfeeding in the body of a questionnaire. Translated to English, they were as follows: Liberal: “Breastfeeding is compatible with moderate but not heavy drinking of alcohol.” Moderate: “You can use alcohol while breastfeeding, but only on rare occasions and only 1-2 drinks at a time. Too much alcohol can harm the breastfeeding process. After each drink, you should wait 2 hours before breastfeeding to keep the child from being affected.” Strict: “You should never use alcohol while you are breastfeeding.” Results: Most of the 280 valid responses expressed an intention to breastfeed. Over 90% of sampled women drank alcohol currently; 91% of them intended to reduce consumption during breastfeeding. How strictly messages were worded did not affect intention to drink during breastfeeding. Neither strict nor liberal messages reduced intention to drink alcohol while breastfeeding. The strict message clearly told the students what to do, whereas the moderate and liberal messages left choices up to them. Receiving these messages that required women to decide for themselves reduced the women’s intention to breastfeed (p<0.001). Conclusions: In this sample of largely nulliparous university women, a more strictly worded message regarding alcohol use during breastfeeding did not reduce breastfeeding intentions. Messages that left decisions up to the women did. The risk of harm associated with alcohol consumption during breastfeeding should we weighed against the risk that raising concerns about alcohol consumption might reduce the initiation or duration of breastfeeding. Research is needed to test such messages in different cultures and to follow up after delivery to see if indeed expressed intent correlates with actual practices. Until then, messages regarding breastfeeding and alcohol are likely to continue to be based only on the unexamined assumptions as to whether cautions about alcohol will affect women’s breastfeeding practices.

Hollywood Riots: Violent Crowds and Progressive Politics in American Film by Doug Dibbern (review)

Reviewed by: Hollywood Riots: Violent Crowds and Progressive Politics in American Film by Doug Dibbern Katherine Alloco Hollywood Riots: Violent Crowds and Progressive Politics in American Film Doug Dibbern I.B. Taurus, 2016, 188 pages Doug Dibbern's excellent new book analyzes the importance of political filmmakers who questioned American postwar conservatism by releasing films in the early 1950s about race riots and the dangers of right wing reporting. Dibbern beautifully interweaves history, the politics of the film industry and the power of the films themselves to inform his analysis of the rapidly changing politics and demographic shifts during this era. He argues that independent filmmakers and writers drew from real local events to explicitly challenge the media's tendency to literally whitewash stories about racial violence and union riots as well as Hollywood's increasing complicity with the growing conservative cultural climate which had been dramatically precipitated by HUAC's witch-hunt throughout the major studios. Although this cycle of political films lasted only briefly, Dibbern concludes that these political filmmakers directly confronted problems of racial anxiety and contributed an important and brave voice to social conversations that Americans were not able to access through other media. Dibbern divides his book into three parts. In the first, he meticulously analyzes the historical context in which independent filmmakers produced political films that forced viewers to confront social realities in an increasingly complex society and film industry that was often lead astray by destructive collective behavior. In the second part, Dibbern looks more closely at Los Angeles, Hollywood and the politics of rioting, striking and class brutality that altered the industry during the 1940s and 1950s. The third part of the book analyzes four carefully selected films that illustrate the impact of political filmmaking during this era: The Lawless (1950), Underworld Story (1950), The Sound of Fury (1950) and The Well (1951). [End Page 80] In the first two sections of the book, Dibbern systematically unpacks the circumstances and trends that shaped postwar anxieties and politics and informed Hollywood's responses to racial politics. He argues that audiences were ready and eager to view films that addressed racial violence and to be confronted by their own prejudices and that of mainstream American culture. Many Americans could relate in some way to the fear of mob violence and to the social unrest that characterized so much of postwar society. Dibbern demonstrates how effectively these filmmakers offered political messages and social commentary that resonated with a viewing audience that had become disillusioned with the press and was seeking honesty and grit on the screen. In the last section, Dibbern looks closely at the four previously cited films, all of which were based on real events. In each chapter, he explains the production, release and reception of each film and then analyses key scenes, filmic style and the major themes found within each. Dibbern points out that although these filmmakers--Joseph Losey, Cy Endfield, Russell Rouse and Leo Popkin--did not know each other, their films contain similar political viewpoints and follow comparable plot points by beginning with a particular moment of racial prejudice, dramatizing the build-up of tension and argument among the various groups involved, and then reaching its denouement with an outbreak of violence. Each film also features scenes of media frenzy, mob violence and the inevitable harm inflicted on an innocent character. These similarities seem to indicate that the directors and screenwriters wanted to make films that unabashedly confronted the culture of censorship and repression under which Hollywood was suffering. Dibbern persuasively argues that the stories told by these "liberal message movies with a realist aesthetic" (153) reflected Hollywood filmmakers' criticism of the political climate of their industry and of racial politics throughout the United States. Dibbern's methodology and emphasis on political content marks this book as truly original. The author appreciates and responds to well-respected film scholars such as Larry Ceplair, Steven Englund and Thom Andersen, who have written pivotal and influential articles about Hollywood progressivism and Red Hollywood. Dibbern's own work goes beyond these topics by investigating the tail end of the period and thus extending academic understanding of the evolution of liberalism and progressivism...

대통령 담화문에 나타난 보수와 진보의 언어사용 특성분석

본 연구는 진보주의자와 보수주의자의 언어사용 특성을 확인하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 온라인 대통령 기록관의 대통령 담화문 중 167개의 문건을 표집하여 K-LIWC 프로그램을 이용하여 메시지를 분석하였다. 그 결과, 보수적 대통령들은 담화문에 동사 중심의 구체적 문장들을 포함하고 있었던 것에 반해, 진보주의적 대통령들은 담화문에 형용사 중심의 추상적 문장들을 더 많이 사용하고 있었다. 4명의 대통령(김영삼, 김대중, 노무현, 이명박) 중 노무현 대통령이 형용사를 가장 많이 사용하고 동사를 가장 적게 사용하여 가장 진보적인 대통령이라는 것을 알 수 있었다. 이에 반해 이명박 대통령은 4명의 대통령 중 동사를 가장 많이 사용하고 형용사를 가장 적게 사용하여 가장 보수적인 대통령인 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 본 연구의 의의와 제한점이 논의되었다.

For the Love of (Black) Christ: Embracing James Cone's Affective Critique of White Fragility

Throughout his written work, James H. Cone proclaims a message of liberation that takes into account both the sociopolitical structural and emotional dimensions of life together. Cone suggests that we cannot settle for—in fact, we cannot even have—love without justice, or justice without love. In this article, I look at Cone's body of work to uncover and reclaim what he performed, but did not explicitly theorize, in his pursuit of love and justice: the dismantling of white fragility, a white supremacist affective construct that shapes much Christian theology, including what seeks to further the cause of racial reconciliation. I then theorize the distorted love that Cone critiques, drawing on the affect theory of Sara Ahmed and the critical whiteness theory of Robin DiAngelo, finally suggesting an alternative vision of love that is consistent with Cone's theology. This alternative vision presents love as acceptance of one's radical, even fundamental, need for the beloved. In contexts of racial tension, this love does not guarantee happiness or comfort, but instead offers aid toward repentance and salvation. In this view, black love for white people cannot be expected to take the form of endless affirmation and encouragement, but instead should look like belief in the capacity of white people for moral and ethical action.

A Case Study on Message-Board and Media Framing of Gay Male Athletes on a Politically Liberal Web Site

In 2013–14, Jason Collins and Michael Sam became the first 2 athletes from the 4 most popular professional leagues in the United States to publicly come out as gay during their playing careers. U.S. men’s pro team sports have historically been arenas where hegemonic masculinity flourishes and open homosexuality is nearly nonexistent. However, these athletes came out during a period when sexual minorities had won numerous civil rights and were gaining acceptance by a majority of Americans, particularly those who self-identify as politically liberal. A textual analysis examined framing of Collins’s and Sam’s coming out in articles published on the liberal political Web site MSNBC.com. Focus was placed on how these athletes, homosexuality, and masculinity were framed in the corresponding message-board comments posted in response to these articles. Five primary themes emerged from the data, showing that acceptable forms of masculinities and homosexuality in sport remain contested terrains, even on liberal message boards.

Birds of a Feather Tweet Together: Integrating Network and Content Analyses to Examine Cross-Ideology Exposure on Twitter

This study integrates network and content analyses to examine exposure to cross-ideological political views on Twitter. We mapped the Twitter networks of 10 controversial political topics, discovered clusters - subgroups of highly self-connected users - and coded messages and links in them for political orientation. We found that Twitter users are unlikely to be exposed to cross-ideological content from the clusters of users they followed, as these were usually politically homogeneous. Links pointed at grassroots web pages e.g.: blogs more frequently than traditional media websites. Liberal messages, however, were more likely to link to traditional media. Last, we found that more specific topics of controversy had both conservative and liberal clusters, while in broader topics, dominant clusters reflected conservative sentiment.

Occupy Passover Seders and Easter Gatherings

Occupy Passover Seders and Easter Gatherings

“Motherwork”

Born in 1825, a free African American in Baltimore, Maryland, author Frances Ellen Watkins Harper devoted her life to the struggle for freedom. An abolitionist, and suffragist, the Bible figured prominently in Harper’s poetry, fiction, essays, and speeches. This essay considers how Harper’s poetry particularly challenged her nineteenth century reader to engage in more meaningful biblical interpretive strategies. Anticipating twentieth century Womanist interpretations, Harper disrupts and revises interpretive strategies that had been used to read against the biblical narrative’s message of liberation. Rereading commonly known texts with a different perspective or highlighting lesser known biblical stories, Harper’s biblical interpretations give voice to the voiceless women in the biblical text. Whether writing about women found in the biblical text or women in her own nineteenth century context, Harper’s poetry testifies to the mothers and “othermothers” who have struggled to ensure the dignity and rights of all people, in their own generations, as well as for generations to come.

Money and Contract in The Merchant of Venice

The fortunes and misfortunes of Shylock and Antonio are pervaded with economic and legal ideas. Both characters tend to overlap and confuse in several dimensionsthe most celebrated one is to believe that the Jew is the merchantand are alternatively victim and victimizer. The analysis of the play focusing in money and contract, economics and the law, market and morality, allows us to delve into the nuances of one of the most engaging characters in the history of literature and to ponder the classical liberal message of justice and charity.

"One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State": Bringing Partisan Politics to Picturebooks in Katharine DeBrecht's Help! Mom! Series

"One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State":Bringing Partisan Politics to Picturebooks in Katharine DeBrecht's Help! Mom! Series Michelle Ann Abate (bio) In 2005, after one of the most divisive presidential elections in U.S. history, a small California-based publishing company called World Ahead released the first title in its new line of children's books: Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! Written by Katharine DeBrecht and illustrated by Jim Hummel, the story follows the adventures of two young boys who decide to open a lemonade stand to earn money for a much-desired swing set. That night, both boys dream that their stand is a tremendous success until a series of well-known and thinly-disguised liberals appear and stymie their efforts. First, Mayor Leach (a Ted Kennedy look-alike) levies taxes so heavy that they eradicate the boys' profit margin. Then, Mr. Fussman, a sallow-faced lawyer from the "LCLU" (that is, the "Liberaland Civil Liberties Union"), demands that the boys remove the "offensive" picture of Jesus atop their stand and replace it with one of a big toe. Finally, Congresswoman Clunkton (a.k.a. Hillary Clinton) mandates that the pair reduce the amount of sugar in their lemonade and also serve a floret of broccoli with each glass. As even this brief overview indicates, with its over-the-top characterizations, tongue-in-cheek humor, and rigid "good versus bad" dichotomy, Liberals seems more like a playful satire for adults than a serious narrative for young readers. Offering support for this viewpoint, the "About the Author" section in the back of the book reveals that Katharine DeBrecht is the pseudonym of a former freelance journalist (DeBrecht 53).1 Likewise, the drawings that accompany Liberals are not the work of an established children's book illustrator, but a multi-award-winning newspaper cartoonist.2 [End Page 77] In spite of such seemingly strong evidence for viewing Liberals as an amusing book for adults that is simply written in the style of a picturebook for children, both the narrative's author and its publisher adamantly object to this classification. In numerous interviews, articles, and press releases, DeBrecht presents herself as a sincere suburban homemaker who wrote the story out of a concern for what she felt were the increasingly liberal messages that her three young sons were receiving in contemporary picturebooks. "I have seen children's books representing the left for several years" (Mapes A1), she asserted in a remark that echoes the attitudes of many other conservative parents. Citing books like Heather Has Two Mommies (a 1989 picturebook that features same-sex parents), Rainbow Fish (a fable-like narrative from 1992 about the importance of sharing that has been criticized for promoting socialism), and King and King (an illustrated fairy tale that was published in 2002 and features a young prince who wishes to marry another prince), DeBrecht lamented that there hasn't been an accompanying spike in books for young readers that possess conservative messages. As a result, she felt that her book was not simply a new narrative for young readers but a necessary one. As she told a reporter soon after Liberals was released, "On the children's level, there really wasn't something out there to teach the traditional values" (Mapes A1). Eric Jackson, the president of World Ahead and the founder of its new Kids Ahead line that released Liberals, reinforces DeBrecht's claims. He has explained that the mission of his imprint is "to provide books for families who have traditional values, if you will, and who want to have books to use as a tool to pass on those values to their children" (Cottle, par. 2). Demonstrating the way in which Liberals is meant as a conservative response and even antidote to the perceived recent spike in left-leaning children's books, the promotional plug for the narrative provided by World Ahead publishing on Barnes and Noble.com reads: Would you let your child read blatantly liberal stories with titles such as King & King; No, George, No; or It's Just a Plant? Unless you live in Haight-Ashbury or write for the New York Times, probably...

The Vanishing American Left?: Two Views

THE VANISHING AMERICAN LEFT? Michael Walzer I DON'T KNOW about "vanishing"—we probably weren't as strong as we thought we were in the sixties, and we probably are not as weak as we think we are today. Back then, there were still some illusions about ideological coherence and perhaps some sense that we were actually building organizations. But the sixties left no organizational residue, and we no longer can have any illusions about ideological coherence. Still, if you add up all the "fragments"—environmentalists; feminists; antiwar activists; all the people still fighting for civil rights; ACLU types; multiculturalists of all sorts (well, of some sorts); Americans active in global civil society in organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders; the readers of left magazines, and so on, I doubt that our numbers have dropped all that much. If we are politically weaker, as we obviously are, it is not because we are fewer, but because of two long-term trends: first, the demobilization of the labor movement and the decline of the unions (liberals and leftists have paid too little attention to this); and second, the mobilization of evangelical Christians, who were largely withdrawn and politically passive back in the sixties (and also, though we never noticed it, bitter and resentful). But I am not a political sociologist; I don't study the latest survey research; I can't make educated judgments about our standing and influence in American society. I am more concerned about, and feel more confident talking about, the kind of left that we need and don't have right now. Did we ever have it—in my or your adult life? Well, yes, despite the craziness of the Weatherman and the various neoLeninist sects in the seventies and the pusillanimity of many liberals in the eighties and nineties, I remember or think I remember an oppositional politics that had some weight and integrity. I am less sure about the existence of a politics like that today. What's been vanishing in this country over the last years is a left that doesn't deserve to vanish. I am not going to talk about the Democratic Party's left. It is doing the best it can, I guess, 86 n DISSENT / Winter 2007 given poll data that strongly suggest that if it prevails, the party will lose the next presidential election. (The data are analyzed in some detail by David Plotke in the Summer 2006 issue of Dissent, and his piece is sharp and insightful but profoundly discouraging.) My views about the Democratic Party are very simple: I want it to win, because any Democratic victory would be a setback for the far right. It will take time to set the right back as far as we would like it to be, but it's vitally important to begin. If the Democrats can win with a strong liberal message, that would he great; that's what I hope for. But if a muffled and evasive message is what victory requires, so be it. But the real left, I mean, the left whose members vote Democratic (or should vote Democratic, though too many of them don't) but think of themselves as an independent political force—that left should never be muffled or evasive. We should have a clear position or, because we are an argumentative lot, a range of positions that have a strong family resemblance . We should share a commitment to a set of principles, even if we disagree sharply about how best to represent those principles in the "real world." The principles are big ones, like freedom, democracy, and—the defining principle of any left—equality. What these words mean is uncertain, but not all that uncertain , and we need to take them seriously. What would a left be like that had commitments like that? Ever since September 11, 2001, the really difficult political questions have had to do with global politics. But the Bush administration has used this fact, has used the cover of war and terror, to push the country hard right on domestic issues. So let's start there. The left we need would be...

Political Self-characterization of U.S. Medical Students

BACKGROUNDThere have been no prior studies of the political self-characterization of U.S. physicians-in-training, and little is known about physicians’ political leanings or the critical relationship between medical issues and political orientations of physicians and physicians-in-training.METHODSAll medical students in the class of 2003 at 16 nationally representative U.S. schools were eligible to complete three questionnaire administrations (at freshman orientation, entrance to wards, and senior year).RESULTSAmong these medical students, 5% self-characterized as politically very conservative, 21% conservative, 33% moderate, 31% liberal, and 9% as very liberal.” Being male, white, Protestant, intending to specialize in Surgery or anesthesiology/pathology/radiology, or currently or previously being married significantly (P ≤ .001) increased the likelihood that a student self-identified as very conservative or conservative. Disagreement or strong disagreement with the statements, “I’m glad I chose to become a physician” and “Access to care is a fundamental human right,” were also both associated with being very conservative or conservative. Being more liberal was reported by blacks and Hispanics; those intending to become ob-gyns, psychiatrists, and pediatric subspecialists; and atheists, Jews, and adherents of eastern religions.CONCLUSIONSU.S. medical students are considerably more likely to be liberal than conservative and are more likely to be liberal than are other young U.S. adults. Future U.S. physicians may be more receptive to liberal messages than conservative ones, and their political orientation may profoundly affect their health system attitudes.

Not for Members Only: Group Endorsements as Electoral Information Cues

Endorsements by groups in American politics have typically been studied as voting cues only for members of the given organization. Using both the formal theoretical and low-information cognitive voting literatures, this article argues for a broader electoral role for group endorsements. Specifically, if groups that have clear ideological or policy preferences endorse candidates, these endorsements should provide all voters with ideological or issue information about the endorsed candidates. This inferred information should then impact voters’ behavior, especially in low-information scenarios. Using both an experimental test and a test with American National Election Studies (ANES) survey data, this study analyzes the hypothesis in terms of elections to the U.S. House of Representatives. It finds that when the AFL-CIO endorses Democratic candidates, voters behave as though a liberal message has been sent—liberals are significantly more supportive while conservatives are significantly less supportive than they are when no endorsement is given, regardless of whether or not they are union members. At the same time, however, the analysis finds no support that endorsements of Republicans have any ideological impact on voting.

DID KATRINA RECALIBRATE ATTITUDES TOWARD POVERTY AND INEQUALITY?: A Test of the “Dirty Little Secret” Hypothesis

We test the popular claim that poverty and inequality were “dirty little secrets” until the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina exposed them to a wider public. If this account were on the mark, it would suggest that the absence of major antipoverty initiatives in the United States is partly attributable to public ignorance and apathy coupled with the narrowly rational decision on the part of policymakers to attend to other issues about which the public evidently cares more. Using the 2004 Maxwell Poll, we find strikingly high levels of awareness and activism on poverty and inequality issues even prior to Katrina, clearly belying the “dirty little secret” account. The follow-up Maxwell Poll, which was administered in 2005 immediately after Katrina, revealed only a slight increase in public awareness of poverty and inequality. The Katrina effect was evidently dampened because (1) the large number of preexisting poverty activists reduced the size of the residual population “at risk” for conversion to antipoverty activism, and (2) the remaining non-activists were ardently opposed to poverty activism and hence unlikely to be receptive to the liberal message coming out of Katrina.

The Liberal Message of Raymond Aron

The Liberal Message of Raymond Aron